Tom Ballantine lives in Mandeville, LA with his wife, Carol. They have one daughter, Tara, and two grandchildren, Leah (8) and Trevor (5). Tom is retired from Newpark Resources where he was President and COO. Overall, he has 40 years of experience in the oil field service business with prior positions at Exxon and Zapata in addition to Newpark Resources.
Tom is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Georgia Tech, and Harvard Business School. His photography career started when he was 13 years old, working in a black and white darkroom sweeping the floors, shaking chemical trays and other duties around the business. He bought his first Nikon camera while on an R&R trip to Japan during the Viet Nam war. Since then, all his camera equipment and lenses are Nikon. So photography has been his hobby his entire life.
Upon retirement from Newpark Resources, he turned his photography hobby into a business with his initial assignments from Sophisticated Woman Magazine in Covington, LA.