Gloucester-based photographer Sean Smith chases the sunshine, and followers observe

Sean Smith shoots for the moon.

It’s his least cooperative topic.

The Gloucester-based photographer, with a social media following exceeding 25,000, thrives at capturing the night time sky. That’s difficult, he mentioned, because the brightness of the moon contrasts with the darkness of night time.

His photographs of the solar rising and setting over the York River and Atlantic Ocean reveal colours van Gogh would envy.

“You might say I’m a weather junkie,” he mentioned. “A cold front, a warm front, any little disturbance in weather makes for some awesome skies and some awesome lighting.”

Smith chases each with enthusiasm. While his love affair with the digicam started 30 years in the past, he credit age for his elevated endurance to attend for the fitting picture on the proper second.

“Sometimes I think it’s a lot of luck,” Smith mentioned with a shrug. “You’ve got to get out there and shoot. Sometimes I can’t believe I’m out here doing this, but when you see the results, you know why you’re doing it.”

When most keep inside, Smith is on the transfer, his digicam gear in tow. He’s embraced snow days like a schoolchild, strolling alongside abandoned stretches searching for frosty scenes which might be uncommon in southeastern Virginia. A current nighttime stroll on a snowy night time in Colonial Williamsburg led him to a lone snowman in entrance of the Governor’s Palace, a coatless scholar on the Sunken Garden on the William & Mary campus and an aged couple holding arms alongside Duke of Gloucester Street.

The streetlights in his footage supply a nostalgia much like a Thomas Kinkade portray. His photographs could possibly be calendar photographs or Hallmark playing cards. Many are for the Visit Williamsburg tourism web site, which makes use of his placing pictures to showcase the area.

“We love working with Sean Smith,” mentioned Daniela Owen, social media specialist for the location. “He has a wonderful way of capturing the stories of the Historic Triangle; his images don’t just document history, they invite you into it.”

Olivia’s in the Village, a family restaurant on Gloucester Main Street, doubles as a gallery for his photography. While everything on the walls is for sale, Smith hasn’t been aggressive about monetizing his art.

He doesn’t have an online store or even a business website.

“That’s part of the master plan when I’m not moving as fast as I am now,” mentioned Smith, who labored eight years as a photographer for NASA Langley. “I’m not getting rich, but I am able to do what I love and pick my schedule.”

The Williamsburg native thought he wished to be a graphic artist till he dated a photographer in highschool along with her personal darkroom.

“I started with a Polaroid,” mentioned Smith, who graduated to a Pentax K1000, distinguished by its easy physique that doesn’t require a studying curve. Smith practiced along with his new digicam and sampled others on the then-Peninsula Community College.

In the early Nineties, Smith acknowledged how the digital age can be a game-changer in pictures that gave rise to visible storytelling. When Canon launched a prosumer digital digicam with superior options in 2003, Smith needed to have one.

“That’s when things started to rock and roll.”

He was in downtown Washington, on a break from his job as a multimedia producer. Walking round D.C.’s Convention Center, he seen a stairwell with individuals in search of a powerful cell sign. The gentle hit good. He snapped away and entered one of many images right into a National Geographic contest referred to as Culture Shock.

His black and white submission was picked as one in every of 5 finalists and he obtained a money prize.

Five years later, Smith’s work appeared in National Geographic’s particular version on area. He thought it could be a small picture in a nook. It was a double-page unfold.

“I bought as many as I could,” he mentioned.

Smith is remiss in naming the most well-liked picture of his, although he recollects the robust response final yr when {an electrical} storm and the Northern Lights converged on the Governor’s Palace.

“It got something like 14,000 likes,” mentioned Smith, whose watched his following develop to the purpose of Meta, previously Facebook, deeming him a creator.

He favors the views of the Coleman Bridge. Williamsburg is a staple cease, although he likes heading to the seashore, particularly Sandbridge and Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. A current drive up the Eastern Shore to Chincoteague to shoot the annual pony swim was a deal with.

And “a blast,” he added.

Smith is simply beginning to add video to his Instagram and Meta feeds, a backup to indicate off environment that encourage him to rise early and keep out late.

“It’s a beautiful world we live in, especially on the East Coast and especially in the Tidewater region,” Smith mentioned. “This space has lots to supply on any given day.”