From the canyons of Big Bend to downtown Austin after sunset, Bee Creek Photography's portfolio moves across Texas and the American South, shifting between landscapes, city skylines, wildflowers, coastlines, and aerial views. The subjects vary, but the intended destination remains consistent: the wall.
For Tod and Cynthia Grubbs, that print-first approach reaches back to the moment photography became more than a shared interest. A fused-glass business led them to purchase their first digital SLR in 2004, and the challenge of photographing reflective glass gradually revealed where their real enthusiasm lay. By 2007, they had closed the glass business and committed to Bee Creek Photography.
Today, their work combines patient field research, close attention to weather and light, and a technical process designed to hold up at large scale. We spoke with Tod about bluebonnet seasons, flying cameras, the difference between screen and print, and what Bee Creek needs from a print partner.
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Big Bend Canyon and the Sierra del Carmen above the Rio Grande at sunset, February 2023. Photograph by Bee Creek Photography.
Our Q&A with Tod
How did Bee Creek Photography begin, and what first pulled you and Cynthia toward photographing Texas and the American South as your main subject?
Cynthia and I go back to the film days. We both started in the 1980s, and we still have our old film SLRs. For me, it began with a photography class in summer school during middle school, followed by shooting for the high school yearbook and newspaper. I went into computer science and databases instead of photography, but it stayed with me as a hobby. Cynthia studied photography and worked in the field for a while, including some wedding work, before it became a hobby for her too.
The real turning point came when we started a small business selling fused glass. Glass is brutally hard to photograph well, especially anything reflective. In 2004, we bought our first real DSLR, a Nikon D70, along with a macro lens, just to get decent product shots. Somewhere along the way, we realized we enjoyed the photography more than the glass fusing itself. We shut that business down, leaned fully into photography in 2007, and renamed the business Bee Creek Photography. That is really where the journey began.
In the early years, we photographed a little bit of everything while finding our focus: birds along the Texas coast, local lakes, bluebonnets, and commercial architecture. Our portfolio gradually expanded from Austin and the coast to Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio. Publications began calling to license our images, and customers began buying prints. That was when the direction clicked. Today, we focus on landscapes and cityscapes from Texas and the Southern United States, captured from the ground and the air, with fine art prints and commercial licensing as the destination for the work.
Tod Grubbs at Dead Horse Point State Park, Utah, waiting for the light in October 2024. Photograph courtesy of Bee Creek Photography.
Your galleries move between wide Texas landscapes, city skylines, wildflowers, coastlines, and aerial views. When you arrive at a location, what tells you there may be a print-worthy image there?
It depends. Some locations announce themselves the moment you arrive, and others take more work. I once had a client request a photograph from a site that honestly did not look like much when we pulled up. I walked the property looking for angles and came away with a handful of possibilities. They were happy with one of them.
That is really the key: explore and walk the site, try different vantage points, stay open to photographing something other than what you came for, and do not forget to turn around and check the view behind you. I was down in a river channel at one of the local state parks taking sunset photographs that were only so-so, but when I turned around, the sky behind me was lit up. I swung around and captured that direction, which came out much better.
Weather often dictates the plan too. On a recent trip, we scouted a site midday and returned for sunset, only for the sky to be a bust. We tried again the next night, and it paid off. Not every location works, and that is part of the process. Sometimes the camera never comes out of the bag; other times, you have to resist stopping at the first possible view.
Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend National Park, photographed about half a mile into the canyon during low water in February 2020. Mexico is on the left side of the Rio Grande. Photograph by Bee Creek Photography.
A Charleston bridge at twilight, photographed in April 2026 on Bee Creek's second visit to the location after the first evening's sky did not cooperate. Photograph by Bee Creek Photography.
Bluebonnets and Texas wildflowers appear throughout your work and have a short, unpredictable season. What have those spring shoots taught you about patience, timing, and returning to familiar places?
Wildflowers, especially bluebonnets, are some of the hardest subjects we photograph. What happens in the six months before bloom season - rain, temperatures, and seed germination beginning in October - helps determine whether they appear at all. Once they arrive, the bloom window is short, grass can overrun a field, and different species follow different schedules. Some years are spectacular, some are a letdown, and some locations bloom beautifully once and never really return.
We look for new locations every year and revisit places that have been good before. We call it the wildflower chase. It starts in late February in West Texas with the Big Bend bluebonnets, then moves into Central Texas from March through April as the bloom works its way from south to north. Some years, we have traveled several thousand miles scouting locations ahead of time so we know where to be when peak bloom arrives.
The last few years have been tougher because of drought. Last season, there was only one strong location nearby, and everyone knew about it. We had to choose specific days and times to get a few clean frames. Once the bluebonnets fade, the chase continues with Indian paintbrush, Mexican blankets, and other wildflowers into May. One year, we found a Texas Hill Country backroad with entire hillsides covered in yellow wildflowers. Those photographs became some of our most popular prints.
Bluebonnets near a Colorado River channel in the Texas Hill Country, April 2014. The flowers were knee-deep in one of the strongest fields Bee Creek found that season. Photograph by Bee Creek Photography.
Aerial photography has become an important part of Bee Creek's portfolio. How has flying a camera changed the way you see cities, landscapes, and composition?
We got into drones in 2014 as a way to capture images from angles most people never get to see. Our first drone was a DJI Phantom, which is where I learned to fly, but we quickly realized that the built-in camera could not produce files with the resolution or clarity that large prints need. We started looking at larger platforms that could carry a real camera.
We found the DJI S900, a hexacopter practical enough for the field but strong enough to carry a Sony mirrorless camera. We were flying it with a 36-megapixel Sony A7R by mid-2015. In 2021, we moved to the Sony Airpeak S1, which could carry the 61-megapixel A7R IV we used on the ground. That resolution let us print aerial photographs even larger without losing detail. Aerial images, especially panoramas, have become some of our most popular work, and several have been installed as large wall murals across Texas.
The drone is a flying tripod. We use it like any other camera, just with a wireless remote. It puts the camera in places I cannot reach any other way and gives cityscapes and landscapes a perspective that is impossible from the ground. I am a licensed FAA Part 107 pilot and passed the test in 2016, when the program was new. In the field, Cynthia serves as the visual observer and watches for any crewed aircraft entering our operating area.
The Houston skyline from Eleanor Tinsley Park, photographed from the ground in July 2015. Photograph by Bee Creek Photography.
The Houston skyline from the air, photographed on the same July 2015 day as the ground-level view above using a DJI S900 carrying a Sony A7R. Photograph by Bee Creek Photography.
Austin from the air about 30 minutes after sunset in April 2025, looking north along Congress Avenue toward the Texas State Capitol. Photograph by Bee Creek Photography.
Your site says each photograph is made with the final print in mind. What are you thinking about in the field or during editing that might not matter as much if the image only lived on a screen?
We are always thinking about the print. An image can look great backlit on a phone and still fall apart at 60 inches wide, so the questions in my head while composing are different. I use a lower ISO and take the time to set up a tripod, even when handheld would be fine for social media, because noise or movement that is invisible on a screen may appear in a large print. I pay close attention to focus because a print rewards inspection in a way a scrolling feed never does. We photograph with high-resolution cameras in RAW and may bracket a scene to capture its full dynamic range.
Editing follows the same principle. We are not chasing what looks punchy in a thumbnail. We work toward what will hold up on a wall from across the room and still reward someone who walks close. We print every image on our in-house Epson photo printer before sending it for production, which catches anything that looked fine on screen but needs more work in print. There is nothing like seeing a large fine art print in person. It brings out depth and detail a screen cannot touch and pulls the viewer into the scene.
A 60 x 40-inch HD acrylic print of Big Bend Canyon and the Sierra del Carmen installed at a UT Austin science history museum. Installation photograph courtesy of Bee Creek Photography.
You offer prints across metal, acrylic, canvas, and fine art paper. How do you decide which images belong on which medium?
The customer often has a good sense of what they want. Some people know instantly; others need guidance, and that is where I step in. Metal prints tend to feel modern and durable, with vivid color. Canvas has a warm, non-reflective, classic feel, and acrylic offers a high-gloss look with depth. None is right for every image. The decision comes down to the room, its lighting, and the feeling the client wants. Canvas works especially well for landscapes, Hill Country scenes, bluebonnets, and wide panoramas. Metal and acrylic often suit bold, modern spaces and high-traffic commercial settings.
For customers who are unsure, we show side-by-side photographs of the media and how each is mounted. We ask about the room, lighting, traffic, and desired feeling, then point them toward two or three options rather than everything at once. It is their space and taste that should drive the decision. My job is to explain how each medium behaves so they can choose confidently.
A 45 x 30-inch metal print of Folly Beach at sunrise installed in an exam room at a university medical center in South Carolina. Installation photograph courtesy of Bee Creek Photography.
What has your experience been like working with Artbeat Studios, and how has that relationship supported the way you present Bee Creek's work to clients and collectors?
A few years ago, we began looking for a new print vendor that could offer more than canvas and paper. Our local vendor had worked well when most clients were nearby, but as the business grew and orders arrived from around the country, shipping costs and limited metal and acrylic options began to hold us back.
Adding a second vendor for metal and acrylic created inconsistent quality, changing prices, and shipping problems. We needed one vendor that could handle paper, canvas, metal, and acrylic under one roof, accept full-size files for large prints, offer dependable pricing and mounting, and provide support when something needed attention.
We found Artbeat Studios in late 2023 and decided to give them a try because they covered everything we were looking for. We moved all our print production to Artbeat at the start of 2024, and we are still with them.
A recent order says a lot about why. A customer purchased six 45 x 30-inch metal prints for a new university medical center and told us the experience exceeded expectations from ordering and packing through the final product. A coworker commented on how seamlessly the pieces were mounted and how often people entering the space noticed them.
That is really why we stay with Artbeat. I do not have to worry about quality or how our images will translate into the finished print. Artbeat consistently meets or exceeds expectations, and that lets us focus on the photography instead of second-guessing the print process.
See more landscapes, cityscapes, aerial work, and fine art prints at Bee Creek Photography.
