Christina Lauder Portraits

Well we made it into the studio this week. It was wonderful. Well not all the work leading up to it was though. Several weeks ago I had gone ahead and made several bookings for this week believing that I had plenty of time to get the studio finished in time. I very naively neglected to incorporate the things I couldn't control into the project plan. But even with a delay to our plasterer, parts for our electrics not arriving, a problem with the glass for our large window and varnish for the floor taking 2 days to dry instead of the stated 8-10 hours, we managed to make just it in time. At this point I was getting really excited. Each time I walked into the room I could see the finished product getting closer and closer. Of course that's when the worry of staining the floor kicked in. After spending all this money on a great floor I didn't want to ruin it by making a mess of the stain. And what a mess it started out as too. As I spread the first stroke of stain on the floor

I've always known that I've wanted to do baby bump portraits but without having done one comes the fear that I may not be able to do them justice. Well I no longer have that fear. Last week I had a fantastic photo shoot with my good friend Zoe. I'm sure it helped to do this first with a friend as it did involve a little experimenting and a little nudity which for me anyway needed a little getting used to. Zoe on the other hand didn't seem to have a problem at all. Why is it always the clothed person who is more uncomfortable than the unclothed. In order to ease our way into the shoot I opted for the fully clothed poses to start with. And we gradually worked our way down to the bare essentials. This is a technique I will employ for all future shoots as well seeing as it seemed to ease us in quite nicely. By the time we made it to totally nude I hardly even noticed. Not that all baby bump photos need to go this far though. We actually ended up finishing off with cl

For the past several months we've been working on a project that is going to completely transform Christina Lauder Portraits. Previously we've been working from our home. We have a dining room which is big enough to convert to decent studio space whenever we have sessions booked in. But it has always meant moving furniture and making sure the entire house was clean every time we had a client come around. And it makes it very difficult to do laundry when I can't hang it out to dry by the dining room radiator. Well these are problems of the past for us now. In less than a week we should have our new studio up and running (I hope I've not just jinxed it by putting this revelation in print). This has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember. This was our backgarden at the start of the build. It seems like such a long time ago. At that point it felt like we would never finish. This photo was taken on September 11th. But it wasn't until October 8th that the fir

My name is Eleanor Davies and I am a student at William Bradford Community College. I am considering persuing a career in the media, which is why I was interested in spending a week with a photographer such as Christina. Throughout the week I have experienced numerous aspects of photograhpy. From visiting and shooting a local playgroup to editing photos, I have discovered that it takes a lot more effort and time than you would think! The first few days of the week were spent editing proofs for a primary school, which - although time consuming - gave me a chance to familiarise myself with photoshop. Most of Wednesday was spent at a playgroup in Burbage. I learnt how to set up equipment ( and how much equipment you actually need!) and how each piece plays an important part in producing a high quality picture. Photographing the children proved to be challenging yet entertaining - they were very reluctant to sit still and smile! Wednesday evening we visited the Oak FM studios in Coalvi

Last month I had the pleasure of photographing my step daughter and her friends before their prom. Bethany invited 7 of her friends around for photos at our place before the event. Its not often that she's glad I'm a photographer but I think on this occasion she was. Not that she'd ever tell me that though. The girls each arrived one by one and as can be expected they arrived to much screaming, hugs and giggles, all pretty much in awe at how beautiful and different they each looked from their day to day appearance. And they did look beautiful. Oh to be young again. It took me back to my prom a number of years ago (the exact number of years is not important). It was a great time for me, one that took weeks of preparation, so I can imagine how excited these lot were on this occasion. It was great fun photographing each of these girls. With flawless skin I have only a vague recollection of ever having and perfect hair and makeup they were dream subjects, each with their

Last week my favorite client was of the four legged variety. Gem, the new puppy belonging to one of our Burbage Carnival princesses, arrived with costume changes. And although not quite with a smile she was still ready to perform. That may or may not have had something to do with the pot of treats ready and waiting. Either way, I think we got what we needed. I didn't really know what to expect when the request to photograph a puppy was first made. I've only done this once before and that was a few years ago. It wasn't easy that time. But I thought positively and hoped for the best and I couldn't have been happier in the end. Even though she didn't always look where I wanted her to she did sit where I wanted her to which is more than I can say for some of the children I photograph. After 3 costume changes and a few nudes the shoot was complete. They say you should never work with children or animals (which is nearly impossible in this line of work) but I coul

(Photo by Jess Whelan) Well I have finally received all the model release forms I needed to post these images to my blog. I have been looking forward to posting this for weeks. The work you see in this post has NOT been shot by me. Every image here was taken by students of Hastings High School during their activities week, in which I was privelledged enough to be apart of. It was an inspiring week that made me feel so happy to see so many young students so enthusiastic for the craft. Its hard to remember a time when I felt as in awe of photography as some of the students clearly did here. This gave me a new enthusiasm for the craft myself. (Photo by Tia Downs) I had four main objectives when I agreed to help out on this week of activities. The first was to show the students how to take better pictures using their own cameras. All too often we stick to the auto settings provided on all new cameras as it is the easier way of doing things and in most cases it does produce reasonable res