Sam is a lifelong resident of northwest Illinois. He has developed a deep appreciation of the unique beauty of the area’s natural environment. After studying photography as part of his Communication degree at Western Illinois University, capturing images of the area has become a hobby, avocation and occupation for Tucibat. He learned photography in the traditional darkroom, but has developed a distinct affinity for digital processes and used them exclusively in his workflow.

Most of Sam’s images are an amalgam of several photographs that are processed and combined in the digital darkroom using Adobe PhotoShop. Individual elements in source images are isolated with selection tools and moved to their own layers in the destination image.

Further editing and composition techniques are then employed to refine the overall image. Commonly-used processes included layer mode settings, layer styles, opacity settings and transform commands. Filters are used with extreme reserve.