My name is Tom Grubbe (pronounced groobie) and I live in Redlands California. I was born in Des Plains, IL August 22nd 1963 and have been a musican from the age of nine (a lead guitarist in many rock and roll bands) but never really thought about photography as something I might like. I moved to San Jose CA from Chicago IL got a software engineering education in order to get a "real job". Having given up music for a career in software development I was making steady money but was missing something from the creative side.

I started photography in December of 1997 after being influenced by a few of my fellow engineers from work who had taken up the craft and thought I might be good at it. Once I started I was completely hooked, even obsessed by creating images. It didn't matter how bad they were I just needed to take photos.

I bought a Canon EOS Elan II, some good Sigma lenses, a Gitzo tripod and a bunch more accessories. Like many people I started out using print film but quickly moved to transparency (slide) film to help to learn exposure and to have more control over my photography. I have since bought the Canon 1V for 35mm stuff and a (now obsolete) Canon 10D digital. But my main focus has been on medium format photograhy so I've aquired the awesome Pentax 67II (and lost it in the ocean...then bought a new one) which has become my primary camera for landscape/seascape shooting.

After reading many books by John Shaw, Art Wolfe, David Muench, Galen Rowell and many others I found several photo critique sites which you can browse from my Links page. Getting critiques and giving critiques has been a great way to learn technique and improve overall.

Although I've mostly done landscape and seascape photography up until now I hope to learn portrait, stills, architecture, commercial and other specialities in the field. There is a great deal to learn and I'm always searching for ways to improve my photographic skills.

In 2005 I moved to Redlands, CA and started working with a local photography lab in order to offer prints of my work. I hope you like what you see and perhaps decide to order one of these images to hang on your wall!

All of the photos on this site were taken with the following camera setup and accesories: