Sam Levitan Photography

Best of 2021 Images

noreply@blogger.com (Sam Levitan Photography) — Thu, 06 Jan 2022 17:59:00 +0000

Well, another strange year has come and gone… or maybe it’s still 2020, it’s really hard to tell these days. But, despite all of the uncertainty and starts and stops, some decent photographs were made!

I photographed fewer events than usual (WAY fewer), but more portraits - and that was a lot of fun. I got to reconnect with some old clients - and it was SO great to see them in person again. I also got to work with new people - some new clients, some new art directors at existing clients, and got to collaborate with some truly excellent photographers that I’ve never had the opportunity to work with before.

As always, I am forever grateful to my loyal clients, my subjects in front of my lens, my colleagues helping me behind the lens, my friends, and my family. A special thank you Matt Rakola and Jeff Behm for helping me cull through thousands of images and prodding me to move to a modern website design. If you haven’t checked it out, please do! New website, same old address: www.samlevitan.com.

Speaking of “same old address,” as we head into what I hope is a great year ahead, I would be remiss if I didn’t note that come this May, I’m honestly in some disbelief that I’ll have been in business for TWENTY YEARS! I’m excited for what’s ahead, but also humbled and grateful for everything and everyone in the past two decades. It’s been quite the journey!

Here’s hoping that 2022 is better than the past couple of years!

Stay safe everyone!

-Sam

Down on the Farm

noreply@blogger.com (Sam Levitan Photography) — Fri, 01 Oct 2021 18:27:00 +0000

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!

noreply@blogger.com (Sam Levitan Photography) — Tue, 14 Sep 2021 18:11:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Sam Levitan Photography) — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 16:36:00 +0000

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

Best of 2019

noreply@blogger.com (Sam Levitan Photography) — Wed, 29 Jan 2020 17:09:00 +0000

Once again, January is my time to review my work from the previous year. Each year I stress and struggle to weed out the best, or at least most meaningful to me, 100 images among I don’t know how many thousands. Each one represents a collaboration between myself, my subjects, my clients, and my family. I hope that you enjoy them as much as I do!

As always, I cannot express enough gratitude to my family. My loyal clients may keep me in business, but my wife, my son, and my father-in-law keep things humming at home while I’m off adventuring. They are more patient than I may deserve, and have remained supportive of what is not always the most routine and predictable of careers. You all have my host sincere gratitude and love!

2020 is already shaping up to have some great adventures in store. As always, feel free to reach out to me at sclevitan@mac.com. I’d love your feedback, and the opportunity to collaborate on some imagery together for you!

-Sam

Best of 2018

noreply@blogger.com (Sam Levitan Photography) — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 15:09:00 +0000

Every January, I go back and take stock of the work that I’ve done over the previous year, and pull together my favorite one hundred images during that period. It’s excruciating. It’s an exercise that is valuable to me in learning about my own vision and how it can improve, but it’s also very hard to winnow down tens of thousands of images to just one hundred. Sometimes, it’s hard to let go of certain images that I like, but just don’t make the cut. Sometimes, it’s a struggle to find that on a shoot where I thought I got something really special, looking back on the images away from the moment, realizing that they were just OK. But I made it, and I hope that you enjoy the results.

But first…

2018 was my best year ever since hanging out my shingle in 2002. I’ve built up my business in Chicago, moved to New York, and now I’ve been in Maryland for five years. There are times that I’ve felt like I’ve hit reset on my business in these moves, and times that I’ve relished the opportunity to refocus what I do. This past year I have been so grateful to work with so many clients that have stretched back to the early days of my career (made it around full circle to another OFN conference in Chicago, after shooting every conference for them since 2004, it was fun to go back to where it all started!) and to work with so many new clients for the very first time. It’s an honor to help tell their stories.

This year had so many fantastic adventures. Some highlights include:

Working with Disabled Sports USA, a really inspiring organization. I was brought up to New York to make portraits of thirty-some real heroes and to photograph their annual gala. DSUSA then also invited me out on other occasions to photograph sledge hockey (didn’t even know that was a thing!) and wheelchair basketball. Just so fascinating.
Continued explorations of rural areas of West Virginia and Virginia with the Natural Capital Investment Fund and The Conservation Fund. I now own muck boots. I just wish that I had the sense to have purchased them before these jobs, but getting knee deep in mud is what makes this job fun!
Photographing a wedding at an historic theatre in the Berkshires. What a venue!
Photographing a meeting with Congressman John Lewis and getting a history lesson on the Civil Rights Movement, and then immediately afterwards walking into a protest for gun safety.
Stephan Wolfert of De-Cruit performing his one-man show “Cry Havoc!” at the Psychotherapy Networker Symposium. This was one of the most raw and poignant pieces of theatre and healing that I have ever seen.
DeRay Mckesson and Gloria Steinem in conversation at Prosperity Now’s Prosperity Summit.
Marching in the DC Pride Parade with folks from Sibley Memorial Hospital/Johns Hopkins Medicine. Thankfully I was warned beforehand that I would be marching with them to document the experience. Their shuttle bus driver was not so much brought up to speed, but was a great sport about allowing his bus to be decorated and then driven along the route.

And so many others, but look at the photos, they’re more articulate than my words!

As always, as much as I love my clients, I love my family more for their support. My wife and son have to deal with me coming and going for days at a time, and I am in gratitude for my father-in-law for traveling in to pick up the slack while I’m gone. I love and thank you all!

I’m looking forward to more adventures in 2019. As always, feel free to reach out to me at sclevitan@mac.com. I’d love your feedback, and the opportunity to collaborate on some imagery together for you!

-Sam

For a more delightful viewing experience, please click here: http://samlevitan.com/BestOf2018/

Best of 2017

noreply@blogger.com (Sam Levitan Photography) — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 14:47:00 +0000

The New Year is always a time of reflection for me. Things are typically pretty quiet in January, so I take some time to take stock of the previous year, recall the year’s experiences and stories, and pick out my 100 favorite images of the year.

For some reason, I ended 2017 not really feeling like I had taken as many photos that I thought were memorable as I found that I had in the end. I actually put together a set rather easily, and then remembered that there were a whole bunch of jobs that I had entirely forgot to consider - it turns out that it wasn’t so much that I hadn’t taken many decent photos, but that so much seemed to happen in 2017, that I thought that some of it happened in 2016!

2017 was full of some really interesting adventures, but here are some highlights:

* Getting to see the real impact of some of the CDFIs that I work with in the field at their clients throughout West Virginia and Washington, DC. I got to literally follow some kale grown in a high tunnel in January from farm to market, meet a guy who has built up a beard oil company, see some really novel approaches to educating English Language Learners and their families, watch healthy food being prepared and distributed to those in need and who otherwise don’t have access to it, experience the beginnings of revitalizing the downtown of Fairmont, WV, and that’s just to name a few!

* Making a cover portrait of Dr. Bahija Jallal of Medimmune for Pharmaceutical Executive magazine to commemorate her being voted Healthcare Women of the Year. She’s a remarkable women who really has one of those inspirational “pull yourself up from your bootstraps” kind of stories.

* Watching Thomas Dolby not getting blinded by science, but learning how to defy gravity on a giant wheel.

* Listening to Hasan Minhaj perform a hilarious comedy set, complete with statistics and graphs.

* Visiting Capitol Hill with various clients, which has certainly been an experience this year, and strangely comforting to learn that there are still some folks who want to do good work there.

• Listening to former Vice President Joe Biden speak for about half an hour over his allotted time.

* Spending two full days in a hotel with five thousand psychotherapists.

* Covering the Great Plains Tribal Leaders Economic Summit. It was strange to get a call to head to Rapid City, South Dakota on somewhat short notice, and while it was a modest event, it was really one of the most content rich and inspiring conferences that I’ve ever photographed.

* And relatedly, I was asked to photograph the Native CDFI Network’s first annual conference - a true honor for me, and it was so great to see a fantastic group of dedicated Native Americans advocate for their communities on the Hill!

* We went on our first “just us” family vacation to Shenandoah National Park - we highly recommend it!

* Celebrating my father’s 70th by going hiking with him and my siblings in Joshua Tree National Park and nearby Indian Canyons. It was a blast!

* King Kong on top of a groom’s cake made of Rice Krispies. Yup, you read that right.

I hope you enjoy these images as much as I enjoyed making them. As usual, I am ever so grateful for the trust that my clients and subjects have instilled in me to help tell their stories. These folks let me into their lives, and while I do my best to be discrete and speedy in my efforts, having a camera around changes things, and I do so very much appreciate being allowed into everyone's world for a bit.

I also would be remiss if I did not mention the efforts of my colleagues, friends, and family. I do believe that photography is a team effort, and I get to work with some great second photographers, assistants, art directors, and communications teams. My wife and son shoulder a huge burden putting up with my crazy schedule, and I am indebted to them and their tireless support. I also can't thank my father-in-law enough for traveling thousands of miles to spend weeks with us at a time during the busy seasons to help my wife out around the house while I'm out of town on shoots and she's buried under dozens of final exams and papers to grade. He makes our busy lives tolerable, and our son really loves spending the extra time with his Pa.

I'll shut up now, and on to the photos. Thanks again, and I'm excited for many more adventures in 2018!

-Sam

P.S. One more thing! As always, I'd love to hear from you all! Please feel free to send me a message or ping me at sclevitan@mac.com and I invite you to check out more of my work at samlevitan.com I'm looking forward to creating more photographic adventures in 2018 with you!

A Kid's Eye View

noreply@blogger.com (Sam Levitan Photography) — Wed, 08 Feb 2017 20:52:00 +0000

Early in my career, one of my mentors, the great Richard Shay, told me that when photographing children, try getting down to their level. As adults, we're generally looking down at kids from our perspective, and not only do we risk the impression that an image will belittle a child, but it's just not as interesting as trying to see the world through their eyes. I've taken this philosophy to heart when I am hired to photograph children, and while I may burn through the knees of my pants at a frustrating rate, I feel that the images are well worth the efforts. I want to make images that express the innocent, creative, genuine, and curious world that children thrive in, so I love taking my camera down to the "child's eye" view and explore with them to create imagery that isn't just a "say cheese" phony smile, but a childhood moment captured through a lens as close as I can get to their view of the world.

A Look Behind the Scenes: A Portrait of Carl Bernstein

noreply@blogger.com (Sam Levitan Photography) — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 20:35:00 +0000

Many of my clients over the past decade have been universities. I've enjoyed working with such institutions, because there is such a variety of the kinds of photography assignments that they require, and you're generally surrounded by intelligent and interesting people.

A couple of years ago, Stony Brook University has appointed Carl Bernstein (of Woodward and Bernstein, Watergate, All the President's Men, etc. fame) as a Visiting Presidential Professor of Journalism, Political Science, History, English, Rhetoric, and I'm sure I missed some other facet of academia that he's interested in exploring. When I lived on Long Island, I did a lot of work for Stony Brook. About a year ago, I relocated to the Washington, DC metro area, and this opened up an opportunity to photograph Professor Bernstein in DC at the Newseum after he participated in a panel about the Nixon Tapes.

This sort of shoot took a fair bit of planning to pull off. First, nailing down the time and location had to be sorted out. The original plan was that he would be interviewed in DC for an article that Stony Brook was doing for their alumni magazine, and we would be doing the shoot either just before or just afterwards. It was later decided that the interview would take place in New York the day before the shoot, and that we would get about 15 minutes of his time after his panel at the Newseum.

I hadn't shot a job at the Newseum before, but I had visited in the past with my parents, and I immediately knew what I wanted to do: a shot on the terrace with the Capitol in the background and a second shot inside in their "Today's Front Pages" gallery, which is conveniently the room that you need to walk through to get out to the terrace. My editor, art director, and designer wanted a strong vertical portrait for the cover (leaving room for type and the masthead), an extremely wide horizontal for use in the marquee space on the university website, and some other images that they can use for filler and other collateral uses for promotion, etc.

And so my planning began. I sent along some of the snapshots that I took when I had previously visited the museum to the team at Stony Brook for approval, and they liked my ideas. We were all especially appreciative of the fact that the Front Page Gallery just inside made a nice backup location in case of inclement weather. Having our Plan A and Plan B in such proximity to each other was a great, and meant that I only needed one assistant to keep an eye on both sets while I went to wait for Mr. Bernstein after the talk.

I don't always do a lighting diagram for the shoots that I do, but they are helpful when there are several moving pieces and when you're working with an assistant. Also, in this case, it helped me think of a few problems that we may (and did) encounter along the way: possible reflections on the railing behind Mr. Bernstein, and that there may be some can lights in the ceiling of the Gallery that we may want to flag off, so that we wouldn't need to worry about overpowering them or having them impact the qualities of light that we wanted to introduce to the scene.

The team at the Newseum was exceptionally helpful in accommodating us and giving my assistant (and also very capable photographer) Jeff Behm and I free reign over the sixth floor. Now came the tricky part... The program was scheduled to conclude at about 8:15pm, so we would be shooting roughly around blue hour, with rapidly fading dusky sky. Of course, this meant that because we wanted to have everything set up and ready before it was time to shoot, we were setting up at around 7pm, when the sun was still out. There was a bit of getting everything into place, and then some guess work for when we'd actually be ready to shoot. There was also some guess work involved, as Jeff, who was acting as my stand-in, is 6'5", so I brought a step stool with me to help (ironically) make Jeff a more average height when standing in for Mr. Bernstein.

We knew that the lighting values that we would end up using would be different when we'd actually start shooting (since it would be much darker), but we were able to work out the placement of the lighting and rough ratios, so that we'd be able to dial everything in quickly once it was game time.

For the set of shots on the terrace, we were using two speedlights at a time. We had a rim light clamped to the railing behind him, and that had a cinefoil flag on it to keep too much light from spilling onto the railings themselves. That was one of the problems that I predicted when drawing out the lighting diagram. We used two different main lights for some variety. The first was a boomed 43" brolly-box (kind of a generic Softlighter). I wanted a nice soft light, and I wanted it on a boom, so that I could shoot the wide horizontal without having to worry about a stand creeping into the shot. We did few shots with that light, and then switched to a small softbox held on a monopod out over Pennsylvania Avenue, so that we could get some shots with light coming from the other direction with Mr. Bernstein looking out over DC. Doing some test shots, I was able to get some sense of where the backlight was in the frame, although by the time we got started, it was a bit tricky to see it until it went off.

Inside the Gallery, we found that we definitely needed to flag off the ceiling light. I worked out a spot for me to shoot from where the papers would give some nice leading lines and a nice space for him to stand in. We decided to take the softbox that we used in the second series of shots on the terrace in with us and have Jeff continue to be a voice activated lightstand. This would save on setting up another light and let us work a little faster when we moved to the inside set, as we could more quickly articulate the light to minimize relfections in Mr. Bernstein's glasses. We also wanted to leave our options open to shoot a portrait with the Washington Post in the background, and having a mobile light would make that setup nice and speedy.

Before I headed down to the theatre, the light dropped some, and I remembered that I wanted to gel the lights with CTOs, so that I could adjust my white balance for the warmer light from the strobes, therefore letting the background go a nice rich blue. We popped the gels onto the lights, did a quick test, adjusted the power output of the lights, and I headed downstairs.

As with most jobs, there are some aspects that are entirely out of your control. In this case, while the program didn't end too late (only by about five minutes or so), Mr. Bernstein had a lot of fans in the audience, and they wanted to say hello, and that took some time. By the time we got upstairs, it was nearly 9pm and totally dark. Aside from the obvious exposure issues that we had to tweak, there were a few unexpected issues that I had not anticipated, all relating to the fact that it was really, really dark. I couldn't see the backlight's position, so there were some frames were it crept into the frame. A flaw that I actually grew to like, and did it on purpose a couple of times after I saw how it looked. There was a neat cinematic quality to the flare, and it complemented the out of focus city lights that resulted from having to shoot wide open at 2.8. The Capitol building is lit up at night, but not as bright as you'd think - our ambient exposure was f/2.8 at 1/40th of a second at ISO 2000. Over by us, it was even darker, and so dark that I could basically only see a silhouette of Mr. Bernstein. My camera was giving me some trouble focusing. The radio transmitters that I use, Yongnuo YN-622N's have a built-in AF illuminator that works great most of the time. The scenario that it isn't so helpful is when you're shooting with a long lens, because the parralax from having the unit mounted above the lens means that it basically shoots the beam over his shoulder when you're a considerable distance away. Furthermore, I couldn't really see Mr. Bernstein's expressions, so I felt as if I was guessing on both focus and my timing. After a few frames, I remembered one of the best $25 that I've ever spent: an Energizer LED flashlight that has a little tripod on it and two light sources: a regular flashlight and a soft panel of light. Kicking in a little light from the panel helped me lock focus, see his face, and it didn't affect the exposure too much to really make a difference. I also used the panel side of the light as a sole light source for a quick portrait just by the door out to the terrace where the Capitol was reflected in the glass of the building. Jeff held the light just outside of the frame, and it balanced well with the existing lights of the city.

Back inside, I was very lucky to be able to take some candid images of Mr. Bernstein checking out the Front Pages Gallery. I hadn't asked him specifically to interact with the exhibit, as I knew we were getting short on time, and I wanted to get that last portrait in the bag, but I'm glad that he took the opportunity to take a look, as it yielded some fun shots and conversation. Of course, he had to check out the Washington Post. I had assumed that the pages would be spot lit with incandescent lights, but was pleasantly surprised to find that they were lit with soft LED strips of lights from inside of the cases, which led to a much more flattering and even light when he'd lean in close to get a good look. After a few minutes, we moved Mr. Bernstein to his mark under the ceiling light that we had flagged off, and we made a few quick portraits using the same softbox on a stick that we used earlier outside. I was really happy with the harder but still flattering light of the small softbox over the bigger brolly-box, and the leading lines of the papers going to and from Mr. Bernstein really sell the idea that this guy is news - it literally flows to and from his head.

We had completed our portraits, and said some quick good byes. Mr. Bernstein saw a few of the shots on the back of the camera and seemed pleased. He was pleasant and enjoyable to work with, which was a great relief. I knew he had several other events earlier in the day and some travel up and down the East Coast, so I was concerned that he'd be exhausted by the time we had our shoot scheduled. He came to the portrait session energetic and enthusiastic, and I could not have been more pleased with the results. It took a while for the actual magazine to be printed, and while they went with a different photograph for the cover (one that included Bob Woodward), these images did run inside with the the article, and were used to promote some talks that Mr. Berstein did on campus. I followed up with him after the shoot to share the finished images and he said that "the pics are wonderful," which I was very pleased to read. Furthermore, has has updated his website's bio page and his twitter account to use the portrait, which has been really cool to see.

Best of 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Sam Levitan Photography) — Tue, 10 Jan 2017 21:11:00 +0000

Every January for the past half dozen or so, I go back and look at my photographs for the year previous and pick out my favorite 100 images. I've found this exercise to be an important yearly ritual to reflect on the kind of images that I have made that were successful, less than successful, and meaningful to myself (and hopefully my clients). 2016 continued to be an adjustment in incorporating balance between family and work life, but new routines are settling in. 2016 also was a year that brought in some great new clients and deepened relationships with existing ones. It's been very exciting and rewarding to see the impact of some of my clients' work firsthand, as well as hear about them at conferences.

Reviewing my previous year's work also makes me feel immense gratitude for my clients and collaborators. From the folks who have let me into their homes and most important life celebrations, to organizations and universities that I've worked with for the very first time, and those that have been so gracious enough to invite me back - I am so honored to work with you all!

Of course, I cannot be more thankful for my family. Lindsey and Jacob have been patient with my weird schedules and stepping up when I've had to be out of town for a job. Sam Levitan Photography wouldn't exist without Lindsey's support and juggling her crazy work schedule and minding the home front while I'm on the road. And nothing is better than returning home to these two.

Enough rambling, here are my favorite 100 images from 2016, enjoy!

http://www.samlevitan.com/2016Best/

Reflections on a career in photography

noreply@blogger.com (Sam Levitan Photography) — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 16:57:00 +0000

As I approach fourteen and a half years in a career as a professional photographer, I've decided to take this random milestone to reflect on some lessons that I've learned along the way. I'm not sure why exactly I felt compelled to evaluate my career at this particular moment, but I did feel compelled to share some of the most important lessons that I feel that I have learned over the years.

Plan thoroughly, but be prepared to improvise

Preparation is essential to being a professional. It's always important to go into a shoot with a plan for how you hope things will go. Over the years, however, I've learned that sometimes there are times when you have to let go of the plan and improvise in order to get the job done. Being so committed to a plan that you can't adapt to a rapidly changing situation can sometimes be as much of a curse as showing up unprepared. Sometimes some catastrophe blows your plan to bits, but sometimes the stars can literally align and should pack up your lights when you've been given the gift of the most beautiful light you could imagine.

Invest in equipment wisely

I'll admit to the fact that sometimes I get caught up in a bad case of gear lust. It can be so easy to spend your way into oblivion, so I try to keep a few things (most of which were my brilliant wife's idea) in mind before I light my credit card on fire.

I remind myself that just because I can expense it, does not make it free.
Do I have a plan to make this particular piece of equipment actually pay for itself within a year?
Is this piece of equipment a solution to a problem that I have (or immediately anticipate having), or a solution in search of a problem?
I try to think of my gear like an employee - I want to invest in quality and reliable products to do work that needs to get done.

Seek out colleagues, not competition

Freelance photography can sometimes be a lonely and isolating experience. I honestly believe that the best way to succeed is to network with fellow local photographers. It helps to have a sounding board to bounce ideas off of, and it helps to have a group of people that you trust to collaborate with for jobs down the line.

Over the years, I've built up my business in Chicago, Long Island, and Frederick, MD. Each time, I have been fortunate to happen upon some really great local photographers, but more than that, I've been really lucky that I've happened upon some really great people. And that aspect is really the important one. A positive attitude and great work ethic is so much more important than being an exceptional photographer. I like to say that I can teach someone to be a better photographer, but I can't teach someone how not to be a jerk. Mentor those whose skills need polishing (and be willing to be mentored as well), and surround yourself by team players, as it will make things go so much more smoothly when you collaborate on a job together.

Build lasting relationships with clients by seeking out and meeting their needs and communicating with them effectively - be the expert they're paying you to be

As my business has developed over the years, I've made efforts to make client retention a priority. I have some clients now that I've been working with for over a decade, and in a career that isn't necessarily known for income stability, it's great to have clients that you know will call year after year.

That sort of relationship doesn't come easily. I invest a lot of time getting to really know my clients. I find out who is important to their organization, so at events, I am focusing on the faces make photographs more valuable assets to their organization. I ask lots of questions beforehand, so that I am prepared to meet their needs on the job and can let them do their job while I do mine. I include myself in the planning process as much as they will allow me to, so that I can suggest ways to make it easier for my clients to get the shots that they want, while keeping my footprint to a minimum. By being open to being a member of their team, I've been able to keep many of my clients for a very long time.

Remember, more than being able to produce great photographs, as a professional, you have to make yourself an asset to your clients and be someone that they actually want to work with again and refer to their network.

To sum up...

Plan, but be ready to adapt. Don't spend all of your money on crap you don't need. Work with good people. Be a good person that people want to work with again.

Simple, right?

-Sam

Best of 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Sam Levitan Photography) — Fri, 22 Jan 2016 16:16:00 +0000

Every January for the past half dozen or so, I go back and look at my photographs for the year previous and pick out my favorite 100 images. I've found this exercise to be an important yearly ritual to reflect on the kind of images that I have made that were successful, less than successful, and meaningful to myself (and hopefully my clients). 2015 was definitely one of the most challenging years for me as a working photographer, as it was the first full year that I've done so as a parent. Balancing work life and home life is a Herculean task, and I don't know how my parents managed to shift gears between the two so effectively.

Enough rambling, here are my favorite 100 images from 2015, enjoy!

http://samlevitan.com/2015Best/

A Guilford & New Haven, CT Wedding

noreply@blogger.com (Sam Levitan Photography) — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 16:24:00 +0000

Best of 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Sam Levitan Photography) — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 17:15:00 +0000

What a year, 2013 was! Lots of great jobs with clients, friends, and family. I transitioned from Long Island to Maryland, and I'm looking forward to a great 2014!

Thanks to all of my great clients!

The full top 100 at:
http://www.samlevitan.com/2013BestOf/

Enjoy!
-Sam

Snowy Middletown and Antietam

noreply@blogger.com (Sam Levitan Photography) — Mon, 16 Dec 2013 01:03:00 +0000

Macari Vineyard, North Fork Winery Wedding

noreply@blogger.com (Sam Levitan Photography) — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 19:45:00 +0000

Washington, DC Walkabout

noreply@blogger.com (Sam Levitan Photography) — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 00:52:00 +0000

Long Island Family Portraits

noreply@blogger.com (Sam Levitan Photography) — Mon, 23 Sep 2013 01:01:00 +0000

A Chicago Wedding at Frencesca's on Taylor

noreply@blogger.com (Sam Levitan Photography) — Sat, 03 Aug 2013 16:01:00 +0000

Engagement Portraits at The Cloisters & Fort Tryon Park

noreply@blogger.com (Sam Levitan Photography) — Sat, 13 Jul 2013 18:21:00 +0000

Stony Brook University Wedding, featuring Wolfie & The Spirit of Stony Brook Marching Band!

noreply@blogger.com (Sam Levitan Photography) — Sat, 13 Jul 2013 18:20:00 +0000

Unionville Vineyards Wedding, Ringoes, NJ & New Hope, PA with a Double Rainbow!

noreply@blogger.com (Sam Levitan Photography) — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 21:27:00 +0000

Jericho Terrace Wedding, Long Island, NY

noreply@blogger.com (Sam Levitan Photography) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 17:14:00 +0000

Port Jefferson, NY, Long Island Engagement Portraits

noreply@blogger.com (Sam Levitan Photography) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 17:13:00 +0000

Portraits in the Woods with Meg

noreply@blogger.com (Sam Levitan Photography) — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 23:53:00 +0000

It's great to have cooperative friends. Lately, I've been feeling like I've been stuck in a rut with my lighting. I used pretty much the same setups, because I could set them up fast, and I knew what they'd do on the job. But they were the same, and I was getting bored. So a few weeks ago, I posted on facebook that I wanted to go take my lights into the woods near my house and play that weekend, and if anyone was interested to join me, that'd be super. No one was free, and I ended up not going out that weekend. And then a while later, my friend Meg called a couple weeks later... she had read my post a while back, and was in the need of some new headshots for work stuff and whatnot, and thought that the whole idea of trekking out into the woods would be neat. And she thought snow would add an extra dimession of awesomeness. A quick peak at weather.com showed some snow on the next Sunday, so the next thing I knew, I was carting my lights and sandbags on a not-so-off-road-capable cart out into the snowy wilderness with Prof. Meg to try some things that I hadn't tried before. The Rocky Point Resource Managment Area is near where I live, and it happens to be the old RCA Radio Central, so there are all sorts of weird structures in the woods, and many creatively graffittied. Meg was unbeliveably accomodating with my requests, and even snuggled up close to a snowy conrete pump something or other (I gave her a sandbag to keep her comfortable, so she didn't have to sit directly in the snow, I'm not super mean or anything), and we made some cool photographs together.

After Superstorm Sandy, I got a Vagabond Mini Lithium, so that I could run our internet when the power was out, rather than running an extension cord to an inverter in the car, and so lately I've been using my Alien Bee studio lights again, and this setup came in really handy with these shots of Meg, and I have to say, it's a whole lot of fun to play with big lights in the middle of the woods. I did mix some speedlights in, but I had to crank them up to full power, for some of the shots (hung one on a boom over the graffittied pump room), and with the cold, the recycle time seemed like an extra-eternity.

Anywho, as I mentioned earlier, I was trying to go for a lighting scenario that was different from what I usually do, so using grids, swapping hard and soft light, etc. and going for a more stylized look… I think they came out pretty cool!

Thanks for playing, Meg!

-Sam