Good evening,

Wanted to share some awesome news. If you have liked my Facebook page you know I covered the Women of the World 11th Annual Luncheon this past weekend. Some of my photos will be in the Calvert Recorder tomorrow March 20th. Having photos published is a huge honor, great recognition, and a good way to get the name out there. I guess I will have to grab a copy or two so I can frame it and put it with the other publications I have been in. All in all great for Sampson Images.

Now onto the changes and future changes. As you may have read I raised my print prices, a few dollars each, but still well worth the money. My photo lab is absolutely awesome and have a very fast turn around. I also don't charge for ground shipping so that is a plus, and to tell you the truth, the turn around time and packaging of my products, expedited shipping isn't worth the money, but still an option. I also took the Paypal ordering down. I would rather have my customers email me so if there are any questions about the ordering process, or options they can pick from, they can be discussed before the order is made, and should make for a much smoother transaction. So far, I haven't gotten any complaints so I take that as a good sign.

I am going to be doing more separation in my photo packages. I am still going to be offering the same portrait packages, might add some different options but that is still in the works. I am going to start offering all types of services from family portraits to events. The pricing should come out in the next few weeks.

I do hope that you have been enjoying the images I have been posting, and would like to see more. I am going to try to get to some new locations this summer so it should continue to be a great year. Remember, if you need any photography services, contact me!

    It's been a while since I have updated my blog, and I figure now is a good time. March is going to be busy for me, I have an event scheduled on the 16th, and full day of family portraits on the 17th, which still has a few afternoon spots available. My first wedding is scheduled on the 24th, which I am excited about. I would like to get more into wedding photography, which is hard to do if you don't have anything in the portfolio to show upcoming brides looking to hire a wedding photographer. I am going to start offering more products in the near future, which will all be special order, but extremely beautiful. I think I need more wall space in my own house, as well as storage space. There are so many prints and frames in my dining room, my wife is giving me the "look" to find a new place for them lol.
    I am going to be adding new services to the website, so keep checking back. They are going to be services that require an hourly charge instead of a flat rate. It's going to be more for the non-formal portrait work, parties, gatherings, advertising photos, and real estate photos.  I'm also going to put out specified price lists for newborn sessions. There is a lot going on behind the scenes.
    My favorite part of the year is starting to come around. The first day of spring is just under two weeks away. Flowers are going to start blooming soon, trees will start showing the leaves, all make great backgrounds for portraits. Not only that but it is going to start getting a little warmer out so portrait sessions won't have to be rushed to get out of the cold. Oh, and how could I forget fishing season. Have to do some of that as well. I want to thank everyone that took the time to read this and follow my Facebook page. I am greatly appreciative off all the comments and likes on my photos and posts. If you need any photography services, please contact me. I am taking appointments for 2013, so contact me to schedule your photo session.

I posted a photograph on my Facebook fan page last Thursday. It got a lot more attention that I ever thought it would. I wanted to thank everyone for the positive feedback, and new likes to my fan page. It received well over 700 likes, and it was shared close to if not over 100 times. I enjoy being able to share my work with you. I have a few big things hopefully to come in the next year. Maybe do a couple Marker's Markets and Artsfest at Anne Marie Gardens.

I am ready for the weather to warm up a bit to start getting busy with family portraits. Working with people is something I have done for well over 10 years, and I enjoy every bit of it. Everyone reacts differently to a camera pointed at them, and I love being able to make it laid back and fun for the families. I do hope if you are reading this you will be scheduling a portrait session with me, and I also offer a 20% off referral card after all sessions for you to give to a friend looking for family portraits to be done. If that family schedules with me, you will get an email after their portraits to let you know you get 20% off the next time you schedule.

I have an email list you are more than welcome to subscribe to, I do all my sales, and offers through it. I will also update on my schedule of shows and sales if you wanted to come and check out what I have to offer. If you would like to sign up, just send me a note through my Contact page and I will add you to it. I don't abuse it, so you will only get emails if I think it's something you would like to know. You won't get the emails weekly trying to get views to my website. lol

Here is the photo I added to Facebook last week, and is now for sale on my website. 

Now that 2012 has passed its time to reflect back on what we have accomplished. You never want to forget where you came from and what has built you to the person you are today. It's how you got where you are.

On the first day of 2013, forget resolutions and set goals for what you want to accomplish. How you want the next year to mold you further into the person you want to be. From here you can direct your life in any direction you want, you just have to work towards it. No one can stop you or get in your way but yourself.

My goals for 2013 relating to my photography is to continue to shoot and shoot more. Only way to get better is to do it, it's not going to happen itself. I also want to cover more area and get further away from Southern Maryland for my landscape photography.

I hope that 2013 is good to you and that maybe you choose me to capture your 2013 memories. Happy New Year!

I haven't had the blog up in while so i could work on other aspects of the site. I have decided that I am going to start doing this again. I am going to actually do a review on a new piece of equipment that I received this week. The Canon 50mm 1.8. This is one of the must haves in the camera bag by most photographers, so I decided to jump on it. The cost is not extreme, and I believe is priced right for this lens. It has a plastic construction, so it's light weight but not as durable as other lenses. It doesn't stand far out from the camera so, as long as you're careful, it shouldn't hit anything. I took some test shots of it the first night I had it, and it can be tack sharp. I can almost count the lashes on my kids eye lids. I noticed it is not as sharp with the aperture wide open, but around 2.2 it is great. The depth of field is nice for portraits or any shots that the background needs to be blurred. When the aperture is open, you must have the focus point right where you need it, it will make what you want focused noticeably out of focus if you miss it.  Only problem is the 5 blade system puts definitive sides on blurred lights.  Not a big enough of a deal to not get the lens. Focusing is noisy, especially if it cannot find a focus point. Will focus in and out, but sounds like it is trying to focus fast and hitting stops at full speed. I wish it could focus closer than 1.5 feet. Although you can tell it is not on the upper end of lenses, I do recommend it. If anything, its a great lens to get used to prime lenses.

Now on to the actual photography portion tonight. I have been shooting quite a bit of portraits lately. I would like to be shooting more as they are a lot of fun. The interactions with the families, meeting new people, and watching the kids run around are all very enjoyable. If you would like to set up a photography session or have questions please contact me, I will answer all questions in a reasonable amount of time. Those that have used me in the past, I appreciate you selecting me.

I hope you have liked what I have been posting on my Facebook page lately, I love getting out with my camera ans sharing with you. I plan on creating a 2014 calendar and getting out to different paces in Maryland to get a photo to correspond with that month in my calendar. I will start showing which month is which later in 2013 and taking preorders from anyone interested. It will have 13 photos in it, one for each month, and one on the cover. The calendars will be 8.5x11 so if you wanted, you could cut out and frame the photos for decorations.

Thank you for reading!



Here is a shot from the 50mm last night.

Been working on the website a lot over the past few days, and it continues. I have changed prices and I am in the process of making individual pages for each photo I plan to sell. If you go to my portfolio and click a photo it will take you to a page where the photo is larger, and it also has the options for purchasing on the bottom of the page. Including prices for all colors of frames. It may take a while to get done but I don't mind doing it.

Decided last night around midnight that I wanted to get up for the sunrise. So I got up at 4:30 got ready and headed out the door. My location was in St. Marys County where I could get the rising sun and Thomas Johnson Bridge into the frame. The temps were around 75 and comfortable. I shot off around 60 shots, playing with long exposure and different setting while waiting on the sun. There were a line of clouds blocking the sun from coming up at the horizon and I thought I wouldn't get the shot I wanted. Fortunately it came up right where I wanted it before it was too late. Of the 60 shots, there are one or two I wanted to keep. After I was done there, right around 7am I headed over to Solomons Island and the Calvert Marine Museum. The sun was coming up behind the Drum Point Lighthouse so I decided to take advantage of that. Love the few shots I got there and will probably print a couple for the house. All in all made it home close to 8:30, still enough time to get some things done. I may get up again tomorrow and try a different location.

Decided to go to a car show Saturday. I haven't been to one since I traded in my show car almost four years ago. St Peter's blessing of the Cars, and Car Show had a good showing even if the weather was extremely hot. The high for the day was 102 degrees. I went around 8:30 am and stayed around two hours. I was looking forward to seeing the stunt driver, but he wrecked into a tree with in the first five minutes. All the cars were clean and ready for a good show. Unfortunately because of the heat I did not stay until the awards to see who won. When I left I decided to hit the back roads to see what I could get into. I stopped by some train tracks and snapped off two pictures, both very eh and I have not yet decided if I wanted to show them. I also came across an old Ford farm truck. It setup nicely with old farm equipment in over grown weeds, and some hay bails in the back ground.

I love cars, and especially working on them and look forward to doing more shows. I have thought about going to a car club and trying to cover some of their events in the future.

Finally got the Calvert County Chamber of Commerce Directory. I've been waiting for a little bit to see where they ended up using my photograph I submitted through the photography club. They ended up choosing the gazebo in Solomons Island to be the heading photo to the article about the history of Calvert County. If you happen to have the directory, its on page 23.

So lately I have been pursing bird photography. I think the challenge of getting set up and composed before they fly away has hooked me. The challenge of chasing them down and being in the right spot at the right time is what I have been addicted to. I have taken hundreds of pictures of various birds over the past few weeks and have deleted 90% of them because of trying to rush the shot before they fly off. Ive also been involved in trying to get them in flight. You don't know how hard it is to try to get a bird to fly off with a camera to your face. I have spent countless hours trying to find them and capture before, during, and after flight.

I like to follow birds of prey. They seem to be te most difficult to find. Although usually slower than the smaller birds, they skip town before you can get set up, not to be seen the rest of the time. I also like the Great Blue Heron but they are also as skiddish. I think I'm going to continue Wildlife photography, the challenge is abddicting. There are also those shots I wish I could have gotten, or taken and they weren't good enough to share. I hope that my work can display the beauty good enough for my viewers to enjoy, time and time again. Thanks for reading.