The Latest on the Studio

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 could have cried. It looked like tar sitting on top of my beautiful floor. This couldn't be right. So we read the instructions again. They suggested as an alternate solution that we rub away the excess stain. Thankfully that produced the look I was after. Unfortunately it ended up taking me 5 hours to complete and left me in a whole lot of back pain.

But it was worth it. I love my new floor and it is exactly the look I had in my head right from the start (several years ago when I first began fantasising about my own studio).

This week the long awaited glass arrived as well. This completely changed the look of the studio. If only the view at present was a little nicer. I think I am going to have to be a little more patient there though.

Here is the nearly finished product. We still need to complete the electrics and install the wall booms so we can get the lights off the floor. And then there is a multitude of finishing touchs which will gradually take place over the next couple of months. This will of course require many shopping trips. But this is the fun part.

This week we tackle the outside. The cladding is being delivered today and started tomorrow. Another major transformation I am very much looking forward to. Hopefully next week I will have a new set of photos to post on my blog. Until then...

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23 December 2009 at 17:58

Portraits Even a Teenager Boy Loves

Finally I've had the opportunity to photograph a young man in my studio again. And funnily enough this was the second time that week which is absolutely superb. In both cases these young men were just as enthusiastic to be involved as I was, which is something I don't often get when I'm working with very young children, my usual subjects. With young children I find my energy in their cuteness. But with young adults I get energy from their excitement over how the portraits are working out. I get such a buzz from the experience and that can keep me going for hours, often editing the photos straight after the shoot for hours more. Shoots for teenagers is something I've been wanting to focus on for some time. Its not something that I often get asked for though unfortunately. It tends to be parents of very young children who want to capture moments that are slipping through their fingers at lightening speed. Maybe its teenage moodiness that means these moments don...

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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...

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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

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