About

      Welcome to the official Thomas Kelsey Photography website. Seven different galleries display a wide range of assignments that Kelsey has covered over his award-winning career. He is currently part of the Faculty at the Lone Pine Film Festival and leads tours on the life of Ansel Adams in the Owens Valley each October (This year October 10-13, 2024).

      During his career, he has released two successful books on very diverse topics. "The Spirit of the West" was released in 2011. The 30 year project focused on landscape & wildlife photography in the Western United States. In June of 2020, the Pulitzer-Prize winning photographer released "75 Years Later--Warbirds, Airman & Veterans of World War II", a tribute that honors  the Greatest Generation.

     Kelsey traveled to all 50 states in the USA by the age of 40 and many of his landscape and wildlife prints are available for purchase or in his book "The Spirit of the West".  If you have questions or inquiries, please feel free to e-mail him.

     During the course of his career, he has photographed six presidents and covered many major news, feature and sporting events including being part of the National Photo Pool that covered the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, California. He was also part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize for the Los Angeles Times in 1983.   

    Thomas Kelsey has been a staff photographer at nine different newspapers including 25 years combined at the Los Angeles Times; Rocky Mountain News, in Denver, Colorado and the Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.

     He was also the Chief Photographer at the The Outdoor Channel TV network and has been published in many news magazines including Time, Life, National Geographic, Newsweek & Sports Illustrated among many others.

    While growing up in the Central Coast cities of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara, California, he started his career at Santa Barbara City College and Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California and graduated from both schools with degrees in Journalism with an emphasis in Photojournalism.

     In 1981, Kelsey was selected to attend the Ansel Adams Workshop in Yosemite National Park. It was the last workshop that Adams led in his beloved Yosemite Valley.

     Since 2021, Kelsey has led SOLD OUT Ansel Adams tours at the Lone Pine Film Festival in Lone Pine, California, taking participants to locations giving insightful talks on how and where Adams made his enduring images over a 50 year period. Join me for a memorable experience in the Eastern Sierra Nevada and 'The Range of Light'.

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Check out the galleries  to see my most recent work and send me a comment if you have any questions. Thank you & enjoy!

-Thomas Kelsey, March, 2024

All images Copyright © Thomas Kelsey Photography. All rights reserved.

For additional comments and/or questions, please contact us anytime, thank you!