*** Family photo by Lexia Frank.


Welcome to my new website. ...this has been a LONG time coming...


Here are some ditties you might want to know about moi:

I’m a silly heart. I can laugh at nearly anything. …or I can turn any moment into a joke and/or reference a movie line in nearly any situation. This is both a blessing and a curse. ...I'm also very wordy (see below)...


I’m also a tech nerd. Being a photographer allows me to perpetually buy and test new camera and computer gear. I’m in a constant state of searching for camera gear that makes my job easier and less intrusive while also capturing images with beautiful character. I can spend endless hours researching the way specific lenses render, or paint a photograph. They all have very different characteristics that make a photography uniquely beautiful. I absolutely love my new Nikon Z6 II cameras, and their ability to adapt virtually every vintage manual focus lens ever created. Those old lenses are gorgeous, and literally paint such a beautiful picture when used in the right way. They’re perfect for the way I want to work — with a relaxed mindful purpose of creating.


OH! But there's more...

I’m a hopeless romantic. I’ll watch "What If", "Everything Everything", "Leap Year", "My Sassy Girl" …...by myself.

"Bad Moms" is a hopeless romantic movie, right? HAHAHA. Because of this, I will get entirely choked up during a REALLY good speech from the father of the bride. ...and yes. I love that movie, Steve Martin's, "Father of the Bride".


Speaking of movies: I'm a total movie nerd - hence my endless archive of movie one-liners. We have an extensive movie library, plus several channel subscriptions (Disney+, HBOmax, Netflix, etc). We can watch the same movies over and over and over... and over and over. I never thought this little hobby/personality trait would translate so well into a wedding photography career. But...my love of a good visual story, tied in with being a hopeless romantic allows me to see into the wedding day, and sympathetically capture the wedding day as it unfolds.


More nerd-dom: I'm a total Star Wars nerd through and through. I'm an old 1960's nostalgic cartoon junky - Tom and Jerry, Droopy, Bugs Bunny, Yogi Bear, Pink Panther, Pixie and Dixie - they always bring a smile to my face.


And...Harry Potter. We can't get enough of those movies. "Prisoner of Azkaban" may be my favorite movie of all time. Not just because I love the story, which I whole-heartedly do; but because of the mood that movie creates. The dramatic lighting. The wide sweeping camera angles. ...Yes. I'm that much of a nerd. Alfonso Cuaron and Michael Seresin are cinematic geniuses. They have been a major influence on my wedding day photography for the past several years. "Go wider or go home". The wedding day doesn't happen from "ear to ear", and "chin to forehead" (aka, close-ups of people's faces). The wedding day is a sweeping event with people, places and things. And to really tell a good story - I want to capture much of that in each single sweeping frame.

***Kiddo peanut butter and yogurt mayhem photo by me


Still more to go...

October is my favorite month. OMG! Halloween is our favorite holiday. It's a Holiday, right? It is to us. We play Halloween movies every night of October, starting October 1st. And "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" is played nightly throughout October.


OK! Maybe Christmas is my favorite holiday. I love snow, and how warm and inviting our house feels with our Christmas decorations — which we leave up until February. I have an 18 hour music compilation of Christmas oldies with Frankie, Burl Ives, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Brenda and Peggy Lee, Elvis, Andy Williams, Louis Armstrong, Gene Autry, Nat Cole, Johnny Mathis, Sammy Davis Jr, Tony Bennett, John Denver and the Muppets, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and of course Vince Guaraldi’s Charlie Brown Christmas music. I also mixed in Christmas music from the London Symphony Orchestra. SO good.


I love sitting around campfire - even in the backyard. Yes, we call them campfires. We hand built our own fire pit, and I made it extra large to have both a fire on one end, while a 12x24" cooking grate on the other. We make wood fired breakfasts, steaks, trout, walleye, chicken, steak tacos, s’mores, pudgy pies, etc. We invite all of our neighbors and our kid’s friends to turn it into a summer night party. Life does NOT get any better than this. ...and we make fires every month of the year, January thru December. I love a big crackling winter fire outside when it's snowing.


I’m a foodie - hence the food photography section. :) I love supporting small local family farmers.


In the end, there is nothing I love more than my wife and my two boys. Twenty years ago, I never thought I’d say this, but....“I love being a dad”. I’m not that far into this “daddy” thing, and I know I’ve already made my fair share of mistakes – there are times I feel like I’m the worst daddy in the world. But when I hear them giggling and laughing, or we're out fishing, or we're all wrestling and playing monster in the living room…….I feel like Super Dad. That always reminds me how much I absolutely love Love LOVE these two kids. They are my world – and my world revolves around them.


If you read this far, thank you. If you didn’t, I don’t blame you. When I get on a roll, it's impossible for me to stop. LOL


Much love to all,


Craig