Tom Vezo

In my journey with the Native American flute I've been lucky to meet a lot of really great people. Most are just NAF folks that play for fun, others come from other interests but share a love for the NAF. One of those was Tom Vezo.

Tom was an incredibility talented photographer. His speciality was wildlife photography and his focus was birds. It was quite a shock that I learned that Tom died Friday afternoon ( July 18th, 2008) while hiking in the Rincon mountains of AZ. I've spoken one of his close friends and the details are still slim. He was 61.

Tom was a very dedicated and passionate person. He was also one of the original members of the Tucson Native American Flute Circle.

The family has requested no flowers...Donations may be made in Tom's memory to Defenders Committee of the Friends of Madera Canyon; P.O. Box 1203; Green Valley, AZ. 85622

If you have a love of the wild and a love and respect for birds as I do you owe it to yourself to check out his site www.tomvezo.com.

Here is some more information about Tom from the Green Valley News and Sun:

Tom Vezo's work is widely published in the United States and Europe in many books, calendars, magazines and advertisements. His credits include: Audubon, Birder’s World, Bird Watcher’s Digest, Discovery, Ducks Unlimited, National Geographic, National Wildlife Federation, Nature Conservancy, Nature’s Best, Natural History, Outdoor Photographer, Sierra Club, Travel and Leisure, Wildbird, Wildlife Conservation and many more.

He was winner of 1998 and 1999 Nature's Best Magazines photo contest for “Wildlife” in the professional category and the BBC Wildlife photographer of the year in 1997 as an honorable mention.

He was recognized as one of the top bird photographers in the United States but also photographed landscapes all over the world. He led many photography tours throughout the United States and Canada teaching people the techniques of nature photography in the field. His expansive photo library contained more than 400,000 images.

Passionate about preserving Madera Canyon, Vezo helped publicize organizations like Friends of Madera Canyon and The Defenders of Madera Canyon on his Web site and in his monthly e-mailed newsletters, illustrating many of his causes with photos of the endangered areas.