This man is beyond unprofessional. My sister has been hounding him to fulfill his contract and provide her wedding album for almost a year now. Even for her wedding photos, she was getting nervous they wouldn't be delivered and had to reach out on the delivery date to confirm she would receive them. My sister got married May 2024 and has yet to receive everything she contractual paid for. Outside of just the contractual stuff, he's downright unprofessional. He made a move on the single bridesmaids almost immediately at the wedding. He followed my sister on Snapchat shortly after her wedding and proceeded to snap her videos of him smoking cigars, playing poker, and golf almost daily for weeks. Yet he uses his "poor health" as an excuse for why it's taken almost a year for him to deliver his work. He's also rude and condescending. When my brother in law has reached out for status updates, he's unapologetic and brash. Ruuuuuuun from this man he's a train wreck. read more

RUN AWAY! My daughter got married May 2024. As soon as the wedding was over, Sam was gone. He got paid and did not fulfill this contract. It has been close to 1 year with too many to count texts, emails and phone calls that he continuously dodges. He has still not delivered the wedding album that was in the contract. He is full of excuses. Claims he has had health issues and does not respond unless you get nasty. My daughter was reached out by another bride who had to threaten legal action before he even gave her the digital proofs. Lastly, he crossed a professional line, when he hooked up with one of the bridesmaids. This guy is a con artist. Below is his review from the BBB Sam Stroud Photography This business is NOT BBB Accredited. Find BBB Accredited Businesses in Photographer. About Reviews Complaints Information and Alerts BBB Rating F Reasons for rating Failure to respond to 6 complaint(s) filed against business Business has failed to resolve underlying cause(s) of a pattern of complaints 6 complaint(s) filed against business Alert Details This business has 1 alert. Pattern of Complaints Pattern of Complaints BBB files indicate Sam Stroud Photography has a pattern of complaints from consumers stating they have not received all the items listed in their contract. Consumers specifically mention in the complaints that they have not received the wedding photo album. To date, the BBB has not received a response from Sam Stroud regarding any complaint filed through BBB. On December 12, 2023 BBB submitted a written request to the company encouraging them to address the pattern of complaints. BBB sent a second request on January 5, 2024, and as of January 15, 2024 has not received a response. All communications to this business has failed, mail has been returned as undeilverable and Sam Stroud Photography has not responded to any BBB emails. Service Area Lynchburg City County, VA Sam Stroud Photography 180 Hydaway Drive Forest, VA 24551 View Service Area Find Local Branches Years in Business: 10 BBB Accreditation & Rating Sam Stroud Photography is NOT a BBB Accredited Business. To become accredited, a business must agree to BBB Standards for Trust and pass BBB's vetting process. Why choose a BBB Accredited Business? BBB Rating F Reasons for rating Failure to respond to 6 complaint(s) filed against business Business has failed to resolve underlying cause(s) of a pattern of complaints View all reasons for rating How are BBB ratings calculated? Business Details Local BBB: BBB Serving Western Virginia BBB File Opened: 6/13/2018 Business Started: 1/1/2015 Business Management: Mr. Sam Stroud, Owner Additional Contact Information Principal Contacts Mr. Sam Stroud, Owner Customer Contacts Mr. Sam Stroud, Owner Social Media Facebook Additional Information Business Categories Photographer read more

The Unfortunate Story of Working with Sam Stroud. Sam Stroud was the single worst decision we made for our wedding. My wife and I got married on October 14th, 2022. This review is being released on November 26, 2023. 408 days after our wedding. I had been waiting to receive all of our photos and album to release our review. But after 408 days, and still no album, I decided to share the unfortunate story of working with Sam. Sam was the single worst decision we made about our wedding. He was far & away the worst vendor we worked with. Starting from the beginning, Sam was quite responsive when trying to win our business. He emphasized that he would get all of the shots in a shot-list & sneak peaks would be included (this was a top 2 priority for my wife). Once the contract was signed, this kicked off a long & very painful period of working with Sam. Leading up to the wedding, Sam was exceptionally difficult to get in touch with. 1 month away from the wedding, we attempted to set up a call to discuss must-get photo's (a seemingly reasonable request). Sam took 10 days to respond. After the 10 day delay, he skipped the call leading up to the wedding, expressing no remorse for missing the meeting. This was just the start of a horrible experience. At the wedding, Sam's asst, RJ, was great to work with. Sam was mediocre at best. We could deal with a bad attitude, however, when you have to hire someone to photoshop Sam's photos because he missed 'must-get' shots, that seems a bit absurd to me. I wish it ended here. After the wedding, we requested the sneak peak photos, that were clearly discussed as a priority when signing with Sam. After a 6 day response time, Sam quotes the contract saying that there is no mention of sneak peaks. After pressing him for an additional 2 weeks, we received sneak peaks. That were clearly unedited and blurry. One of the most absurd experiences with Sam was that he posted sneak peaks of us on his Instagram. WITHOUT SENDING THEM TO US. We had no clue these pictures were available until were notified by a friend that some of our pictures were shared on Instagram. Frankly, this experience is the epitome of working with Sam, all he cares about is his ego, and he does not care about his clients one bit. Finally, after 14 weeks, and over a week after the contract period had ended, we received our photos. This is where we learned that various 'must-get' shots (from the list that was shared with Sam via email & given to him the day of the wedding), were missing. Sam blamed the day being hectic and that the contract does not guarantee shots (once again bringing up the contract, despite that he failed to deliver the pictures in a timely manner). It took over 5.5 months to get the photos & videos that were supposed to be delivered in 12 weeks. It was like pulling teeth trying to get Sam to send photos that he had posted on Instagram & didn't share with us and the videos that were laid out in the contract that we were supposed to have received at 12 weeks. We are over 13 months from the wedding, and we still have not received a wedding album, that was included in our contract. Sam was the single worst decision from our wedding. read more

My husband and I were sorely disappointed with the services provided by Sam Stroud Photography for our wedding and our experience with this photographer was riddled with frustration and regret from start to finish. Two main points, Sam stole from us and provided us with such bad pictures, CVS wouldn't even print them without a warning. Throughout our wedding day, Sam and his team were unprepared and disorganized, missing key moments and failing to capture important shots despite a detailed shot list provided beforehand. Crucial moments like my husband getting ready, my dress and jewelry details, and individual/couples' portraits after the ceremony were completely overlooked. The quality of the photographs delivered to us (originally in November 2023 - 5 months after the wedding) was abysmal, with images poorly composed, blurry, and over-edited to the point of people in them being unrecognizable. It was clear minimal effort was put into pre/post-processing. He did not bring appropriate equipment to capture our wedding day and did not provide the services that we discussed, even with a detailed shot list. Sam's lack of professionalism became very evident after the wedding when we attempted to set up our second photoshoot. He was completely disinterested and unengaged, offering little creative input or enthusiasm to work with us, and taking weeks to respond to texts and emails. To exacerbate matters, Sam's customer service following the wedding was atrocious. He was dismissive and uncooperative when we addressed our concerns and requested revisions. Despite our contract stipulating two photographers, a second shoot, and a leather-bound coffee table book, we received none of these promised services. Our final pictures weren't delivered until March 2024, nine months after the wedding, and we never received the promised coffee table book or a refund for it. To make matters worse, when he finally sent us our RAW photos, we also received embedded in the file an entire engagement shoot from ANOTHER COUPLE, who we presume to be a separate client of his, mixed into our account. That is a total breach of contract and now feel that he has shared our pictures with other people. Hiring Sam Stroud Photography for any occasion is strongly advised against. He'll take your money, deliver poor-quality work, and provide dismal customer service. Save yourself the money and headache, seek a photographer who values their clients and takes pride in their craft. read more

I got married in October and throughout the process, since paying for the services, I had spotty communication at best from Sam Stroud. I had sent out many emails and had my coordinator also try to reach him as we were finalizing a timeline, and I only got a response 2 weeks out from the day. Day of, I felt like it was professional and a great experience-but I can't confirm because I still have not received my photos. I wanted to use them for holiday presents, and despite being told I would have had them within 10 days of an email I sent out 2 weeks ago, I have not received them or gotten an email back. I wish I could write a better review, but as someone who is sensitive around photographers and what is supposed to be an investment for your special day, I feel like I was really let down and am not confident that these pictures will get to me or if I'll even like how they will turn out. read more

Sam Stroud and two of his employees were the photographers and videographers for my wedding in 2021. I initially picked Sam because of the unique photos on his website; however, the final product didn't not even come close to reaching my expectations. A. Sam and his team were standing around a lot. I had to nudge them on multiple occasions to take photos. For example, Sam's team didn't take a single photo of the groom getting ready for the wedding and I had to TELL Sam's team to take photos of the groom's family instead of just standing around. B. In my opinion, we didn't get a single great traditional wedding photo of us and the final delivery did not meet expectations. What ruined some of the photos during the ceremony is the pastor being in every single one of them while we were looking at each other. We didn't realize at the time what a mistake this was -- but I would expect the pro photographers to have spoken up. C. I found communication with Sam to be poor. He was slow to reply and we had to follow up too many times on basic issues. I regret not going with someone else and its your choice... but I suggest going with another team. Maybe you will be happier afterwards! read more

DO NOT HIRE! I don't even know where to begin regarding the unprofessionalism of Sam Straud. I hired Sam as my wedding photographer and another photographer and videographer from his team. When I had the initial phone call with him, I was excited to have him as my photographer. Little did I know his unresponsiveness, inconsistency, and lack of regard for his clients would all appear after I signed a contract and made all the payments. It started about a month before my wedding, and I had been emailing him to find a time to discuss a photo shot list and other logistics regarding the wedding. (Mind you, the only communication we had before this was our initial call and payment logistics.) We'd email back and forth to pick a time to meet, and on multiple occasions, he'd wait until after the date of our meeting had passed to respond to me. Finally, the week before my wedding, we agreed on a time and had a meeting set for 1 pm. The time came and went; I tried reaching out, and he answered 2 hours later. After repeatedly reaching out, I was finally able to get in contact with him two days before my wedding to discuss details for the day of and photo shot list with him. After our phone call, I was still concerned about his ability to perform but decided to trust that his photography abilities would make up for his lack of professionalism. Fast forward to the wedding day, I had to keep telling Sam which people we needed pictures with or what photos I wanted. I was disappointed how we had no direction as far as positioning for group photos, and it seemed like he wasn't even aware of my photo shot list. Multiple family members and friends commented on how unorganized, disengaged, and for some odd reason, how cocky he was during our wedding. Despite all of this, I was still so excited to see our sneak peeks. Three days after our wedding I had emailed Sam asking about the next steps to get sneak peeks and a more detailed timeline about what to expect after the wedding. Two days later, I still had not heard anything from him, so I sent a follow-up email. After one more day of no response, my husband finally emailed him, asking for at least a response to my emails. He responded with excuses about it being their busiest season and not checking his emails on Mondays and Tuesdays. He then added in his email that sneak peeks were not a part of our contract. This was extremely frustrating since I chose him to be our photographer because, in our initial meeting, he said, "it would be no problem" to get us sneak peeks within 48 hours of the wedding. I attempted to remind him of this conversation, and a week later, he sent six photos that clearly had no thought or effort put towards them. Sam had no regard for what he chose to be the only six professional photos we'd receive for three months. I didn't save any of them, and I didn't share them with family or friends because they were so bad. In fact, the pictures I received from family and friends were significantly better than any of the photos he sent. Fast forward to about two months after our wedding. I had come to terms with the fact that I wouldn't receive any of my photos or videos till probably the last day of the 12 weeks contract. Suddenly, my sister sent me two pictures that were nicely edited of my husband and I featured on his instagram story. These were different, nicely edited photos from our wedding that he never shared with us. He had enough time to post them to his instagram but couldn't even send them to us via email or just let us know that they were on his instagram. (We had to ask multiple times to get the photos from his instagram that were never shared with us even after receiving all our photos) We waited 14 weeks after our wedding (my contract said 12 weeks) to receive any photos or videos from him outside of the 6 he sent us a week and a half after the wedding. I sobbed after receiving my photos. I was in disbelief that so many important pictures weren't even captured, like photos with my mom and portraits with my husband, in addition to the horrible editing that removed the sunsets from pictures and changed the colors of my bridesmaid dresses and other decor items. When I asked Sam about the edits and colors, he lied, claiming we didn't take photos during the sunset when I had the exact poses captured on iPhones with the sunset in the background. He also went back on his word and said, "there is no guarantee of getting everything on a photo shot list," even though he had written in an email, "That should be totally fine" when I emailed him the hard copy of my photo shot list and asked to confirm that the list was reasonable. I received 530 photos from my entire wedding, with 40 of them being pictures of my tables with horrible edits that made my Cabernet tablecloths look orange. I asked Sam for photos without the filters, and he said he does not provide original raw proofs. Not only do I wish I had more pictures of me and my family, but I can only ge read more

Our Venue had Sam on the list and when I looked at his profile - it looked beautiful. I still think his work is beautiful. However on June 14, just four days before our wedding (!), he sent us this: " I also just realized that it will be one of our associate shooters at your wedding + Video. so it's a photographer on my team". Without giving us a chance to even look at the work of the new photographer we were stuck with someone whose work we've never seen before. Long story short. We don't have any memory from our wedding. Photos and a short Video including the raw footage is a poor quality. Sam keeps defending himself and his team saying things like it was too much shade, or too much sun or, our DJ had too much light ... I'm not a photographer the reason why I don's have good pictures doesn't matter to me. What matters is that after $6000 bill - my husband and I left disappointed and also offended. In addition, they names my husband DONELL instead of Lonny in all of our pic and video portfolios. I'll try to attach the ones that sam didn't seem to think there is something wrong with it. Anyways, if you hire Sam - just make sure it's SAM who is shooting your wedding. Pay attention to the contract and don't make a mistake that we made. Happy wedding and happy wedding memories! read more

Sam Stroud either is a scam artist or needs an assistant in the worst way. Don't trust him with your wedding, you will have to constantly follow up with him, the pictures come with multiple low quality images and mistakes (then you of course will have to follow up with him about it, oh and then you'll have to follow up with him about your follow up). He holds your money for multiple years without delivering the product and all he must care about is his Instagram because after you sign the contract, you become a complete after thought to him. Nice guy in person but he has no idea how to timely deliver photos or even respond. You will regret choosing Sam, we definitely do. This is my opinion and you should do what's best for you but you will most likely regret choosing Sam. Sam if you read this, can you either tell us we aren't getting what we paid for or at least stop ruining a special moment in people's lives going forward. Multiple family members had to take pictures because Sam was too busy standing around doing nothing. It's wild when you have family member comes up to you and ask where the camera guy is or why is he not taking group photos. Rj was nice, no complaints. Sam Stinks should be the name of the company. read more

We were supposed to have photos and a video for our wedding, and they forgot to do the video. Instead of flipping out and being angry like most people would, we calmly told him and he apologize and said we would get our refund for the video that we paid for and as compensation for the forever lost memories, a large canvas print. Well, our wedding was October 8, 2016 and we messaged him in November at the latest... and it's April 12th 2017 and we haven't gotten the print or the refund (that he said he was sending or sent numerous times...). Just a heads up; he's not very good at communicating either. read more