Fine Art Portraits of a Beautiful Teenage Girl

There is nothing I like more than working with a young adult and making them realise they too are just as beautiful as the models that appear in magazines. Having access to a professional photographer who knows how to light and pose can make all the difference when it comes to liking yourself in pictures.

In this case this young lady wasn't keen on being photographed. Its not something she particularly enjoyed and certainly didn't look forward to. In fact I had to convince her to trust me. As with so many people, she wasn't all that thrilled to have to see herself in pictures. The more I work with adults both young and not so young the more I'm finding that not many like seeing themselves in pictures. I myself being one of them.

I'll admit, photographing professional models is easier. Not because they are more beautiful but because they have a skill. They know how to pose for the camera. And probably more important than that is they are comfortable in front of the camera. I will often take the first couple of images of a subject (a non model) and think 'how can I make this person love their portraits when what I'm getting looks very uncomfortable?'

And thats just it and what I'd like everyone considering having a shoot to understand, the initial images hardly ever look right. Anyone sitting in front of a camera like this for the first time is going to be uncomfortable and that will always show in the portraits. But in every shoot I've ever done, once we get into it this changes and the portraits evolve into beautiful finished pieces. I don't think I've ever got a great portrait from the first 5 or so images I've taken in a shoot.

And this is exactly what happened with this young lady. But by the end of the session she was a different person altogether. She started to anticipate what I wanted and I could actually see her body begin to relax. And with that came the natural smiles. She could now smile because she was more comfortable being there with me. By the end of the shoot I found it difficult to stop because I was getting so much usable work. I could have just kept going. I only finished when I did because she had somewhere else to be.

Unfortunately I cannot show you many of my favourite images from this session just yet and that is because we used her prom dress for this shoot. I don't think its fair to show the images for this until after she has worn the dress to prom. But trust me, she is gorgeous in her prom dress and I can't wait to share them. So I will be sharing these portraits but not until after the big day which is at the end of June.

Which brings me to my next point. I love the idea of doing prom photos but I don't mean on the night of their actual prom, although I am now booked to do those as well this year (blog on this coming soon!). What I mean here is I want to carefully create proper portraits of young ladies (or young men for that matter) in their attire prior to their prom when they have all the time in the world for me to work with them and do it properly. Its common for people to have hair trials before the big day so why not take that opportunity to arrange a portrait session. I've done this before in the past and its something I've always wanted to encourage but until now hadn't gotten around to. I will still be creating high quality portraits on the night of the prom for Hastings High School this year however these will be a lot more rushed and limited in posing possibilities than what I can provide in a private studio portrait session .

So what I would like to offer to get the ball rolling is this. For the first 3 people to book a prom session I will do the session for free and include £75 credit towards the final order. We have gorgeous print boxes that can include the digital files as well. (Click here to see our blog post with our new products.) It is a great opportunity to capture a special time in your growing child's life. And I have no doubt that they will be thrilled to have amazing portraits to share on their social media.

If interested please contact us via our website here or send us an email to christina@christinalauderpotraits.com and we'll send you our current price list so you can see all we have to offer.

Comments

I am Still Me: A Story about a Transgender Boy

Meet Leo. Leo is 15 and currently going through an epic transformation that has momentarily turned the lives of himself and those around him upside down. A mum who once had the daughter she always longed for is now coping with the realisation that she will be living the rest of her life with a son instead. When your child is born you have certain expectations of the typical life they will lead but most of us know and accept that it won't necessarily end up the way we imagine. Not every person wants to marry, have kids or be involved with the opposite sex. Most of us have come to accept this and can adjust to whatever comes our way relatively easily. But few of us have expected to have to deal with a change in sex. Its not that we've hoped it won't happen, but just that it never occurred to us that it might. This is a new adjustment that we as a society are being presented with today, just like so many others that have come before. When I first heard that Phoebe

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

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

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

My First London Fashion Shoot

Well I finally did it. I bit the bullet and faced my fears and headed to London with a good friend, Mr. Panikos Hajistilly to do my first location shoot. We chose our locations together and Panikos organised a model and brought so much of his gear which he kindly shared with me. And probably most importantly, he showed me how it's done. I was so surprised to see just how much wonderful light was there, just waiting to be used. I am a studio photographer and while I understand the use of studio flash very well, I am very much out of practice and out of my comfort zone with using available light. Its one thing to place lights and backdrops around my subject in the comfort of my studio. Its very different to find the right light and the right backdrop in unfamiliar territory and to place my subject in it. That may sound simple enough but honestly it is not, particularly on a day with no clouds in the sky. One of our planned locations just wasn't possible as a result of the

Christina Lauder Portraits

Search This Blog