Tlumacki has covered the Boston Marathon more than 20 times. The 2013 Marathon was his fifth year in a row shooting in the pool position at ground level at the finish line. Tlumacki was standing at the finish line when the first explosion happened. Tlumacki was named the Boston Press Photographer of the Year for 2011. He was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. He won Second Place NPPA — Newspaper Photographer of the Year in the Picture of the Year Competition in 1987. Tlumacki is a general assignment photographer and lives with his wife Debee, who is also a news photographer, in Pembroke, Mass.