Colorado Photographer Craig McNeil…

Craig McNeil is “THE Rocky Mountain Portrait Artist”

As a people person it was a natural fit that I should gravitate towards doing people photography…

Like most folks I meet, I originally came to Colorado from Connecticut to ski. As a youngster I began teaching skiing at the age of 14 at a small resort near my home in CT and became a fully certified professional by age 18.

After moving to Colorado the following year I worked at most of the major resorts (Vail, Copper, Keystone, Breckenridge and later Aspen) over the next 20 years as a ski instructor and spent 15 years on the Professional Freestyle and Pro Mogul Tours. In 1982 I met and married the love of my life and moved to Denver to pursue a career as a professional photographer.

Originally I started off by doing promotional photography (photo-keyrings) in restaurants and nightclubs. Not long after I graduated to daycare centers and preschools. I worked along the Front Range Mountains of Colorado from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs and would photograph one hundred to two hundred kids a day three or four days a week for a number of years. My ability to make anyone smile would always evoke comments from parents like; “No one has ever been able to make my child smile!” “Can we do our family?” “Can we go outside?” or “Can we go on-location where we hike/bike/ski?”

Turns out that, at the time, most photographers didn’t want to do families (too much trouble) wouldn’t go outside (it’s hard to control the light) and certainly didn’t want to go on location (too challenging). It was these comments that made me think about doing family portraits exclusively.

The Fielder Family

When I first started as a photographer, I had found a niche in doing promotional photography. And, as with this type of photography, I felt that finding a niche and creating a particular look or style was paramount to my success with family portraits.

When digital photography came on the scene and everyone and their brother had a digital camera I figured it was time to once again reinvent myself. It was about this time that I discovered the process for canvas wall portraits. I needed to be able to create a look and feel that was different than anything else I was seeing in the marketplace. I began to work and study under some of the best photographic minds of our times. I learned all the rules of what to do and what not to do with regards to creating a photographic masterpiece. I then looked at and studied what every other photographer was doing and then went 180 degrees from whatever they were doing.

If they didn’t want to do families because they were too much of a challenge, I did families. If they didn’t want to go outside because they couldn’t control the light, I’d go outside. If they didn’t want to go on-location, I’d do everything on location. If other photographers had a studio I’d meet the clients in the comfort of their home. You get the idea. To be successful I needed to be different.

By looking at the industry I set myself apart from what others wouldn’t or couldn’t do. As I began to specialize in canvas wall portraits, I wanted to create something no one else was doing, that looked different and would set me apart.

The look and style of my work came from the fact that I would take a silver halide photographic image, enlarge it and using heat and pressure, would then bond the photographic image into the fibers of artist’s canvas. Hence it would be a true photographic image (as compared to an inkjet print) bonded into the canvas.

Because the look was so unique, people would ask if the work was a photograph or a painting. So it got me to thinking, “What if I painted over the top of the image?” For some time I experimented with different applications to create the look and feel of the hand-painted canvas. It was through this process that I came up with a unique style not seen with other photographers or artists.

Fast forward to the present. This year we celebrate our 20th anniversary and our business continues to grow and thrive. Today the hand-painted canvas wall portrait has become the signature look and the hallmark for us here at McNeil Designer Portraits.

My Accomplishments

Photography

• McNeil Designer Portraits, family portrait studio 1989-2009
• 2008 Parade of Homes at Solterra
• 2009 Luxury Home Tour, Denver, CO
• Member of the Professional Photographers of America
• Member of the Professional Photographers of Colorado

Musician

• Englewood Social Club, classic rock & roll band
• Lead singer, backup vocals, percussion, congas

Skiing

• 20 years, Syndicated Ski Columnist; Rocky Mountain News, Denver, CO 1989-2009
• Author; “How to Ski the Blues and Blacks (Without Getting Black & Blue)
• 43 years Certified Professional ski instructor (still a guest coach for John Clendenin’s Camp with the Champs in Aspen).  PSIA Fully Certified in 1969.  PMTS Black & Trainer Level Certified.
• Professional Freestyle Skier 1971-1978
• Pro Mogul Tour 1979-1987

Taekwondo

• 4th Degree Black Belt
• Owner Operator Mountain High Taekwondo Studio, Frisco, CO 1977-1990
• United States Taekwondo Federation Middleweight Sparring Champion, 1982
• 1st Degree Black Belt under Tae Hee (Yi) Lee, New Haven, CT, 1977

Singer/Actor

• Country Dinner Playhouse (under Bill McHale) Barnstormer 1989-1992
• SAG/AFTRA 1983-2003

Film Producer

• Tiger Street (feature film) Denver, CO
• Scrapple (feature film) Telluride, CO
• My Samurai (feature film) Denver, CO
• Double Entendre (feature film) Boulder, CO
• CAST (Colorado Actors Studio Theatre) Non-profit Professional Actors Studio

Ready to make your family portrait happen?

Give me a call today at 720-981-9705 for more information.

“We were all so impressed!”

A very special thank you for our treasured family portraits. We were not quite sure what to expect the day of our setting and how the whole process was going to turn out.  The location you suggested was just perfect. You were so professional working with our family and especially the four little ones ages four, three, two and one. We were all so impressed!  Again, thanks so much for our family portraits --  they are SO special!

The Kilgroe Family