For those who are avid followers of accounts dedicated to our neighborhood, this account in particular may have crossed your social media feed a few times.
Steven Visneau, 54, is a freelance commercial photographer and the face behind the I Love Lake Highlands account on Instagram.
Photo courtesy of Steven Visneau
Originally a transplant from New York, Visneau and his wife first moved in 2004 to Lakewood in Texas. Later, they moved to Old Lake Highlands in 2008. The community he found within the neighborhood instantly left an impression on him.
“I just wanted to start something,” he tells me during a phone call. “I like these businesses, I take pictures for a living. I should start this Instagram and take pretty pictures of businesses or people or events that are happening around town.”
From there, in 2016, Visneau began going around in his spare time to promote the project and looking to show off Lake Highlands in his own way.
He noticed other neighborhoods had a lot of publicity on social media, like Oak Cliff and Lakewood, and he wanted to highlight Lake Highlands.
“It was just me thinking there needs to be a little bit more spotlight on what Lake Highlands does,” he says. “Because I think Lake Highlands really is a growing community.”
The page mainly promotes local businesses across images showing their products, art and signage.
Lake Highlands Exchange Club Oktoberfest banner. Photo courtesy of Steven Visneau
In the new year, Visneau wants to use his downtime to shift focus a bit. Think features of people with cool stories and community improvement. The thing is finding his voice and a way to introduce that new content of community improvement on the page.
The father of two teens says he loves to talk to people and applies that to his photography in both the Instagram page and his professional work.
“I’m a people person. I like to talk a lot, and that’s how I run my photo sets when I’m working,” he says. “And I found that my style is more lifestyle and really making people feel comfortable. Then I can really get that out of my subjects.”
I asked what his top three spots in Lake Highlands are. It was a tough one to answer. He includes RM 12:20 Bistro, Resident Taqueria and Lake Highlands Car Wash. He also made mention of Lochland’s and Hello Dumpling (which has a location at The Hill opening soon).
Sometimes the businesses Visneau features on I Love Lake Highlands have offered him gifts or money. He doesn’t accept.
“That is not why I started this Instagram,” he says. “This was really just kind of an experiment and one and then kind of just a promotional tool for the businesses in my area. So that’s really why I did it.”
