Christina Lauder Portraits

I recently had the great opportunity of photographing a subject different to my usual.  I got to create portraits of a 19 year old boy.  And I say boy because he's the friend of my step daughter and I've known him since he was about 7.  Its times like this when I feel old, very old.  If he were a stranger I would have seen him as a young man and I wouldn't have felt nearly this old.  Instead though, he was a grown boy, still the sweet young child I used to see at the school gates when doing the school runs.  Where did all this time go?  Anyway, before I embarrass him too much, it was great fun being able to use different lighting setups than I typically use for babies, children and families.  I like to take opportunities like this to experiment and really stretch myself as a photographer.  Its a great chance to take out the lighting kit I don't often use (and in some cases have never used) and give them a go.  Its a wonderful learning opportunity that I consider

Well in the end I didn't take this promotion as seriously as was required in so much as I didn't allocate any budget for advertising.  I relied only on the few posts on Facebook and as such I only did 2 sessions, which to be perfectly honest, was all I could handle this year given that I'd not properly planned for these sessions in an already busy time of year.  However, what I did do proved to me that this is something that deserves proper attention and a concerted effort to push this promotion forward.  I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of it, from shopping for props, to the sessions and then the editing.  I really love the fun that these sessions provide and the look of the finished images.  Spring will see a second go at this special collection with plenty of advertising in the run up to our event.  I will get another chance at shopping for additional props and tools to run this limited edition promotion and I can't wait to see what else I find. 

In this incidence my client made specific requests for her daughter and friend to have a fashion shoot with the purpose of providing images for the girls' bedrooms.  And those images were provided to their satisfaction.  However, it was later identified that an image for mum's lounge was also required and I didn't quite get what she was hoping for.  I could sense she was struggling to make up her mind, not because they were all too good to choose between but instead because there wasn't one that stood out for her as an image for her space.  So the best solution to that problem was to bring her back in and concentrate instead on what mum wanted for her lounge wall.  So that is just what we did.  And I am so glad we did as it made it easier to concentrate on just one child and what works for her and I had a great time, really stretching myself and even trying a couple of new things that produced images I am certain I will be replicating in future sessions.  J

One recent client came to me to purchase the wonderful birthday gift of a portrait session for her daughter's 13 year old friend.  What a great idea for the two girls to play models for the afternoon.  I really love these sessions because its such fun working with subjects that really want to be there.  They aren't being bribed to behave.  They aren't reluctantly contributing to the family portrait.  And they aren't desperate for a feed or a nap.  They can take direction and they see the experience as a real treat.  And that reminds me of just how lucky I am to do what I do for a living.  It is an exciting job and its easy to forget that when doing the day to day stuff.  The aim was to produce a few portraits of the two together so they could each have a keepsake of this shared experience.  And then it was to let the girls have a bit of fun in a sort of fashion shoot.  I always love the simple beauty of a black background so I began with this.  For me its b

And one very happy photographer.  I am over the moon to announce another year of nominations for this years Societies Photographer of the Year in the categories of Pets and Portrait Studio.  The images are below:     Each year throughout the year I submit images to the Societies monthly competition.  Images receive one of 3 ratings: Gold, Highly Commended or No Award Given.  This year I submitted 37 images.  5 were awarded Gold and 17 were given Highly Commended. The highly commended images have a second chance of being judged, this time by a panel of judges rather than just one.  And in this second round 3 of my images were upgraded to Gold, giving me a total of 8 Golds.  The upgraded images are shown below: So what does this mean?  Well these Golds are then judged by an even larger panel of highly qualified photographers who then choose the nominees and winners of each category, of which there are 28.  This year the competition saw a total of 13 877 images subm