Meet sam hurd | photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with sam hurd and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi sam, what habits do you feel helped you succeed?
I know it might be counter intuitive, but I believe that not being particularly concerned with habitual goal setting was a big factor in my success as a photographer. This is a lesson I learned through the craft of photography itself. If I went into a space with a rigid idea about what I expected, or wanted, to get out of a photograph then I would almost always fail to recognize a better option nearby. Instead of setting specific goals and attempting to meet them, I became very flexible and adaptive both creatively and in my business. This sustained a wide path for success.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’m a wedding photographer, but I lean into very creative compositions for my couples’ portraits, which is somewhat unusual. In my early years, I would emulate other photographers that had a similar approach. This guidance was extremely helpful in slowly finding what works for me, and what my visual voice is as a photographer. Over time I was able to curate a list of equipment that I loved, and hone my process to be very efficient and expressively unique to me.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Interesting question! I would probably take them to a few shows (bands) and 4 or 5 of my favorite seafood restaurants in the DC/Baltimore area. There’s also a lot of museums and art galleries, mostly free, where I live so we’d rotate through all the usual ones, and end up somewhere along the inner harbor in Baltimore.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Absolutely! There was a wonderful Flickr discussion group called SWPB, which stood for starting a wedding photography business. It was made up of 350-400 people from all across the world, and became a wonderful place of connection and ideas. Most members went on to become very successful so they changed the name to succeeding @ wedding photography business. There are also many photographers I look up to like Jeff Newsom and Fer Juaristi.

Website: samhurdphotography.com

Instagram: instagram.com/iamthesam

Facebook: facebook.com/samhurdphoto

Youtube: YouTube.com/samhurdphoto

Other: patreon.com/samhurd