Christina Lauder Portraits

This is always an exciting time of year for me. It is the time that myself and my husband make our way down to London for the SWPP's annual convention. The SWPP is the Society of Portrait and Wedding Photographers, a group I joined when I first started out as a professional photographer. I always knew that this society would provide me with great benefit professionally but I never realised how much I could benefit personally. We had, yet again, a fantastic weekend. It was our third year attending the convention in London and with each year we attend we meet more and more people. It is now no longer just a work function but becoming just as much a social function. As such it will be an event we look forward to every year. Of course it wasn't all about socialising. We did manage to squeeze in a little learning. I attended some brilliant seminars from top photographers whom I've been admiring over the years. I have pages of notes to work through, loads of ideas and a gre...

Well the year is finally coming to a close. It has been a great year for the business and we are really looking forward to the new year and all that we have planned. I can't wait to reveal some of our plans but as I don't want to jinx anything I am going to wait until everything is well and truly on its way. Not a lot has happened over the past month as I have spent most of it just filling orders in time for Christmas. Its a great worry of mind that I might miss something vital before Christmas. I would hate to disapppoint anyone. As far as I am aware at this moment in time I haven't let any one down. Well here is our annual Christmas photo in front of the tree. Its a photo of my two step children and my daughter. As you can imagine, they are so fed up of having their photo taken. I try now to limit it to a couple of times a year but even then they need to be bribed. Anyway, we hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and we very much look forward to seeing you in the new ye...

I've been given another gold in the SWPP Monthly competition. So that gives me a total of 4 images that will go forward into the annual competition in January at the SWPP Convention in London. The competition is fierce so I'm not holding my breath as typically it takes a truly spectacular image to win one of the annual categories. But I am already getting geared up for new images I can create in hopes of winning an annual award next year. I can only imagine the feeling of winning one of these, which must be fantastic. Last year I saw one of my images appear in the shortlist for Traditional Portraiture and knowing that I was in the top 4 was enough to leave me elated for the remainder of the evening and probably most of the following week. The high I would be on after actually winning one of these awards would surely last well into spring if I ever do someday receive this honour. I have great plans for next year so one can only hope. Here are the other 3 gold winners for thi...

I have been very excited about announcing this new product as portrait books and albums have always been something of great interest to myself. Ever since I can remember I have been creating personal albums and scrapbooks from my family snaps and now a whole new world of magazine style photo books has opened up, giving me endless possibilities both personally and professionally. It has taken many months of sourcing an appropriate supplier of these books but we have finally decided on the one we feel provides the best quality with the most impressive results. So it is with great pleasure that I display these photos of my most recent creation. Our books are more like coffee table books than portrait albums, making it even more impressive. They look equally as professional as any book purchased from a bookstore only they are comprised of very personal portraits. Not only can our books include images but you are also welcome to submit to us any text that you would like included. This could...

I was surprised when asked if it was okay to bring a few boys to one of our Clique sessions. I thought it was great but based on the experiences with my step daughter who seems to want nothing to do with boys I was not expecting to have this opportunity. But I am glad I did. It made it a totally different experience and the photos turned out great. In fact it has made me think that it may even be possible to have a party entirely for boys. Although I won't be suggesting this to my step son. I can just imagine the look on his face if I did. He prefers something a bit more on the adventurous side like rock climbing. But then again, he is rather sick of being stuck in front of the camera as he gets it a lot from me. In this case though, these boys truly seemed to enjoy being in front of the camera. That made it so much more fun for me and so much easier. I think a couple of them have been practicing in front of the mirror before coming out. They seemed to know exactly how to smile ...

My name is Zak Millard and I am 15 years old. For my two weeks work experience I chose to incorporate a passion of mine, photography. Christina is a very competent photographer and a easy person to get on with, she is also patient which was good for me because I often forgot something or had to ask twice about an instruction. My two weeks with Christina have been very helpful. Though I am a aspiring photographer there is much I have learnt, including: Different lights and there uses. Different light set ups. Key photoshop skills. Exposure compensation. AV/TV settings. Composition. How to keep children's interest! One of the most useful things Christina has taught me is that of photo editing. Photography isn't all about taking the pictures though obviously this is important. The little tweaks made here and there make a lot of difference and in all honesty before Christina showed me these tweaks I would never have made them myself, so thank you Christina for opening ...

Nearly every month I enter an online competition with the SWPP (Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers). Each month nearly 2000 images are entered in various categories from photographers all over the world. They are judged by a highly qualified professional and given a score of either Bronze, Silver or Gold. All Gold winners are put forward into the annual competition where they have the chance to win Photographer of the Year for its category. Well this month I was awarded a Gold in the Pet Category with the image below. This isn't the first gold I have been awarded, just the first since I started my blog. If you wish to see my other gold images please visit my website and check out our awards section. Click here to see my awards page Hopefully I will have many more of these to show you in the future.