Tom McElvy
Vice-President 2009, 2005-2006
President 2006-2007-2008
Member of PSA - RPS - WPPI
president@vbpc.org
President's Blog
Galleries:
pBase
Model Mayhem
Images by Tom
"Anyone can take a photo of what someone looks like. A good photographer takes an image of what someone is like."
Tom McElvy, made his first world appearance in Jacksonville Florida on April 29, 1954. His family moved to the Hampton Roads area of Virginia (Norfolk-Virginia Beach) in 1957, and he has been there ever since. Tom attended private school during his elementary years, and began public schooling in Norfolk in the seventh grade. During high school, Tom discovered an interest in photography, thanks in part to two high school friends, Jackie Beamon and Glen Forbes. He soon purchased a Mamiya/Sekor 1000DTL 35mm manual camera, with a 50mm lens, and added a Tamron 70-210 lens. Tom quickly became the "staff photographer" for the chorus department, where many of his photos still hang.
In 1972, Tom was selected to attend a summer program at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond Virginia entitled "SUMMER '72" which became the prototype for the Governor's School For The Gifted. Tom studied photography and the theater.
After high school, another friend, Jerome Rubin, helped Tom become involved in concert photography, attending many local concerts at the Norfolk Scope, Hampton Roads Coliseum and other venues. They did much work for AGL Productions, as well as some sports shooting for the Virginia Red Wings hockey team, and various other events. Additionally, he served as a staff photographer for several years with the then trendy Ghent Press, an area alternative (sometimes referred to as "underground") monthly newspaper. Other work has appeared in the Virginian-Pilot and Richmond Times-Dispatch newspapers, as well as on local news media websites.
Marriage (and the skyrocketing cost of photographic film, paper and chemicals), caused Tom to leave photography for a number of years. In 1998, with the emergence of high quality (for the period) digital cameras, Tom renewed his interest in photography; however, it was more of a snapshot interest, as opposed to a fine art medium. It was after the development of higher quality digital cameras that he re-discovered his love of fine-art photography. Tom is, by profession, a magazine publisher, having created a local contact magazine in early 1996, which is in it's 14th year of publication. In addition to his own business, he is currently a manager for a regional specialty retailer.
Educationally, Tom has graduated from the New York Institute of Photography, with a certificates in both Professional Photography, and Professional Digital Photography. He is also taking courses from Photoshop Academy in Knoxville, TN, and graduated from the London Art College, in London, England, with a diploma in Art History. He has also studied under Monte Zucker and Clay Blackmore, two world renowned portrait photographers.
Tom is currently a also member of the Hampton Roads Digital Shutterbug Club, the Photographic Society of America, the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britian, and the WPPI. His work has been exhibited in the Richmond (VA) Main Library 2nd Floor Gallery and at the Virginia Beach Central Library Gallery.
Tom's other lifetime activities and achievements include being a pioneer in the online entertainment industry, creating the world renowned Pleasure Dome BBS in 1985. He took the BBS (BBS stands for Bulletin Board System - one of the predecessors to the Internet) on to a multi-line system, and won many coveted awards in the industry, including the Best BBS in the USA in 1992, Best Adult BBS in the USA in 1990-1991-1992 and 1993, and Best BBS in Virginia in 1990-1991-1992 and 1993. Tom was also a nominee for the first Electronic Frontier Foundation's Online Pioneer Award in 1992. He has also appeared on two WAVY-TV news segments and one WTKR TV news segment about BBS's, and in the Virginian-Pilot newspaper about the BBS as well as one of his other hobbies, short-wave radio listening, and numerous radio and television appearances regarding his magazine and lifestyle interests.
Over the years, Tom has contributed not only to the entertainment industry, but to many other industry and hobbyist publications as well; including Radio Communications Report, and monthly journals by North American Shortwave Association, Great Circle SW Society, The Old Dominion DX Association, as a staff editor and writer, as well as others. He served on the Virginia Beach HamFest Committee from 1986-1992; as the publicity director of the Association of North American Radio Clubs and hosted the Annual East Coast Shortwave Listener's Conventions from 1988-1991, as well as the International Convention of The Association of North American Radio Clubs in 1990, bringing international shortwave celebrities from around the globe to this area. He has served on the board of several sysop organizations, and was elected president of the Virginia BBS Association in 1992 and 1993, and was instrumental in a campaign to "reign in" the local telephone company when they were attempting to re-categorize BBSs used for hobbies as businesses (It was a successful campaign!). Tom was also was a member of a panel of experts on that same subject at the 1992 OneBBScon convention, in Denver Colorado, sponsored by Boardwatch Magazine. Other projects and activities over the years have included work with the March of Dimes charities; most recently he was involved with the Planetary Society and the SETI @ Home Project, in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
Tom also holds numerous academic and business certificates. He was also a charter member of the Association of Online Professionals (#95-00410). Tom holds an Associate's Degree and a Certificate in Retail Management from Tidewater Community College in Virginia Beach, VA, as well as a Retail Selling certificate from The University of Wisconsin at Madison. In 2003, Tom was appointed as the Honorary Chairman of the Business Advisory Council of Virginia by the National Republican Congressional Committee. He also received the National Leadership Award from the Committee in 2003 and 2004, as well as receiving the Business Advisory Council's 2003 and 2004 Businessman of the Year Awards. Tom has also received the 2004 Ronald Reagan Gold Medal Award for his business contributions to the economic growth of the United States. He is currently pursuing a Bachelor's Degree in Photography from Thomas Edison State College in Trenton, NJ.
His employment history has included primarily several Fortune 500 companies including lower and middle management positions with American Paging, Communications Industries, Pacific Telephone (PacTel), Bell Atlantic (now Verizon) and has been a co-owner of a retail computer store, as well as a sales manager for several local firms. He has also worked as a "Wireless Expert" at Best Buy. He now works for himself full time, as well as managing a local retail store.
Tom is an avid bowler and swimmer, and enjoys some sporting events, most notably ice hockey, swimming and tennis. He listens primarily to 70's soft rock, and enjoys the work of Mozart, as well as many other classical masters, and in particular the vocal talents of Celtic Woman. While he enjoys a limited amount of television, he is primarily a sci-fi buff, counting among his favorite shows, Star Trek, Babylon 5 and The Prisoner, as well as several drama series including 24, Heroes, Law & Order (original and SVU), La Femme Nikita, Battlestar Galactica, How To Look Good Naked, and Nip / Tuck.
Tom lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia, with his four Pomeranians, Tasha, Snowball, Anna and Missy. He has two sons, Charlie and Rickey, and eight (!) grandchildren; five girls and three boys. He is currently working of his first monograph, expected to be published in mid-2009.