Why You Should Embrace Local Photography

No doubt, we would all love to travel to the world's most epic and popular photography destinations, but there are thousands (if not millions) of nearly identical shots from each spot, and it can cost a lot of time and money to plan such a trip. However, there are treasures to photograph all around us, and this great video essay discusses why we should consider taking more pictures of our home areas.

Coming to you from aows, this awesome video essay discusses why you should consider photographing your local area a bit more. While iconic locations are iconic for a good reason, they have all been photographed over and over, and it just is not possible to create new images of them anymore. That is not to say you shouldn't photograph them, but working in your local area can yield much more unique photos. Furthermore, if you are looking to sell your work, you'll be competing in a crowded marketplace by selling images of iconic locations, but selling photos of local landmarks can distinguish you in your market, particularly since you likely have more expertise on how to photograph them than outside photographers, who might not even know they exist! Check out the video above for the full rundown. 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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3 Comments

This was a video with artistic images. Even if you do not go so deep with the pictures, it is true, at home there is no end on how much we can photograph.
I have been photographing now for over 20 years here in my hometown and it feels like I have just scratched the surface. There are still an infinite number of pictures to take home.

Brilliant video with superb images. It’s a great exercise to keep looking at your surroundings in different light, weather and times of day.

I've created 90% of my images at local places while learning composition, compression, theory of color and most importantly train my eyes to see beauty everywhere. The advantage local places gives us is timing and knowledge of the places/spots. We can find beauty in everything and everywhere we just need to learn how to see it.