A photographer since childhood, Thomas R. Schiff has photographed in various photographic formats for the past forty years. He turned greater attention to the medium when studying at Ohio University under renowned photographers Clarence White, Jr. and Arnold Gassan. His early photography featured black-and-white images focused on architectural detail, storefront facades, and windows.  In 1994, Tom began using the panoramic format in his photography as a new way to express his artistic vision, saying, "What interests me is essentially the proportional angle in the horizontal format. Sometimes a picture's most critical factor is when it changes your relationship to what is familiar or thought to be understood." For his panoramic photographs, the camera is mounted to an extended tripod and rotates 360 degrees or more upon its axis, exposing film in a continuous strip as it turns.

There have been four books of photographs for which Tom used his Hulcherama 360 Panoramic Camera: Panoramic Cincinnati (1999), Panoramic Ohio (2002), Panoramic Parks of Cincinnati (2005) and Vegas 360(2008), which accompanied a touring exhibition.

Tom continues his cross-country touring to photograph sites for several future panoramic photography book projects on American architecture, including ones on theaters, religious spaces, the architecture of Columbus, Indiana, and the buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright, which is due for release in the fall of 2010.