Craig C Photography | VIP Member | Verified Credits (7)
Craig Colvin started photography in 2008 and quickly became consumed by it, spending every possible moment learning all he could about how to take better photographs. He set aside a minimum of 30-minutes a day to pursue photography education through online training classes, books, and magazines, while also attending workshops and photography lectures whenever possible.
Craig’s photographic influences are; Gregory Crewdson for his storytelling and cinematic style, Helmut Newton’s bold nude work, Robert Mapplethorpe’s use of light and shadows, and Henri Cartier-Bresson for his geometric and graphical compositions.
However, the photographer that has influenced him the most is John Paul Caponigro. Craig learned the value of writing down photographic ideas, using words to influence his vision and how to get in touch with his inner creativity. Craig says, “I would not be the photographer I am today without him and his influence.”
“90% of my shots are planned and thought out before I pick up my camera. My creative process involves consuming a lot of raw resources, I often get ideas from a scene in a movie, and ad in the magazine, a song lyric, or another photograph. I keep a notebook with me at all times and will write down the idea or concept as it occurs, if I don’t it will typically be lost.”
“When it comes time to shoot I will make a list of concepts that I want to convey in the resulting image. Often I will do sketches or small storyboards of the ideas. For studio shoots, I often have an image in my head of what I want the resulting image to look like. The shoot is then all about duplicating this mental photograph in the camera.”
“For location shoots where I don’t know what I am going to find at the destination, I will come up with general concepts and ideas. I will then use a collection of words to define several concepts, such as line, lonely, nestled, isolation, and then wander around until I find some element of the location that matches those words and that concept.”
“I love photographing the human form and am constantly looking to present the human body in new and unique ways.”
Check out Craig Colvin’s Model Mayhem portfolio to see more of his work. You can also follow Craig on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and his website.