When you're walking, you're going to see different things than when you're driving, riding the bus, riding a bike or anything like that.

When you have time to walk around and look at a storefront, look at someone's front door, Look at a monument on the street up close and personal that is seeing a city.

Baltimore Scenes really came together originally to showcase how beautiful Baltimore was, but I just started running into people in the streets that were photographers.

The response that I kept getting from people was I feel like I’m the only person walking around Baltimore with a camera and capturing day-to-day life.

That really struck a chord with me.

What if we start getting together and start sharing other people’s work, meeting up in person and building community?

Baltimore Scenes is true to the idea that this is very Baltimore-focused.

And so here's all these little screenshots capturing the scene as if it was like a still from a movie from every walk of life or every angle that you can imagine.

We want to showcase and elevate the city and the artists.

I was always drawn to photography, especially as a way of looking at photos to connect to family members and periods of time that existed before me.

Through the years, I've taken on an approach that's just carrying a camera with me everywhere I go, so I can document different parts of my life.

Moments that spark curiosity, moments that are pretty, and some portraiture work as well.

I started the Baltimore PhotoWalks in February 2024.

I'm outside shooting anyway, why not see if other people want to do it together?

And people came out.

- That is awesome.

We had I think, like, 20 or 25 folks come out to the first one and I was blown away because I didn't expect that level of interest.

Being with other people for an hour or two, it can add to your cup in a way that you don't get with otherwise solo experience.

When I go to these Walks and these meetups people are explaining things to me.

There are still so much that I can learn with photography and technique and skill and learning about certain gear.

And it's honestly a breath of fresh air because now I have my photo friends.

For the PhotoWalks, we select a neighborhood, there's usually a meetup point and we'll give recommendations on a map of attractions of things that folks might wanna shoot.

But otherwise we're not really guiding people within a certain direction.

In fact, some of our Walks are too big so we naturally split up.

We always come together and meet up for a group picture it's kind of been tradition at this point.

And so, I kept hosting them for the next few months and then linked up with Jake.

He had started this Baltimore Scenes page on Instagram and we were like, why not host something as a group?

because there's clearly demand for community events and community spaces.

That was the start of a really fun friendship and partnership.

There’s tons of great stuff in the neighborhood.

There’s all kinds of parks everywhere.

There’s hidden parks in the middle of streets.

All kinds of beautiful houses and little hidden gems.

So enjoy, have fun, see something new.

When I moved here I didn’t really know anybody, and it was the middle of the pandemic.

So there was nothing really to do, not a lot of community to be found and so walking the streets alone with a camera was kind of the best way to just get out there and see the city.

I predominantly shoot film all 35 millimeter, usually a mix of color and black and white.

Mostly color in the summer, mostly black and white in the winter.

A lot of the photos that I like to take are scenes of life as a living landscape You're seeing something happening in a scene, but you’re also capturing the essence of what’s going on around you.

So we have our PhotoWalks every month.

Those are usually like an hour and a half you just walk around the neighborhood, capture what you see, what you like.

Cameras and Coffee is more of just a casual hang at a coffee shop.

Aperture Hour, it's a happy hour.

It's much of the same, we meet up at a bar or brewery.

People bring cameras to show off if they want to, but it's not required.

It's been really special seeing people meet for the first time.

Like, “oh, hey, I’m a huge fan of your work!” Then realizing that they actually have a lot in common and becoming friends.

- So I under- I overexposed by two stops and um- - Wow.

I'm definitely like a shyer person and going up and talking to strangers and having conversations with them really got me outside of my box.

And looking at all the people in this community and the stuff that they post makes me want to go out even more and take pictures.

I would say my style is mostly geared towards street.

What excites me and brings the photo alive is seeing somebody’s expression.

My hopes for Baltimore Scenes is that it continues a legacy, but maybe more than that it becomes like an actual staple of Baltimore That people know Baltimore because it has this flourishing photography community.

As a Curator, my role is to be on the lookout for work that makes me feel something.

For Baltimore Scenes, we accept film, digital, color, black and white.

It just needs to be shot in Baltimore City.

That's our only limitation.

We have Weekly Roundups where we pick one photo each week to highlight folks that are here shooting and seeing the beauty that they're capturing each week.

Baltimore Scenes has always been very welcoming and inclusive.

All types of photography is gonna be featured.

Every curator, I think, is quite different so having us all have really diverse backgrounds allows us to get better coverage.

Most of the photography here that I really connect with is around people that are making very personal connections to the city and are spending time with a scene that they belong to.

Even if we don't put it in the Roundup, you’re gonna see all the people that follow us.

You're gonna see all the people that are posting and tagging us.

There's so many different beautiful pockets and boroughs that each have its own flavor, each has its own style and these PhotoWalks have helped me experience it so much where I truly have developed a new love for the city.

I live here but now I live here.

Baltimore Scenes is a group of photographers that comes together to host events, highlight folks’ work online, and really just showcase the beauty of Baltimore.