Why I’m Turning My Camera Toward Local Life (Not Just Landscapes)

Landscape may draw you in, but people, light, movement—local life—is what roots meaning. Here’s why I’m leaning harder into nearby scenes, small stories, and the scenes I live daily.

I’ve shot the hills, valleys, sunrise panoramas — and I’ll keep doing that. But lately I’ve turned my lens closer. Closer to home. Closer to stories.

When I drove today through downtown Gatlinburg, I saw the way a single beam of light slipped between buildings. I saw a child skipping across a crosswalk. I saw leaves swirling in a gutter. Those moments — tiny, fleeting — they live in memory, not on Instagram grid.

That’s what I want: images that evoke, more than impress. And the best stories are local. They anchor me, they ground future work.

So yes — I will travel. I will chase light far. But I’ll also shoot the road behind my house, the café on Main, the dog on my porch, the leaves drifting across my window. Because those are pieces of my life. And I want that in my work.