Our Story

I’m Brandon Hinsley and I am a Central Coast Cinematographer.

I did not grow up in the Santa Ynez Valley or even in California. I grew up in a working-class town in the Midwest, where the seasons demanded everything and the work was hard, not unlike here. From my first drive across the Cold Spring Bridge I knew this was a place I would return to, and it was worth every tassel pulled along the way to get here.

My roots in the valley are not yet deep, but they are lasting. My mom lived in Solvang with her mother in her youth. Years later my godparents purchased a house in Los Alamos where I also called home for a time. My partner Claire, from Nipomo, our dog Shanti, and I spent time in San Luis Obispo, close enough to keep the valley in sight while learning the shape of California’s coastline.

Growing up in Omaha, I was inspired by filmmakers who proved that local stories could carry universal weight. Alexander Payne, whose films connect Omaha and the Santa Ynez Valley through their landscapes and honesty, showed me that a place can become its own character on screen. That same lesson fuels my work here.

Most of my life was spent in the Midwest, but the Central Coast has never grown familiar in a way that dulls it. Instead it deepens. The seasons here are slower but never still, shifting like wine in barrel, changing with light, fog, temperature, and tide. The valley has its own gravitational pull.

I started Central Coast Cinematography to give that pull a form. To capture the heritage and terroir of the valley and its people in motion pictures that carry permanence and truth. When you work with Central Coast Cinematography you are working with me, a filmmaker who respects this place and is committed to carrying your story with the same weight as the bottles we raise when the work is done..

- Brandon Hinsley 09/28/2025

Brandon’s Website and Instagram