I wanted to thank everyone for these wonderful letters, emails and reviews…
“When we started planning our wedding, here’s what we cared most about: finding a venue that would provide great food and the photographer. I pictured myself looking at my wedding photographs years later, showing my future children, always being able to look back with the best memories. After settling on The Carolina Inn, we dug into our photographer search and it took a loooong time. We spent days looking at wedding magazines and countless websites. Craig’s was the last one I looked at, as these things tend to go. In our notes for other photographers, we had jotted down, “Good, but not great,” “Absolutely NOT,” and many other comments, but for Craig, it was, “Wow–love, love, love–perfect.” We liked some formal shots at weddings, but mainly wanted natural photos. Over and over again I saw that Craig captured beautiful unscripted moments between couples, families, and friends.
We emailed, talked on the phone, and we felt comfortable with Craig from the start. He was always quick to get back to me, answered all of my questions, and I felt reassured that he would capture my special day in just the way I wanted. We decided to book him right away.
On the day of the wedding, I was stressed to high heaven. Craig was one of the few people that calmed me! I knew he was there for me, to make me look my VERY best, and to capture all of my favorite moments. He was one of two people that told me to “just breathe” (the other being my husband), which I desperately needed to hear sometimes. He took all the pictures I asked for, including driving us to a couple of locations. He took pictures of us at the Old Well on the campus of Chapel Hill, just as I asked, but he also had us sit amongst the newly bloomed flowers and then standing while kissing each other (with my leg kicked up and back, of course!) Craig also took wonderful photos of us under the Davie Poplar Tree, as I asked, but then also suggested capturing us walking together back and forth across the freshly green lawn. I didn’t know how any of these pictures would turn out, but THOSE turned out to be my favorite photos!
After the wedding, supposedly relaxing on our honeymoon, my husband and I were actually on pins and needles, waiting to see our pictures, eager to remember our day. The wedding had gone so quickly, and it was as if we needed to see the pictures to be reassured it really happened! We weren’t disappointed. Craig quickly posted highlight photos on his blog, and quickly uploaded the rest to his proofing gallery soon after. The photos were gorgeous! Family and friends raved! Their favorites were the ones he captured of my husband’s nine-year-old daughter (now my stepdaughter) who stood with us during the ceremony and held our rings. The pictures of her crying makes people gasp–they can’t believe how sweet and powerful they are! And SO many of them are like that! My parents walking me down the aisle–that picture makes me want to cry and smile proudly at the same time. The pictures of the father-daughter dances (with me and my father, and my husband with his daughter) are fantastic, honestly, take my breath away!
I would definitely, with no doubts, recommend Craig to others (and actually, I already have!). His work is amazing and I will just say that in all of my searching, I found other photographers in the area to be comparable in price, but lacking the skill, personality and passion that Craig has. I ended up with over 700 pictures, and I would have paid the same amount for even less than that because of the quality–they’re priceless.” Michelle + Michael
“We don’t have enough superlatives to describe how pleased we are with Craig and his work, but we’ll try. We found his blog online and literally spent an hour and a half looking through a year’s worth of entries, each story better than the last! He has a knack for getting to know his subjects and finds a way to let their personalities shine through in pictures. His creative eye captured the essence of the day’s events, the true personality of the people, and told their story. I had to book this photographer!
After experiencing his technique and character first hand on the wedding day I must say that he’s been an absolute joy to work with from beginning to end – professional, responsive, creative, kind, and oh, did I forget mad-crazy-talented! Everyone who has seen the photographs has been blown away – he really does make it look as special as it felt that day, and has given us the gift of memory, of being able to re-feel the emotions of the day through his photographs. We recommend Craig without reservation – he is amazing and we will be following his work and plan to hire him to capture our additional special moments in the future. Thank you!” – Christine + Tim
“Craig is magic! My bridal portraits and our wedding photos are all so amazing! He is super easy to work with both in front of and behind the camera and was easily one of our best decisions for our wedding day! He did a lot of work to help us out and get the most of his services since we had limited time to be in NC. He was like super man the day of and seemed to be in just the right place at the right moment. My guests made comments about how they couldn’t wait to see his photos because he was able to capture special moments of them or their kids during the reception. He was always very professional and handled everything with grace and a great attitude! The two pictures I have seen were awesome and I can’t wait to see the rest! Highly recommended!” A+ – Heather + Jesse
“When we first started planning our wedding, we knew that photography was one of the most important aspects. We wanted to be sure that all the most important memories are captured, and in a way that represented our true personality and style. After looking through MANY photographer websites and blogs, I was convinced that Craig had the perfect style. The colors just pop in all his pictures, and I could always see the energy of the moment captured in each photo. From our initial meeting with him, I knew we had found the perfect match, both stylistically and personality-wise.
During our engagement session, we really got to know him and were so excited when he came up with one creative idea after another! We had never had professional photos taken of us so we weren’t sure what to expect, but Craig’s disarming style helped us loosen up quickly – and that’s when he was able to get some of our favorite shots! He really helped us feel at ease and it’s perfectly evident in every photo.
Throughout the year before our wedding I would frequent his blog and send him little notes when I saw pictures of other weddings he had shot that I REALLY liked. When our wedding finally arrived I discovered that he had been making notes of all those comments so that he could be sure to incorporate those elements into our own photos. But his creative and professional personality was what many of guests commented on. They were amazed at how he was able to seamlessly integrate himself into the ceremony and reception without being too obtrusive. That was just one of the many little touches that showed us how much he cared about our individual event.
We received RAVE reviews from our family and friends after the wedding day when they finally saw the photos… Without a doubt, between his photographic style and his personality, Craig fulfilled my idea of an ideal photographer. We have the most amazing engagement and wedding photos, and had a lot of fun with him along the way.” – Stephanie + Mike
“I just got back from a wedding where I saw a lot of friends that I have not talked to in a while, but they all have seen my engagement pictures on Facebook. They were all raving about how they are the BEST pictures they have ever seen! This is coming from people who have just recently gotten married or are ENGAGED right now, so that is a HUGE compliment! I of course agree, but I am biased :-) Just wanted to pass that along, they are amazing! I can not wait to see the rest!” – Lindsay + Hugh
“When we were planning our wedding, the whole process was very overwhelming due to our short timeline. Our future sister-in-law recommended her photographer (Craig) who would be shooting her wedding that next year. Not only was his photography beautiful, but after we met him we realized that he was also someone who was dow to earth and easy to work with. We consider it a stroke of luck that he was available to shoot our wedding, and couldn’t have been happier with the way our photographs turned out!
To be honest we weren’t entirely sure what we wanted to see in our wedding photography other than the “basic shots”, but Craig not only captured those wonderfully, but went above and beyond to document all of the other special moments from the day! Now that the day is over we love reliving out memories of all of the moments that we knew he was taking as well as the “behind the scenes” photographs that we weren’t able to experience first hand. All of our guests enjoyed the way he interacted with them. He was involved and excited but never overbearing. That meant a lot to us since our family and friends are so close to eachother.
We didn’t truly understand the importance of wedding photography before meeting Craig, and now, we are forever grateful that he was an integral part of our special day. We’ve even had the pleasure of interacting with him at two other weddings since our own, and each collection has proven to be beautiful and unique!
Craig, thank you so much for everything, you’re wonderful! Looking forward to our next wedding “date!” ;-)” Ayanna + Adib
“Craig, David and I are celebrating our one year anniversary and wanted to send you a giant, THANK YOU!!! You were simply fantastic throughout the entire process from the first time we met you to the delivery of our final photographs. We were very impressed with your work, and while we were loved the formal pictures, our VERY favorites are the candids that you took. You have a real gift there!
At the wedding you were totally professional, didn’t get in the way at all, and actually, became a favorite with our guests. Many of our friends were actually seeking you out to be photographed! In the candid pictures you managed to capture genuine smiles and laughter from my friends and family. Looking back it means so much to us to know that they were having a good time. You went above and beyond in accommodating any quirky requests we had and were a total blast to be around during our reception. Our wedding day was the most fun we’ve ever had and you were a big part of that all the way around. Our wonderful collection of memories worth even more to me now than they were right after the wedding.” – Monika + Dave
“Where to start…Almost a year and a half before my wedding, I met with Craig at the same coffee shop where I met Thomas. After a lengthy initial phone call and that meeting at the Royal Bean, I knew that I wanted Craig to photograph our engagement pictures and our wedding. He was the second major decision I made (after Highgrove), and he proved throughout the entire process that I made the right decision!
Craig consistently worked with me to facilitate the process, whether it was working out a payment schedule; choosing the best location for our engagement session; getting on his back in the middle of hay to get the right shot at the NC Fair; delivering our photos in a quick manner; communicating quickly through email or telephone; arriving as early as we did the day of the wedding; making sure I got the most important shots on my list; staying after the reception was over to get some additional shots; attending our after party to celebrate with us more, or blogging our wedding before we left on our honeymoon, Craig was an absolute STAR. I have gotten tons of compliments on our photos (epics and wedding), I most definitely recommend Craig to any and everyone. You get all of your high resolution images that have been individually re-touched with your package, and I can truly say that we’ve made a new friend. (A+++)” Bridget + Thomas
“Craig! We just wanted to let you know how much fun you were to work with. You knew exactly what you wanted to do with us and were very focused on delivering beautiful pix. After viewing your portfolio I knew you would do a phenomenal job with us on the rooftop of the Kress Terrace. It is hard to pick my favorite photo since they are all so good; however, the photograph where you captured our reflection from across the terrace was AMAZING! We must have been 100 feet away! We are going to highly recommend you to everyone we know. You’re very professional, focused, fun, and had a quick turnaround. Everyone who has seen our pix have absolutely loved them! Thanks SO much for capturing us beautifully at our dream venue.” Cicely + Tony
“We couldn’t be more thrilled with the service we got from Craig at Luster Studios! After an exhaustive searching for the perfect photographer, we booked him after he responded to an initial email inquiry with a lengthy personal phone call. We desperately wanted to avoid boring wedding photos, and we sensed that Craig had just the enthusiastic personality we were looking for.
And we were right! Craig was an absolute pleasure to work with from start to finish. He made all of the arrangements for the bridal portrait session, and spent many hours making sure that he captured the perfect combination of fun and classic portraits. He was very flexible working around our busy schedules, which took a lot of stress off of the wedding planning.
Even though our wedding day was cold and rainy, our photographs make it look perfect! We’ve gotten endless compliments on the high quality of photography and on our choice of a photographer. A few of the most special shots are SO stunning that it’s actually hard to believe that it is us!
Craig is obviously very passionate about his work, and it shows in his fun-loving, enthusiastic personality and in his art. In hindsight, we would have paid almost anything for some of the moments he captured. We continue to follow Craig’s work on his website, and sincerely hope that he’ll be our photographer for other exciting events in the future!” Vanessa + Ben
“I had the unfortunate thing that shouldn’t happen, my first photographer and I had a miscommunication and my day was booked to another couple. Here I am a month before the wedding still looking for a photographer. I had to find one that week so I started searching. I found Craig and decided to meet him to review his work and get a feel of what I was looking for. When I met Craig for the first time, I felt very comfortable. I told him my deal and I never felt like, “Oh no… he’s going to take advantage of my situation.” I left knowing all of my questions had been answered. On the day of the wedding he was very professional towards me, my husband and our guests. After I looked at the photos (2 weeks later… fast!) I said to myself, “Where was he for that photo? I didnt even see him!” He captured awesome photos without getting in the way of everything. He also never asked the family to get out the way or for anyone to do anything out of the ordinary. He did an awesome job with everything. I will be getting more photos done by him in the near future.” Kim + Mike
“Craig, I just wanted to pass along a compliment. I was at a Camp Kanata meeting yesterday and asked the camp director if he had seen the engagement photos. He said that he had and then went on and on about how wonderful they were and that you captured camp more beautifully then he has ever seen!!! Thank you so much for the wonderful job you did! We are SO pleased and can’t wait to see the rest, as well as what you take at the bridal portrait session and wedding. These photos will be treasured forever and we are thrilled that we found you!” Anne + Jay