Mike Tomkins caught the photography bug around the age of 12, when he received a Kodak Cross as a childhood Christmas present. Growing up as an expat kid in Hong Kong, there was no shortage of interesting subjects, and he quickly outgrew the limitations of a basic 110 camera. A passion for TTL viewfinders was ignited when he stepped up to his first SLR, a Praktica BX20.
An early proponent of digital photography, he nonetheless wasn't willing to sacrifice a proper viewfinder in the quest to move on from film. A network engineer living in the United Kingdom at the time, Mike settled on the first camera that truly fit the bill: Sony's legendary Cyber-shot Pro. Not only did that camera launch him into the world of digital photography, but it also turned out to be the start of a new career. Back-and-forth correspondence with Imaging Resource publisher Dave Etchells to pool info on the Sony quickly turned into a job offer, and Mike joined the IR team as News Editor and camera reviewer in January 1999.
Now settled in Knoxville, Tennessee, Mike and his son Geoffrey are blessed to be but a stone's throw from a million photo opportunities in the picturesque Smoky Mountains.
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