Christina Lauder Portraits

This was a great opportunity for me to experiment in my new studio.  Zoe let me do this with her baby bump a couple of months ago with great success so we took the time again, this time with her new baby.  Some experiments were successful and some where not.  But that comes with the territory.  You can't find new and exciting ways to shoot without finding a few bad ways too.  I'm just greatful that the only mess we needed to clean up in the end was a little wee.  It could have been a whole lot worse. As usual, Zoe photographs so well and I am again so pleased with the results.  She is going to have some great images to show her daughter when she grows up.  Zoe looks absolutely fantastic, and without any signs of having been pregnant just a few short weeks ago.  Of course, apart from her bump she hardly showed any signs of even being pregnant.  If only all women could be this lucky.  I had forgotten how easy it is to photograph newborns.  They can't r

Growing our ever popular Clique parties is something I've been wanting to do for some time. But like many things, never got around to it. And then came the request for a party for 22 year olds. And so it begins... Instead of the bright, white background though, I thought it would make a nice change to try something a little different. So I went with black. This was while we were still working out of the house and our options were limited. Now that the new studio is ready there are plenty more options available to us. Its always a nice change to photograph adults, people who won't cry, need nappy changes, need feeding or refuse to sit in front of the camera.  Although we did decide to serve food and drink this time to give the girls more of an experience.  And from this we've decided to incorporate this into all our future parties.  We felt it made a good addition and this should give us enough time to prepare a quick slide show at the end of our parties too.  For th

Several months ago I got it into my head that being a speaker at the next SWPP Convention would be a good idea. Why I could possibly think that I don't know. The pressure, stress, worry and anxiety leading up to this event was immense. I spent many hours thinking what an idiot I was for agreeing to do such a thing. What good could possibly come of it? This is work I didn't need and stress I didn't want. But still I did it. I made the commitment, I would follow through. Although the snow of the preceeding days did bring me to the occasional day dream of severe storms that stopped the convention from going ahead. No such luck however. So as I sat in the room awaiting the attendees with my biggest fear being that I would be one of the unlucky ones who had no attendees. At 7:20 the first person arrived to put his bag down before getting a coffee. 'Damn', I thought. Now I am going to have to do my talk to one person and I won't get to go to breakfast after all. B

Well again it has been a while since I last updated the blog. It was just crazy busy in the lead up to Christmas, with completing all outstanding orders and completing work on the studio. It is yet another New Year's resolution that I maintain this blog on a more regular basis. It is my goal that this year there will be no need for apologies for any lengthy absences. Since the completion of the studio I can already feel my life turning around. I feel happier, less stressed and much more organised, both personally and professionally. Our home is becoming a home again, now that all the photography gear has been moved out. And now I am able to store all my photography gear in one place it is making my life much simpler. I now know exactly where everything is and it is at my finger tips. What a difference this is making to my life. As I read the Facebook statuses of friends moaning about Mondays and getting back to work I actually find myself looking forward to going to work. Especial