Hello! I'm Sam. Welcome to my Lab. 

The best thing about this platform is that if you become a backer then you get instant access to everything already posted in your tier - and everything else from then on.

Becoming a patron allows instant access to my entire patreon feed which includes:

Exclusive content. Behind the scenes photo deconstruction. Tutorials. Live hangouts. Business and marketing insights. Everything shared with detail and clarity.
Q&A. Have a question about lightroom workflow, gear, a technique, or marketing? Ask here and you shall have the answer.
Group Photo Critiques. Submit to regular group photo critiques where I markup everything in your work from composition to expression and lighting.
A place to connect with other photographers. My patreon community has grown to 1000+ photographers who all want the same thing... to discover and understand unique ideas. 

"Sam's Patreon has singlehandedly been the best investment in my career" - steven neaves

I've been posting here on my patreon feed for over a year so take a look at this page to see featured posts about about bounce flash, optimizing lightroom speed, a posing guide, and more.

The Epic Workshop: Videos! I'm selling my workshop videos separate from patreon, but active patrons get free and permanent access to them every time a new part is released.

EXISTING $10+ patrons: each month you'll receive that month's video of my workshop. it'll be directly messaged to your email or patreon account and streamable forever to your account. as long as you're signed up on the first of the month by 11:59 PM EST, you're golden.

NEW $10+ patrons: upon signing up, you will receive a discount code of 30% off any previous masterclass videos for sale and will then be enrolled to receive the future masterclass videos on the 1st of the following month as a patreon benefit! of course, you'll still have access to all of the other posts on patreon which go back over a year now and trust me - there are tons of content to go through there in the meantime!

Basically, as long as you stay on patreon, you're enrolled the new workshop videos!

"I just finished binge reading/watching your entire Patreon library. To say I'm extremely inspired would be a gross understatement. I'm absolutely pumped for this upcoming wedding season!" - nikola janev

I truly love educating people and enabling them to be their own creative force in the world, but I hate the idea of charging for it. However, time has value (for all of us) and I decided it was time to transition my discoveries from my blog to something new.

Here's some further explanations about what I create here:



Participation in #3stepclick challenges.
What is the #3stepclick? It's a challenge I invented to promote photography using creativity and improvisation using whatever you have in your immediate surroundings.

It works like this:
1) I make a new post announcing a new #3stepclick challenge will be happening in the next 24 hours
2) Active patrons on $10+ tiers will be randomly messaged a notification to participate in the #3stepclick by taking a photo within 3 steps of wherever they're standing in that moment
3) Patrons upload the resulting photo to a special dropbox submission folder
4) I choose the top 10 finalists and the final winner is put to a vote for the winner.

I've played around with different rules, but see previous posts about the #3stepclick here.



The Epic Podcast
(Note: Previous episodes are available on Soundcloud here)
I have an ongoing podcast series called The Epic Podcast (link) that covers broad topics of discussion between me and friend Nathan Mitchell Photography.
We post episodes every few weeks, but as we are both professional wedding photographers it can be difficult to dedicate the time required for research, editing, and recording new episodes in the wedding season. Support our effort and we can get more done without the need for many sponsor reads embedded in the shows.



Exclusive Lead Referrals
I don't work with associate photographers. My business is me alone and that often means I'm unavailable for most clients that inquire with me.  I've been looking for a way to send these leads to qualified photographers and I believe this to be the best way to do that. I will make the introduction between you and the inquiring wedding couple and hand the relationship off from there for you to book them as you normally would. This is a chance to grow your own business under your own name and on your own terms. Note - most inquiries are in the DC/MD/VA areas and a portfolio review for quality control will be done for first time backers.

"What Sam is sharing is worth way more than $10/month. In fact, it's priceless. I've learned so much, explored my own creativity, and also laughed a lot." - matt bowens

Read more patron testimonials here