Tomas Maestas is, by all accounts, a very quiet, shy and intellectual boy of 7 years old.
Yet, his ability to express what he sees comes back at someone in colors and balances known to only some of the more mature photographers around.
Maestas, a soon-to-be third-grader at Holy Cross Catholic School, is also a blooming photographer with a scrutinizing eye for what works and what doesn’t when it comes to taking a picture.
Recently, he had a photo that ran in the Rio Grande SUN when he was willing to peer out of his family’s car – en route to going home from vacation – to take some pictures of a blazing automobile.
Piece of cake and none of it should surprise anyone close to him.
Tomas has been a special type of student as his principal at Holy Cross Rebecca Hodges noticed his instincts and his character immediately which has shone through for three years now.
“He is amazing in class and is extremely well behaved,” Hodges said. “He’s very smart and he’s very intuitive. He’s not a talker and he’s been quiet since kinder(garten). When Tomas speaks, the kids know it’s worth listening to.”
Despite being so young and quiet, he more than makes up for it with his intelligence as witnessed by Tomas’ acute sense of balance in a photo.
“I like pictures with a lot of shapes and a lot of colors,” Maestas said.
His principal has figured out her student’s attention to detail.
“He’s got a different perspective,” Hodges said. “I hadn’t seen his pictures since (last week) and his mom had sent them. I knew he would ask his mom for his phone and take some pictures and give it back. It was no big deal.
“When I first saw them it was ‘oh my goodness, oh Tomas.’ There is life in them and there is color and light. He is also deliberate in his artwork.”
Then there is Maestas’ front page photo of the burning vehicle his family came across last week.
“We were driving by, going home from Idaho on vacation,” Maestas said, who was relaxing in his car when his aunt noticed the blaze. “We saw the smoke first, then we saw the fire.”
Maestas said he wasn’t scared as the family car pulled close enough for the boy to take the photo from the vehicle.
That photo is just one of approximately 100 that Maestas has taken, as Hodges said that the boy is a very particular photographer. He knows what he wants, he sees it and takes the photo.
It’s been something he has done for a lot of his young life.
“I think Tomas started taking an interest in pictures with his iPad at the age of four,” Tomas’ mother Melissa Maestas said. “He would carry it by the handle and stop when he would see something that interested him. I wish I would have known his interest back then and saved some of his pictures.
“He doesn’t get overly excited when he takes pictures, always expressing himself in a calm manner. He has the ability to capture the underlying beauty in everyday objects we often overlook or take for granted.”
Maestas’ mother also said that he takes pictures of various shapes of rocks and he loves to search for images of different cities and wallpaper for his phone.
He can take pictures of rocks and the pictures are beautiful and unique. He loves to search for images of different cities and wallpapers for his phone.
“He tells me he looks for color and things he likes,” Melissa Maestas said. “It comes very natural to him.”
Tomas Maestas has been surrounded by relatives that like to take photos and then his career began. According to his mother, her son has already surpassed her and his aunts’ skill level.
“I don’t consider any photographers in the family,” Melissa Maestas said. “We have helped the school taking pictures for yearbook and just family pictures. But we don’t have the eye he has.
“My sister did give him a small camera at about age five. From then he started using camera phones.”
Tomas Maestas mainly takes photos with his phone, but he also has access to two other cameras.
One thing Tomas Maestas is quick to do is to offer a critique of a reporter’s collection of photos on his phone.
The young boy’s expression gets focused, serious and scrutinizing, not afraid to critically examine another’s work.
Tomas Maestas may be quiet in the normal day-to-day, but at home he is just a kid with a unique skill set.
“He expresses himself well at home and around people he knows,” Melissa Maestas said. “He tends to hold back when meeting new people. He does have a silly side and loves to joke. He doesn’t like to be the center of attention.”
So now that people are noticing his talent as a photographer?
“He can’t understand what the big deal is with his pictures,” Melissa Maestas said. “According to him, ‘He’s just a kid with a camera.’”
He contemplates a future working at a big hotel and of course, maybe taking pictures later in life as a man with a camera.