This is actually the first real post for NorCal Photo Scene, and picking the inaugural northern California photographer was a bit of a challenge at first.  But thinking about it a bit made me think of who inspired me when I first picked up a camera and got serious, and whose work I’ve always enjoyed looking at.  That led me to a great first choice, the amazing Thomas Hawk.

Thomas Hawk is from San Francisco, CA, and his life goal is to publish one million photos in his lifetime.  Yeah, that’s right, that’s a one with six zeros after it.  Maybe a couple of commas, depending on your preference in digit formatting.  One million photos.  And considering as he’s already got over 33,000 posted on his Flickr page, he’s off to a pretty good start.

Thomas has an eye for city photography, as well as industrial and textural photos.  Great use of light, colorful and imaginative pieces are a staple of his work.  He also has a huge love of neon signs, and is one of the small-ish group of photographers looking to preserve the dying presence of glowing neon signs that once littered every city’s skyline.  He’s got some of the most entertaining shots of Sacramento’s own Crest Theater I’ve seen in a while.

Thomas has also been a strong supporter of technology and the web for photography as well, being a huge proponent of Flickr (and critic, where need be), as well as the CEO of, oddly enough, Flickr competitor Zooomr.  He is a strong advocate for photographers’ rights, and routinely puts up rather embarrassing stories of law enforcement and other authority figures overstepping their bounds when it comes to laying the smackdown on photographers for no valid reason.  Thomas is also an avid fan of micro-messaging/community site Friendfeed, along with fellow photographer and tech geek, Robert Scoble.

I unfortunately did not get the chance to meet up with Thomas the last time he came out to Sacramento for a photowalk, and as you can see with the Crest photos in the gallery below, it ended up with some great results.  Definitely take a look through his Flickr stream, and I’m sure you’ll find many great images to Favorite over there.

Thomas Hawk on Flickr
Thomas Hawk on Zooomr
Thomas Hawk on Facebook
Thomas Hawk on Twitter
Thomas Hawk on Friend Feed
Thomas Hawk on Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection

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