Craig Rainbolt

I first was exposed to photography as a child while watching my dad photograph my siblings and I as well as listening to him talk about photographing for the Navy while aboard ship. Photography was always an underlying interest of mine that surfaced at the end of my Jr. year at Searcy High as I began looking for a summer job. I was lead to a job with George Dillin, which was my first exposure to the professional side of photography and where I began to build my craft. George taught me how to study light by assisting him with setting lights in the studio as well as on location. The first time George put a camera in my hands and told me to shoot was at a wedding in Fairfield Bay, Arkansas. That is something I will never forget and will forever be grateful to him for. From that point on I haven't put the camera down. After working with George for a year and graduating from Searcy High in 2005 I decided to move on to a new adventure, photographing high school athletics with Wally Jarratt, then owner and founder of SearcySports.com. Wally pushed me to hone the skills I already had and how to apply them to sports photography. I had the privilege of photographing with SearcySports for four years and still enjoy the occasional shoot with Wally at different events. During my freshman year at Harding, where I attended for my undergraduate degree, Jeff Montgomery, Director of Photo Services in Harding University’s Public Relations Office, hired me as a student photographer. While working with Jeff for five years I learned a great deal about photography and dealing with life's ups and downs. Jeff showed me that there is more to photography than releasing the shutter, it's an emotion; it is studying and interpreting the world around you into an art form to be able share with others. During my time working with Jeff I had the privilege to photograph heads of state, actors, historians, television personalities and numerous events on and off Harding's campus. I was found on the sidelines of Harding's sporting events as the Sports Photographer for Harding's student run newspaper The Bison and the Petit Jean Yearbook as well as supplying photographs to the Public Relations and Sports Information offices. I have since moved away from photography in a professional sense and made it more of a hobby. Since graduating I have moved to Charlottesville, VA working with experimental oncology drugs in clinical research trials and working on a master's degree. Though after all the games, speakers, and general events I have found my true photographic passion lies in landscapes. Landscapes combine my passion for photography as well as my passion for the outdoors in hiking, backpacking and hunting. There is just something that puts everything in perspective when I sit and watch the sun rise over God's creation and to have the ability to record this event and share it with others.

-Craig Rainbolt