Christina Lauder Portraits

As many of you know, in addition to my studio work I also have a very successful schools side to my business.  And as it is my policy to provide quality in all areas of my business I ensure it continues through this side as well.  Although my school portraits have a different look and a less time intensive style, the quality of the light, the processing, and the products are still in line with what I offer my studio clients and often excels the work of most, if not all other school photographers in this country.  I see no reason why the photographer's skill should be lower just because the end client is expected to spend less.  I wanted to share a few examples of some of my favourite pieces (the ones I have permission to share) as I am just as proud of some of these as I am my studio work.  The expressions I am able to achieve in such a short space of time gives me a sense of pride as it must be so hard for children to open up like that with someone who is often a stranger

I have been wanting for sometime to create something a little different using props and clothing that really appeals to me.  Its taken a while to come up with the concept and to acquire the necessary items.  But I've finally done it.  I am so pleased to introduce our Storybook Collection which is about small children in adorable outfits surrounded, in some cases, by beautiful vintage type props on a more traditional background to give that storybook sort of feel.  Often these images will actually contain an old storybook or two to add to the look.  And as part of this collection we have created and are slowly building this collection of storybook type artwork to be added to our portraits so that the children themselves can be part of the story.  I love this look and have been fortunate enough to team up with another fantastic photographer and artist who will be building this collection with me.  Her name and contact details will be revealed as soon as she is ready to

  This brings my total Golds for the year to 5 with one more month to enter.  And I add another Highly Commended image to the pile also bringing the total of those to 16.  Each of these images will have a second chance to be assessed by a panel of judges in December and can be upgraded to Gold.    This means that more than half of the images I submitted to this competition throughout 2013 have achieved either a highly commended or gold which makes me quite proud.  This has been my best year so far (as it should be) and the plan as always is to get better and better.    Fingers crossed this will get me into the finals in January.