Christina Lauder Portraits

I had another opportunity to photograph a lovely wee baby. I love that I get these opportunities to have a cuddle with such small babies, even though it makes me quite nostalgic for when my daughter was that new.  I'm always mesmerised by how tiny they are and how adorable they look when they are sleeping.  Actually I don't know why it took me so long to do these sleeping baby newborn sessions considering nearly 11 years ago I built up quite the collection of photos of my daughter asleep.  I could never resist. She was just so cute when she was sleeping. I just wish I had the skills, equipment and props that I have now as I would have loved to have one of my newborn portraits of my own daughter.  And such portraits weren't being offered by many photographers back then so having them done professionally never occurred to me.  For this session I created a new look by layering fabrics. I try as often as possible ...

Today I was greeted by an eager and smiley little girl named Chloe.  "Close your eyes", she said with obvious excitement. So I did, wondering why on earth she would want me to do this.  And then she presented me with a picture she had made for me that morning, as she waited to attend her portrait session with me.  This lovely little girl had only met me once during our initial consultation, and was a little tired and grumpy at that time.  But she still wanted to make me a picture which made me feel honoured. I pride myself on having patience with the children I work with.  Its not always easy but given that I never do more than one shoot a day I find it is always possible. Parents often say they don't know how I can be so patient.  I just try to put myself in their shoes. Having to sit still while a stranger flashes a light in their face isn't exactly an exciting way to spend an hour or so, which to a child is like an eternity.   So I do my ...

This past week I got to photograph another special child and this time it was different yet again.  Emily-May is 8 years old and has both modelled in the past and regularly auditions and earns parts in national and local musical productions.  So following instructions was not at all a problem which made this session a very relaxing and enjoyable one.  This session allowed me the chance to try out some new stuff I have.  I've bought some new backgrounds recently that I've been dying to have a play with so today I brought a couple of them out.  I just love how many different looks I can create from within my meagre (yet perfect for me) studio.  And I will continue to build this collection (until I run out of room).   Having this variety is vital for me to keep myself from getting bored by creating the same old portraits all the time.  Its also important to me to give my clients a choice and some...

This time I got the pleasure of photographing a young girl.  These images are still part of my current personal project.  I am loving doing some work for myself.  I feel a bit like I have my hobby back.  Before I made the decision to be a photographer I worried that the thing I did to make myself happy and distract myself from day to day life would be lost forever.  I didn't want this thing that made me happy to become a burden.  Thankfully, for the most part, it hasn't.  But sometimes it really helps to do some photography for me, so that the hobby part of photography is still there. I'm finding this project a great learning experience for me.  With the pressure of pleasing a client gone I can relax and do what I need to do to create the portrait I want to create without fear of letting a client down for not having produced what they wanted.  Photographing these children is such a joy.  Ava was a smiley, lovely little ...

  These photos were taken in a non professional capacity but I still wanted to share.  Doing photos for a living sometimes means I choose to leave the camera at home and take a break from taking pictures.  But this event had me excited to shoot for fun.  It had all the elements that make me want to capture the moment.  It had great weather, loads of smiling faces and vibrant beautiful colours.  What more could I want?      It also helped that my daughter took part along with a large number of the Hinckley Running Club Juniors (run by my husband).  So we had to be there anyway.  But I'm glad I was.         The kids clearly loved the event.  I don't think I've ever seen a group of happier kids who were about to embark on a 1 mile run.  My daughter for one would not have taken part had it not been for the chance to cover herself in paint.    It was a...

For those who saw the casting call last month this entry in my blog includes portraits made from the first of those sessions.  I love creating portraits.  For me its more than just taking a picture.  Its creating something artistic.  It involves planning and thought.  I always have a plan in my head and I even put it down on paper in my ideas journal.  Every session I do, for my clients or my personal projects, I have a plan.  Its wonderful when the resulting images match those in my head from the planning stages.  The image above is a perfect match.  The better I get as a photographer the closer the results are to these ideas I have.  A large part of my life is spent coming up with ideas for portraits.  Sometimes I browse the internet.  This will often mean Pinterest or my favourite photographer's websites.  And sometimes my ideas come more passively, in watching television, movies or reading magazines. ...

I photographed this young man recently and it was a pleasure.  He had such a great smile and charm which made my job so much easier.  I forget sometimes what it is like to photograph someone who can make my job feel effortless.  So often I have to coax out a smile or practically beg and plead for a look in my direction or to get them to stand or sit still.  But Harvey was a dream.  Not only did he quite willingly do as I asked but he also helped come up with his own poses.  This one below was entirely of his own doing.  With a 1, 2, 3 he made it happen and I loved it.   I met Harvey when he was having lunch at his mother's tea shoppe in Hinckley, Dolly's Tea Shoppe .  He was delightful and I knew he was someone I'd enjoy photographing.  So I made his mum an offer.  I would photograph her son in exchange for allowing me to have a couple of framed prints in her shoppe, one of which will be of her son.  ...

A photograph never lies, so they say.  Well of course since the invention of digital we all know otherwise.  But did you know that photography has been lying a long time before going digital?  The image below was created in the 1970's (couldn't find the actual date but it was before July 1980) by a man named Jimmy Wormser who regularly pieced together several images to create one perfect image for the ad campaigns he worked on.  I was so impressed with the image below and feel that it would sit quite well amongst the fantastic artwork we see quite often these days using digital.  Its hard to believe it was created so long ago without the technology we have today.      This same man famously photographed the Benson & Hedges image below which is comprised of 4 images: (1) Pyramids shot in Egypt, (2) sunset shot in Egypt, (3) clear dessert foreground and (4) the cigarette pack shot in studio. And the f...

I've not been posting much lately as I've actually been quite busy traveling to the various schools I do taking their class and team photos.  Unfortunately that means even though I am busy, I have very little to share.  I love sharing my work but with so many children in each photo its just not possible to obtain permission from all the parents in order for me to share them.  But last year I created a photograph of the Hinckley Running Club Juniors which is a local athletics club founded by my husband, Andy.  This photograph is very representative of the style I use with all my classes and teams so I thought I would share it, as I did manage to gain permission from the parents for the use of this photograph.  I like to make my group photos more fun and where possible will incorporate items that represent the group to make it even more memorable for those involved.  I love that we have a keepsake of such an image that will be invaluable...

I am currently working on a project , details of which I'm not quite ready to share, however it involves photographing children between the ages of 2-10.  I'm looking for about 8 children in this age bracket who have something special about them.  I'm not necessarily looking for pageant beauties but its more about the child doing well in front of a camera.  Ideally the children chosen will be happy sitting for me and easy to get along with.  As parents we all know if our children are capable of this so please be honest here.  Although my daughter is the one in the portrait below, I would never say she is an ideal subject (in fact for me she is a nightmare - our annual portrait sessions probably rank higher than a visit to the dentist on her list of things she'd least like to do).  What I am giving is a minimum of 5 fully finished high resolution images with printing rights from the sessions of those chose...