Sam Barber

Samuel Donald Ernest Barber was born on June 30, 1944, in Week St Mary, Cornwall, England, to Mary Jane Walker Grant and Samuel Leonard Barber. He grew up between Cornwall and Macduff, Scotland, and in 1959 he took his camera to the harbor at Macduff and photographed the lives of the commercial fishermen there, a series he titled “Life on the Waves.” That experience launched a lifetime of photography that carried him from the United Kingdom to the USA, Thailand, Australia, and the South Seas Islands.

Photography shared his life with another craft. Sam trained at Aston Technical College, served an apprenticeship with the Central Electricity Generating Board, and qualified as an instrument engineer, work that kept him in the electrical engineering industry until he retired in 2012. He carried an engineer's exactness into everything he ever shot.

He married Susan Ann Williams on November 25, 1967, in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire; they were later sealed for time and all eternity in the London Temple. A devoted member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Sam served in many callings over his lifetime.

Photography became his trade as well as his art. He owned photography studios and a camera store with custom printing, and he never gave up the slow magic of the craft, shooting large format film and processing it himself to the end. He settled in Washington, Utah, where he taught photography seminars, showed his work in local galleries, served as president of the Southern Utah Art Guild, and explored the Southern Utah desert on his quad, looking for the next landscape: old buildings, waterfalls, artifacts, Native American art and dwellings, and the remote canyon country he loved. When he wasn't behind a camera he was hiking, quad biking, or out on the water.

In his own words: “With my photography, I aim to capture images which celebrate the variety of life, to show the vibrant colors of the world.”

Sam once attended a photo session hosted by Ansel Adams. Someone in the group asked Adams why he did not sell his photographs as limited editions, and Adams answered that he wanted his art to be seen by as many people as possible, not by an exclusive few. That stuck with Sam for the rest of his life: affordable art for all to enjoy, and knowledge given away just as freely.

That generosity became the Semper Crescente Book of Photographic Terms, which he wrote for his students: an always-growing collection of definitions, techniques, hints, and examples. It was never meant to be finished. That was the point of the name. This site preserves it and keeps it growing.

Sam passed away on July 8, 2026, in Cedar City, Utah, just past his 82nd birthday. He is remembered by Susan, his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and the many students who still hear his voice in their heads when they check their exposure twice.