Christina Lauder Portraits

I just love the variety in my work.  In fact, I love that although I call it work it rarely ever feels like work.  Miley Cyrus once said in an interview that her dad told her (yes, I know that's Billy Ray Cyrus - I'm actually a fan of country music as well as a fan of Hannah Montana. Sad I know.) that if you love what you do you'll never work a day in your life.  Now I wouldn't go so far as to say I never work, but far more often than not I feel like I am doing my hobby for fun as opposed to being part of running a business.  I had a great session with Baby Alex and her parents.  As with all my newborn and nearly newborn sessions we don't really have a time limit for the session.  It is my policy not to book back to back sessions for babies as I never know how long the session will take and I don't want time pressures to affect and add stress to either myself or my clients.  Babies don't perform at will.  They have needs and usually if we ...

I recently had the opportunity to shoot an entire team of corporate head shots.  I never imagined how much I'd enjoy this type of work and I'm thinking of marketing directly for more of this type of work.  It would make a lovely addition to the portraits I already do and also a nice change from babies and children.  The remit for this project was that I was not to use a background, they wanted the hotel as a background.  So I had a quick tour of the hotel and decided on the lobby.  I supplemented the ambient light with studio flash to enable the subjects to be well lit while leaving the background lit enough to add some interest to the scene.  With a shallow depth of field the details in the background were thrown out of focus so the subject was able to stand out. In addition to head shots we also did a team photo which I am particularly proud of.  I just love the symmetry of this image.  I was very pleased wi...

For years I've been meaning to create some sort of material that can explain to my clients what they should consider when planning their attire for their portrait session.  I always very strongly encourage my clients to follow my recommendations regarding clothing however my advice is often disregarded.  So I thought if I showed some specific portrait examples it may become more obvious just how important it is to consider your clothing choices wisely.  When choosing clothes for a portrait session it is almost always advisable to wear plain simple clothing and for all members of the group to co-ordinate with each other.  By this I mean, solid colour tops. So nothing with bold, noticable patterns such as stripes, polka dots or flowers.  And no large logos.  Also try, as much as possible, to wear the same colour or very similar colours (ie shades of pale blue).  Patterns are distracting and unmatching colours will stand out and both will detract f...

  I was really pleased with the results of this image.  It was my subject, Joel, who suggested trying such an effect and together we worked until just the right effect was achieved.  So I am thrilled that the judges of the Societies' monthly competition agree.  This means that this image will go forward for consideration in the annual competition and I am in with a chance at winning an annual award at the convention next January.  It always makes sitting at the awards dinner much more exciting when there's a possibility of winning an award.    I plan to try much harder this year at producing award winning images.  Its not enough anymore to be just a nominee.  This year I want to be a winner.  There, I said it.  Now lets see if I can make it come true. 

My working life isn't always filled with only portraits.  Thats one of the things I love most about my job. Its full of variety.  One day it might be babies, the next its class photos, another day may be artistic nudes and another hotel bedrooms.  Rarely am I ever bored.  And each subject gives its own creative challenge.  For the hotel rooms the challenge is in lighting and composition.  To light a room correctly when trying to include some natural light can be very difficult.  By combining studio flash with long exposures and in some cases an HDR technique I was able to capture the rooms in a true likeness.  For me these rooms have been depicted exactly as I saw them on the day of the shoot. Composition can also be tricky when the location the camera needs to be happens to have a desk in the way, or a wall or side table blocks the view.  Often furniture rearranging is required along with a tight squeeze behind th...

Last week I had the pleasure of photographing an absolutely stunning little girl and her new baby brother.  To be honest, the shoot had me a little worried at first.  Its always difficult photographing 2 people together when one isn't able to sit or stand unaided and the other is too young to hold them.  But we got around that one by lying them both on blankets on the floor.  I'm loving this pose at the moment and now rather than worrying what to do with young siblings I'm actually looking forward to my next opportunity.  Thankfully I had 2 very co-operating subjects.  I must say I was surprised that the 6 week old younger brother had such great eye contact with myself and the camera.    As always I like to get images of baby's little feet.  They are just so tiny.  But without putting something else in the image to show prospective the smallness can't be portrayed.  So what better to include than big sister's...