An imaging apparatus for tracking a subject is provided. The An imaging apparatus has an imaging unit which images a subject to obtain an image, an area detecting unit which detects in the image obtained by the imaging unit a light changing area, in which light changes in a time-series manner, a position detecting unit which detects a position of the light changing area detected by the area detecting unit in the image obtained by the imaging unit, a local area searching unit which searches for a local area within a prescribed region defined on the basis of the position of the light changing area detected by the position detecting unit, wherein the local area shows a large feature value in an image processing, and a tracking unit which tracks movement of the local area found by the local area searching unit.