Christina Lauder Portraits

(My favourite image from the session - I love it when clients bring along props. This cuddly toy just might become a very significant keepsake in this little girl's life) It is great when I get a second opportunity to work with clients because the relationship we build just gets easier and better with time. Julia had come in for maternity portraits as part of a training session for one of my students. Her and her son worked incredibly well during this exercise which, unlike private client sessions, tend to take longer and with less attention to themselves. Her little boy could not have been any better. His patience still astounds me. He did exactly what I wanted enabling me to produce this great portrait.  I love the connection between these two and know that this will be a fantastic image to look back on in years to come. I mean, can you imagine what they will both think of this in 20 years time when they both look so different and Mum can no longer look down at her son....

From today until September 30th we are running a promotion for pet photography. Book with us before then and receive a complimentary portrait session for your pet (whatever variety that may be - although if you bring me something crazy please manage your expectations of what I might produce. But I am willing to try just about anything). We'll also give you a £100 voucher to put towards your order (not redeemable for cash). As I discovered very recently, pets are valuable members of the family who end up sorely missed before we know it. We lost our cat Mittens who was hit by a car a couple of weeks ago. I'm quite glad I have lots of photos of her, but amazingly the last proper portrait I have of her was when she was just a kitten. I think its time I attempted portraits of our remaining two cats before its too late for them too. (This is just a quick one of Luigi, one of our remaining cats. Its just as hard to photograph cats as you'd imagine. There is no following in...

Its been a while since I photograhed any pets and when I had the opportunity the other week I was reminded of how much I enjoyed it. Pets can have so much personality, and as always, I love a change. (How I envision a collection from this session being framed) This is Phoebe, a wonderful rescue dog. I was amazed to hear that Phoebe was actually small for her breed. I had been warned this before she had arrived. And while I agree that she isn't as large as she could be she was still larger than I expected. But what probably surprised me the most was how incredibly gentle and docile she is. I hear she has a bark that's quite threatening, though I never heard it. She just doesn't have the demeanor to go with it. I can certainly see why she is loved so much.  For the photographers reading this I thought I'd provide some techie details. As I hadn't done pets in a while and I have just acquired some new kit (the beautiful new Fuji X-T2) I thought I'd...

I have been one of the few fortunate ones to be selected by Fuji to test Fuji's newest mirrorless camera from the perspective of an SLR user. Today Fuji have announced the release of this camera, the X-T2, (X-T1 being its predecessor). It was such an honour to be selected for this task and I truly enjoyed the experience. I've been hearing such great things about Fuji's cameras over the past couple of years I've wanted to try one myself but when you own a perfectly good camera, in my case the Canon 5D MKIII, its hard to justify trying an entirely new system. As any photographer will confirm, in this industry there is always new kit we want to purchase. So getting to test one out for free was really quite awesome. Now I am not going to say that I prefer one over the other at this stage. My use of the Fuji is still relatively new. To be perfectly honest they both have very good selling points and I'd struggle to say one is better than the other. But if I were just...

In preparation for an upcoming speaking engagement I'm looking to photograph several expectant mums. You'll get my usual time and attention and you'll take away a 24" canvas wrap of your favourite image along with the digital file all for just £250. Thats a total savings of £300! The ideal time to be photographed is around 32 weeks but this will depend on when your bump starts to show. Everyone is different. I'm happy to take later or earlier as long as there is a good sized bump to photograph. The Small Print (that I am making large because this is important): There is one slight catch. I will need permission to use some of the images for this speaking engagement and ideally I'd also like permission to use some in my marketing material. Nothing will be used without prior approval and if we decide to create something particularly intimate you are welcome to keep those private.  If you or someone you know is interested please get in touch. Phone 01455...

Tip #1: Remove unnecessary clutter from your background This can be done in one of two ways. First, physically remove the unwanted item from sight. This could be a bin, a pile of paper work, a sock annoyingly left by one of the children (for some reason children never want both socks on at the same time) or maybe you've left a can of furniture polish out when you got distracted by one of the million tasks that children create, as in this photo below of myself and my mother from many years ago. This is actually one of my favourite photos from my childhood but ever since I spotted the can of furniture polish on the coffee table I can't stop seeing it. I have even been tempted to Photoshop it out. At least its in the distance and a little blurred in the background. Or it may be that all you have to do is change the angle you are pointing the camera. Look at your surroundings and make a quick assessment as to whether or not you can make a cleaner and more attractive background...

  Last week Vickie returned home to visit family so we took the opportunity to have a play with the lights again. I love using this time to try out things that I wouldn't want to trial with a client. And I'm glad I did. I was able to create work similar to that which I've admired on many occasions, not really being certain how it was created. By taking what I knew about lighting and applying it in a way I suspected would give me the results I wanted I actually produced what I wanted. Imagine that. For the photographers out there, I used either 1 or 2 lights (started with one then added another) behind Vickie pointing towards her hair but positioned quite close to her so that they were nearly pointing towards the camera also. This produced a slight lens flare that gave that milky coverage that softened the light just how I wanted it. For those that don't know, this experimenting and practicing is part of running a photography business. Of course I don't hav...