Above the surface his interests span nature and landscape photography, hiking the desert around Tucson and beyond, including Alaska and California. Again, his focus is on macro but he also enjoys architecture and candid street photography. For that he reaches for a Canon 80D paired with either a 60mm f/2.8 macro or a 24-105mm f/4.
He loves to travel and while most trips revolving around scuba diving and photography, he never shies away from an adventure, traveling to many other locations around the world such as Germany, Spain, Greece, India, Taiwan, China, Japan, and more.
Tom Bernens is a Tucson-based engineer, diver, and photographer who has been diving since 2011 and shooting since 2006. By 2014 the two hobbies had merged into one obsession.
Underwater he has shot in Cozumel, Hawaii, Thailand, Socorro, the Florida Keys, Cabo, and Australia. He shoots on an Olympus TG-6 with a PT-059 housing, twin YS-01 strobes, and a wide-angle wet lens. While macro photography (especially nudibranchs!) is his preference, he also enjoys seeing large pelagic species such as Sharks, Whales, and large rays, his favorite being the manta ray.
Tom is a Computer/Software engineer, receiving his Bachelors of Science in Computer Engineering from Texas Tech University in 2013.
He is currently working on his Masters of Science in Computer Science with a specialization in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, with an expected graduation date of Dec 2026.
By day he works as a data analyst and software developer at Texas Instruments since 2012, where he is a Senior Member, Technical Staff and is currently a Technologist for Linear Amplifiers, focusing on automation and advanced analytics including applications leveraging machine learning and artificial intelligence.