Down on the Farm

To be honest, I grew up in the suburbs and didn’t think much about where my food came from. As an adult, I live in a town in Maryland surrounded by family farms, and going to the county fair in Autumn is a big thing. 

I have been really lucky that some of my clients have sent me out to visit some family farms and learn about how they work. I’ve even once gotten to follow some freshly picked kale over a mountain to a market. And another time, I got to taste some exquisite sweet corn creme brulé at a restaurant just a few miles down from where it was grown.

It’s been a real honor to photograph these hardworking farmers, and to spend some time learning to appreciate how our food gets to our tables.  Enjoy!

-Sam

 

New website!

It was time. I have basically had the same website for ten years. A decade. My college degree is technically in information systems, but I had let those skills whither over the years, and so I let my website languish as well. There were a few issues that I had to grapple with - the design that I clung to was thoroughly un-modern (a friend of mine described it as the website of a photographer who still had a chip on his shoulder about switching from film to digital), and the whole process of editing my portfolio was daunting. TERRIFYING. I had gotten into a terrible habit of adding images to my portfolios, but hardly ever taking any out. They were bloated, and probably boring potential clients to death. And I continued to have an irrational fear of removing images from said portfolios for fear of maybe offending the images? I don’t know...

And so, I must offer my most sincere and heartfelt gratitude to my friends and collaborators, Jeff Behm and Matt Rakola, for helping me prune nearly two decades of work, and kick my butt into getting a modern website.  It’s been live for about a month now, but, in predictable fashion, I struggle to write for my blog, too. Come visit the new site, let me know what you think, and enjoy! And I’ll do my best to keep it fresh for you all.

-Sam

 Best of 2020 Images

Well, 2020 did not exactly go as planned. Like everyone else, I had plans for this past year, and like I’m sure many other people, things started off looking great. Actually having lots of work in January and February? CRAZY! Little did I know, there wouldn’t be much work after that, due to a pandemic of epic proportions. And then, to take advantage of the down time and ensure that I was sticking with quarantine protocols, I went and broke my leg. So 2020 was certainly memorable. There are other words I could also think of, but you all are a classy crowd, so I’ll mind my tongue… errr… keyboard…

Anyhow, while I didn’t have quite as many adventures as I had expected, there were some fun shoots in Chicago, DC, Baltimore, and Charlottesville. And I got to spend a lot of time with my son in our neighborhood. A LOT. Educators, you have my utmost respect and gratitude - coming up with something educational and entertaining to do everyday is exhausting. We had our adventures, and it has been really neat to watch him learn. But I can’t say that he’s really excited about Google Meets and Zooms anymore (let’s be honest - are you?).

As always, I cannot express enough gratitude to my family. My loyal clients may keep me in business, but my wife and my son are more than just my constant companions and quarantine-mates - they’re people that I enjoy being around… at least most of the time. I must also express gratitude to my neighbors, my surgeon who put my leg back together, my physical therapist, my son’s teacher, and Boomer - my “physical therapy dog.”

Here’s hoping that 2021 allows us all to safely venture out into the world!

Stay safe everyone!

-Sam