Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Samantha Maye. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Samantha, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

The legacy I want to leave are captured memories. I want each of my couples to look back on their elopement as the best adventure they could’ve ever dreamed of, and I want them to look back on their photos and feel transported right back to each little moment that made up their day.

I want my couples to share the photos with their nearest and dearest. I want my photographs to become a part of the fabric of my clients’ families, photos their kids look at someday and think, “Wow, my parents had the coolest wedding day.” You can probably picture right now what your parents’ wedding photos look like (at least generally), but you probably have no idea who took those photos—and that’s perfectly okay with me. I’m happy to be a silent piece of that memory.

I want to create photos for my clients that stand the test of time, that will still be beautiful 50+ years in the future. And perhaps most importantly, I want to capture my clients’ wedding days in a way that will someday give their families a peek into their personalities and their love stories. Wedding days and wedding photography have changed a lot in the last 20 or 30 years. Large events with formal portraits have really gone out of style in favor of intimate days with photos that are more fun and documentary, and I think this shift has the benefit of better capturing a “moment in time” for future generations to look back on.

I don’t care if I’m remembered by name, as long as my photos can live on and continue to have a positive impact after I’m gone—even if that’s just someone years from now looking at their parents’ elopement photos and smiling.

Samantha, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hey there! I’m Sam, and I’m an adventure elopement photographer based in Colorado. I offer elopement and wedding photography all over the US, as well as adventure sessions for couples and families.

I started doing photography because of how much I love to travel. I wanted to be able to document my own travels better and take pictures of the people important to me. I loved it so much that I started feeling drawn to capturing other people’s adventures as well, so I began to offer photography services. I quickly realized that all parts of this business came naturally to me—from taking and editing pictures, to running and promoting my business, to communicating with clients and providing them with the best possible experience—and that I was absolutely on the right career path.

As an adventure elopement photographer, I capture couples on their intimate wedding day, where the focus is on activities that feel true to them and their relationship. Most of my work is done out in the middle of nowhere, and I often accompany couples on hiking, backpacking, off-roading, or some other kind of adventure to get to places with out-of-this-world views and serene nature and privacy for intimate elopement ceremonies. My dream clients are couples who are wildly in love and adventurous, and want to collaborate with me to create fun, memorable experiences that are also photo-perfect.

One of the things that sets me apart from other photographers is that I’m not just a photographer—I also help my clients plan their perfect day from start to finish, with unbelievable adventures that are unique to them. Although adventure elopements don’t require the amount of planning that a large wedding does, they do have a lot of other considerations, like safety and weather in nature, and that’s where my expertise comes in. I love listening to my clients’ ideas and turning them into reality, and I have the knowledge and skills to facilitate elopements way off the grid.

For every couple I book, I have a custom portal where I share resources to take the stress out of planning, like a location guide(s), a detailed timeline for their elopement day, and suggestions for other vendors to help bring their vision to life. When clients hire me, they get a planning, creative, adventurous friend to share ideas and make shit happen! My goal is not just to take beautiful photos of their day, but to help make sure their entire elopement is exactly what they dreamed of, from start to finish.

The part of my business I’m most proud of is creating images that make me and my clients say “wow.” To me, that moment lies in the intersection of capturing stunning locations and people’s emotions. I want to do my subjects as much justice as the beautiful mountains, arches, and sunsets they’re in front of. I use my expertise in posing, lighting, and camera settings to capture photos that accurately reflect the couple’s day and the landscape around them, while showcasing the best version of reality. My editing style is bold and colorful, emphasizing color and making my clients pop and nature look untouched. I pride myself on delivering images that make my couples look and feel their best, and that are true to themselves and their love story.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I began Maye.Be Take A Photo, I was in a weird, transitionary part of my life. I had just finished my undergraduate degree in Animal Science and had applied to graduate school. I figured photography would be a fun pastime and a good way to make a little money while pursuing my graduate degree. As time went on, I wasn’t feeling as drawn to the career path I was headed down and slowly came to realize that I didn’t love what I was doing. But every time I went and took photos, especially as I started booking more clients, I had SO much fun and felt completely in my element. I decided I’d continue with both a graduate program and photography while deciding what was a better fit.

By the time I finished grad school, I was not only making enough money from photography to turn it into a full-time career, I was also so much more passionate about it than I had ever felt about my grad program, and the choice was a no-brainer. Even though this wasn’t where I would’ve expected to find myself five years ago, I’m happy to say that now I get to help plan and document beautiful and adventurous weddings and elopements every day!

The journey to make this massive life and career change definitely wasn’t easy. For a while, I was balancing classes and research with the challenges of running a new business, and I didn’t have any free time. I would multitask all day, every day—feeding research cows at 5 a.m., doing homework on the way there and back, responding to emails from clients, responding to emails from colleagues, taking photos in the evenings and on weekends, editing images each night, posting on social media, building out my website, the list goes on. I’m still multitasking, with a lot going on and “wedding season” in full swing—but I am SO much happier, and grateful that I had the opportunity to pivot when I felt like the career I was pursuing wasn’t the right fit.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

A lesson I’ve had to unlearn as a creative in the wedding industry is my perception of what a “wedding” has to look like. I used to think of weddings as big, stuffy, formal affairs, usually inside and often in a church, with a huge guest list and traditions the couple is obligated to participate in, whether or not they’re meaningful to them. I actually specifically didn’t want to be a wedding photographer when I started offering photography services to clients, because my picture of what they looked like boiled down to one word: stressful. I was enjoying capturing the love of couples and families outdoors in ways that felt really authentic, and I pictured weddings as the antithesis of that.

But a few months into my journey as a professional photographer, a mentor invited me to second-shoot a wedding with her, and I agreed. It was a small, casual, completely chill backyard affair. The couple only included the traditions important to them, and genuinely didn’t care when things went “wrong”. I had so much fun photographing it, because the emphasis was completely on the couple—and this revelation changed the course of my career.

I dug more into the idea of elopements and micro-weddings, and discovered a niche I could not possibly be more passionate about: adventure elopements. They combine my (and the couples’ I shoot) love for stunning nature and having fun with the people you love most. They take an experience I thought had to be stressful, and transform it into (basically) planning the coolest adventure trip of your life. They give me an opportunity to share my expertise about the outdoors and the amazing locations in Colorado, Utah, and beyond with people who are excited to have a day that feels completely authentic to them and their love story. And they allow for a kind of privacy and intimacy that I think just isn’t possible in a traditional wedding—sharing your vows with your partner on the side of a mountain, where the rest of the world melts away and it’s just the two of you.

My journey to unlearn what a wedding can be not only allowed my career to blossom, it also influenced my own life, as I pivoted from planning my own wedding (and feeling completely overwhelmed and stressed) to saying “screw this” and choosing instead to elope in one of the most beautiful places in the world with my partner. I could not be more excited to have the kind of intimate, authentic ceremony that I love helping my clients plan and execute. To say that unlearning that lesson changed my life would be understatement!

Contact Info:

• Website: mayebetakeaphoto.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/maye.be.take.a.photo
• Facebook: facebook.com/maye.be.take.a.photo
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@maye.be.take.a.photo?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc