My Inspiring Week With Christina by Ellie Booton

Hi, my name is Ellie, from John Cleveland College, and I have spent a week with Christina for my work experience as I am keen to continue with photography in the future and to develop my skills further.

Initially, Christina introduced lighting, including the use of natural light and reflectors, to Cerys and I and how to effectively use it to produce a successful portrait. Cerys and I spent time perfecting our portraits of each other by experimenting with different positioning, for example facing towards and away from the light. In addition, Christina educated me on the different settings and how to use my camera, including adjusting the aperture to decrease or increase the depth of field and also the ISO and when it is best to use a high or low ISO, which was extremely useful as I can now produce much better quality photographs- it has opened me up to a new world of photography I didn't know existed. I felt this helped me hugely to improve my current skills and I will also be able to take this further with me as I improve with photography throughout my life.

In addition, for the majority of photos we had taken, that we were particularly fond of, we got to process and perfect them further. We used programmes such as photoshop, lightroom and colour efex. I really enjoyed doing this as it helped me to see which effects looked best for different types of images and also to experiment with lots of different ideas I had. Also, I learnt the effect of increasing and decreasing parts of the photographs I had taken by adjusting the exposure, clarity and vibrance, saturation and occasionally the contrast; this helped me to understand the best ways to edit different kinds of photos. Overall, my favourite aspect of this was having the ability to be creative with my favourite images.

Due to having a project at school based on Cindy Sherman, Cerys and I took photographs which we could use for this. We researched the style of images Sherman had taken, the untitled film stills series, and attempted to recreate something based on this with the skills Christina had previously taught us. Using the techniques Christina taught us on editing programmes, I added film grain and black and white filters in order to create a Cindy Sherman styled image. I particularly enjoyed doing this as, whilst being away from school and doing something relatively new, I still got to base my week of work experience on my school work and can continue working with my projects from Christina’s studio when I am back at school.

Throughout the week, I was fortunate enough to experience the other parts of being a photographer, as well as taking photographs, by sitting in meetings Christina had with customers such as: a meeting at her studio discussing a young child being photographed in the future and visiting a school to discuss the possibility of doing their school portraits for staff and children. I liked doing this as it gave me a taster of what would be to come if I did continue with my aspiration to be a photographer and gave me more of an understanding of the way running a business works.

My favourite part of the entire week was by far photographing the LOROS colour fun mile in Hinckley town centre. This gave me a real experience of being a photographer and made me realise how enjoyable photography really is. In particular, I loved the atmosphere and how excited people were to be photographed giving me more inspiration to be a photographer. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great however this certainly didn't hinder the excitement and the incredible atmosphere. I, personally, loved this event as it was in aid of LOROS, a charity which has once cared for two close relatives of mine in their last few days during their brave fight with cancer.

On our last day with Christina, we decided to complete the week with a photoshoot using studio lighting where we experimented with different shots and got to edit our favourite images as we wished. I liked doing this as I felt I could use all of my skills I've learnt throughout the week to complete a final product that I can look back on and use and remember how great this week has been.

Overall, my week with Christina has been so so amazing and has given me so much more experience which I can carry with me in the future- I am so grateful of Christina helping Cerys and I this week and allowing us to do our work experience at her studio. I loved every second.

Comments

London in Spring, Whats Not to Love?

Well I know there is still a lot not to love but I'm choosing to see the great things about London at the moment. I am having a ball this year visiting London as often as I can. Which is unusual for me since I usually prefer the comfort of my own home, in rural old Leicestershire. Staying home and avoiding people has always been the easy option. But this year, possibly due to the wonderful weather we keep having, has me longing for venturing out. Again, just like my last trip, I headed out with my good friend Panikos Hajistilly . Living in North London he finds it easy to meet up for our shoots. This time though I had more of an idea of the sights I wanted to use as the backdrops for my portraits. With it being spring I was in search of colour, preferably flowers. Admittedly. I didn't quite get what I was looking for. The white fronted terraced houses with pink magnolia trees we did not find unfortunately. But I did make it to Peggy Porchen's which was a must see on m...

Family Photos with Flair - Vanity Fair Style Family Portraits

This style of portrait continues to be the eye catching success I had always hoped it would be. Once again I created a beautiful family portrait that I am really proud of and I know this family loves too. Over the years I have developed this style through influences such as Vanity Fair and the many photographers I follow, though I hope that there is something in here that is entirely my own. Having my work easily identified as my own was a goal of mine from the start. Getting to the point where people will want not just a portrait but a Christina Lauder portrait is where I've always wanted to be and I'm hoping I'm on way. These portraits were created for the family of two professional photographers who wanted some portraits of their own. Family portraits isn't really something one can do of oneself, at least not easily. So they needed the services of another and I was honoured to be chosen for the job. They chose me not just for my style but also for my ab...

Teen Portraits - Prom Season is Just Around the Corner

If your child is heading to prom in the next couple of months I'd say there is probably no better time than now to have portraits created of your growing teen. With the purchase of a new (and probably expensive) outfit wouldn't it be nice to capture this milestone with a portrait created by a professional. Across the pond this is a hugely popular time to create portraits, and although I am not American (I'm Canadian) I wholeheartedly agree that this is a special moment to record. My prom was a key memory in my teen years and in fact I myself had professional portraits created also. I think I'll go dig them up if I can, though admittedly I think my mother has them back in Canada. I wonder if I can get her to scan one for me. My daughter is currently making plans for college and in the running is one that will move her away from home, as many others are probably experiencing for themselves, particularly those who are 18. This makes it all the more important to ...

Fine Art Portraits of a Beautiful Young Girl

So this is really becoming my thing lately. I am having so much fun working with children individually where I can direct and interact in ways that bring the best out of my subject. This has certainly become a process now of creating rather than taking photographs. And its what I have always wanted to be, a portrait artist rather than a photographer. I cannot put into words fully just how rewarding this is. For each of these shoots (as with nearly all of my shoots) we begin with a consultation where we discuss what we would like to achieve in the shoot. Here we will consider the type of clothing and any possible props. We will look at both the clients clothes and my ever growing collection so we can pick what will work best. In all circumstances we are heavily guided by what the child in the portraits wants to wear as I see this as vitally important. If he or she is uncomfortable its going to show and the portraits won't work. But most are happy to play dressups and wear a com...

Never Work With Children or Animals

Or so the saying goes. But I have to say that working with dogs has been so lovely. They have been almost entirely a dream to work with. I say almost entirely because we have had a few moments where a dog has needed to settle. And one moment where the dog had settled but one of my cats decided to have a look through the glass door which, as you can imagine, rather quickly unsettled the dog. Still, that didn't stop us from creating incredible work. In fact it was during that shoot with the cat instance when I created two of my favourite pieces, shown below. (It was while sitting on the couch here when he noticed the cat peering through the curtain) I don't know if I've just been lucky or all dogs are just easy to work with. I photographed a french bull dog puppy and I thought that would be tough as he hadn't had time to be properly trained yet. But he did everything we wanted in no time at all. And this included the props we used here (below), which to me...

Christina Lauder Portraits

Search This Blog