Atlanta portrait and wedding photographers Craig & Cathy Willis

404-375-6280

 

 

  • Legend has it, that I was born with a camera around my neck, after all, when I was born I did weigh over 8 pounds and was two months early.
     
    And I honestly don't remember NOT being in love with photography. My 5 children didn't cause this desire it was there when I was a young lad myself.
     
    Very early in my life I made portraits for friends and family, even back in my early high school years, and while living in Italy from 1971 to late 1973, after having earned my bachelors degree in mathematics at BYU, I decided to do photography as my life's work.
     
    Since 1973 I have photographed thousands of weddings, and made a good number of portraits.

The PPA (Professional Photographers of America), and IPPA (Intermountain Professional Photographers of America), and SEPPA (SouthEastern Professional Photographers of America) are the main professional organizations I have been a member of over the years.

In the beginning I was able to study directly in the studio with early masters such as Don Blair, and walked Bryce canyon with cameras and tripods with David Muench of Arizona Highways fame.

Also Frank Caricchio and many other Masters over the years when I attended the Winona School of Professional Photography back when it was held at Winona Lake Indiana, where a big influence on my photography.

For a period of 3 years, I had the opportunity to work as a color lab manager out West, and later worked at Meisel Photochrome when I moved to Atlanta, as their main person to print all of Monte Zucker's photographs back in the late 70s and early 80s, and he even made a trip down to Atlanta  to shake my hand and tell me what a wonderful job I was doing with his custom prints as I was the one who made all his custom wall prints back at that time.

I very much wanted to meet and work with Ansel Adams back in the day but never had that opportunity.

Wedding wise I had the opportunity to study with Rocky Gunn who was a cutting edge wedding photographer from California, and learned a lot from him about total wedding coverage, which today is called photojournalism.

I have seen many changes in photography over the years, and I am sure I will see even more as things seem to progress in quantum leaps now in the field of photography.

Some ask what kind of camera was around my neck when I was born, hoping I would say Canon or Nikon or some other brand that they might like best, but I have to say, I have used, and owned most all of them at one time or another.
 
From Hasselblad to Mamiya, Bronica, Rolli and Yashica, Canon to Fuji and Nikon, Pentax, and Olympus, Minolta and Lindhof view cameras, I have used them all. sheet film, medium format and 35mm film to digital.
 
What is my camera of choice? The one that gives me the best results, and does what I expect it to do! And to me accurate focus, with great low light ability are the two most important points to consider.
 
The point is, that it does not matter if I use Nikon or Canon or some other brand, what matters is that I use it well.

 

Cathy's first experience with photography was to assist me at a wedding back before we were married.

She tagged along and assisted for perhaps 500 weddings before she asked. "Can I get a camera for myself "?
 
After a short time using that camera Cathy was hooked, and soon started her life as a photographer, which was back in the days of medium format film, but she has also found how digital can be a great tool to use.
 
Cathy and I photograph weddings together, as well as on occasion go separate ways in order to cover two different weddings when only one photographer is required for a given wedding.
 
The bulk of our weddings are photographed together as a team, which is pretty much required for good journalistic coverage of a wedding day, so most of our wedding collections are geared toward coverage by both of us.


Craig Fine Portraits / CatherineCraig Photographers, has been Atlanta's wedding photography choice for the last 20 years from the same location. Learn about our Romantic / journalistic style weddings, here in Georgia, and on location throughout the United States and Italy.