Bio / Contact

At Dry Falls in Eastern Washington, 1962, with 1st camera:
 A Kodak Hawkeye Funflash, purchased with cereal box tops
Greetings! 
I am Craig Toms, photographer and 40 year resident of the Coachella Valley. I'm an amateur! I pursue photography for the love of it, developing new skills and modes of expression - it's playtime, nothing is off-limits! 
What I enjoy most about photography is experimenting with new ideas and techniques, which keeps it fresh and growing. Here are a few quotes that sum up my current outlook and approach: 
 
"After I have assessed their technical quality, I think about which of my images actually say something, something beyond "Here it is", and "I was there". I look for magic and mystery. I look for an image that makes the ordinary extraordinary, or an extraordinary subject discovered and revealed".
William Neill, Landscape Photographer

"While I like to think there is a sense of reality to my images, realism is not always a guiding principle when I'm taking and developing them. Each picture seems to have a life of its' own and a particular way it needs to be expressed. Rather than focusing on making images that are true representations of the light captured by the camera, I much prefer to let them find their own way as they are composed in the field and later developed. There is no formula for doing this."
Tony Kuyper, Landscape Photographer

"A photograph is not a likeness. The moment a fact or emotion is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a photograph but an opinion. There is no such thing as inaccuracy in a photograph; all photographs are accurate, none of them is the truth."
Richard Avedon, Fashion Photographer

Great credit is due to the Coachella Valley Desert Camera Club, for inspiration via competitions, guest speakers and friendships. I can't overstate the value of this club to my development as a photographer. 

Please feel free to contact me here:
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Thank you!

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Restoration Work
In the last few months, with some of the new digital tools available now, I've taken more of an interest in old photo restorations. I use a combination of Lightroom, Photoshop and Topaz software, usually in about that order, but with considerable back and forth. Each image has it's own needs, so it's a matter of choosing the right tools for the job. These photos are digitized from original 35mm slides, family photos taken mostly in the 50's and 60's. It makes for a fun and rewarding project, as each photo is a kind of puzzle to be solved.
Fun Stuff
Every so often a flash of "graphic joke" inspiration strikes and I get to work. Am upgrading software skills a bit and having fun with politics too. "The views expressed are solely the owner's". Here's a few you images might enjoy:
Award Winning Images
Below are images that have been judged in one or more Photographic Society of America recognized competitions. Judges representing the Coachella Valley Desert Camera Club (CVDCC), the Southern California Council of Camera Clubs (S4C), and the Coachella International Exhibition have reviewed and awarded each image as detailed:
Dark Sky Images
New Images
Minimalist
I've been experimenting with a kind of "Ironic Mininalism" project I assigned myself. Here's the brief, what I was aiming for broadly, which I met to a greater or lesser extent: - Say as much as possible with as little as possible - Lots of negative space, texture or repetition, simplified subject, bare essentials - Colors, vibrant or subdued, complementary - Appears real, looks "in-camera" - except there's an impossible element... - Off-kilter element creates a question, an immediate reaction in the viewer's mind - The image must ask / say / demand something: "Deal with THIS!" "What does it mean?" "Oh that's funny!" "Is this real?"
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