Portraits of Another Boy

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 even get ideas from eBay when I'm searching for props. Often if I come across a beautiful piece of furniture or an antique item it will spark an idea I can apply to a future shoot.

(I can't make my mind up between the image above and below. I like them both. I can't even decide which crop I prefer. Sometimes decisions can be so difficult.)

I am building a wonderful collection of props that includes a stunning set of drawers that I've used loads for both babies and children. I have a couple of prams, a sizable collection of suitcases, books, stools and of course the school desk featured above. My collection of clothing for children is growing all the time too. In fact today I just bought a new dress and a vintage toy off eBay that I can't wait to use, hopefully very soon.

This little boy you see here is both a past client and a child who attends one of the playgroups I photograph. He has always photographed well with me so I was confident he'd also do well here. He seemed to know what I wanted and did everything I asked. He was a dream to work with and he had just the look I was after for this project.

I have so many images to choose from often the hardest task is the selection process. But I think I've got it narrowed down. Unfortunately that will have to remain a secret for a little longer. For now its time to start planning the next session.

Comments

I am Still Me: A Story about a Transgender Boy

Meet Leo. Leo is 15 and currently going through an epic transformation that has momentarily turned the lives of himself and those around him upside down. A mum who once had the daughter she always longed for is now coping with the realisation that she will be living the rest of her life with a son instead. When your child is born you have certain expectations of the typical life they will lead but most of us know and accept that it won't necessarily end up the way we imagine. Not every person wants to marry, have kids or be involved with the opposite sex. Most of us have come to accept this and can adjust to whatever comes our way relatively easily. But few of us have expected to have to deal with a change in sex. Its not that we've hoped it won't happen, but just that it never occurred to us that it might. This is a new adjustment that we as a society are being presented with today, just like so many others that have come before. When I first heard that Phoebe

Never Work With Children or Animals

Or so the saying goes. But I have to say that working with dogs has been so lovely. They have been almost entirely a dream to work with. I say almost entirely because we have had a few moments where a dog has needed to settle. And one moment where the dog had settled but one of my cats decided to have a look through the glass door which, as you can imagine, rather quickly unsettled the dog. Still, that didn't stop us from creating incredible work. In fact it was during that shoot with the cat instance when I created two of my favourite pieces, shown below. (It was while sitting on the couch here when he noticed the cat peering through the curtain) I don't know if I've just been lucky or all dogs are just easy to work with. I photographed a french bull dog puppy and I thought that would be tough as he hadn't had time to be properly trained yet. But he did everything we wanted in no time at all. And this included the props we used here (below), which to me

My First London Fashion Shoot

Well I finally did it. I bit the bullet and faced my fears and headed to London with a good friend, Mr. Panikos Hajistilly to do my first location shoot. We chose our locations together and Panikos organised a model and brought so much of his gear which he kindly shared with me. And probably most importantly, he showed me how it's done. I was so surprised to see just how much wonderful light was there, just waiting to be used. I am a studio photographer and while I understand the use of studio flash very well, I am very much out of practice and out of my comfort zone with using available light. Its one thing to place lights and backdrops around my subject in the comfort of my studio. Its very different to find the right light and the right backdrop in unfamiliar territory and to place my subject in it. That may sound simple enough but honestly it is not, particularly on a day with no clouds in the sky. One of our planned locations just wasn't possible as a result of the

London in Spring, Whats Not to Love?

Well I know there is still a lot not to love but I'm choosing to see the great things about London at the moment. I am having a ball this year visiting London as often as I can. Which is unusual for me since I usually prefer the comfort of my own home, in rural old Leicestershire. Staying home and avoiding people has always been the easy option. But this year, possibly due to the wonderful weather we keep having, has me longing for venturing out. Again, just like my last trip, I headed out with my good friend Panikos Hajistilly . Living in North London he finds it easy to meet up for our shoots. This time though I had more of an idea of the sights I wanted to use as the backdrops for my portraits. With it being spring I was in search of colour, preferably flowers. Admittedly. I didn't quite get what I was looking for. The white fronted terraced houses with pink magnolia trees we did not find unfortunately. But I did make it to Peggy Porchen's which was a must see on m

Family Portraits with Fine Art Flair

I have a love and hate relationship with family portraits. I love the finished piece and creating something that is truly special to the family. I love that in years to come something I made is going to be a cherished and valueable memento for this family. What I struggle with, is getting all members of the group to look their best at exactly the same moment in time. You would be surprised at how difficult this actually is, particularly when it comes to 6 children. But I always get there in the end, whether it is the luck of a moment or with the aid of Photoshop. I ensure that everyone in the portrait is looking their best, even the dog. Seeing as this family is actually made up now of two families we also did portraits in their respective groups which I chose to do in different style to their main group. I love adding a bit of style for the overall main group and what you see above is something that is proving popular with my clients. I love adding props and giving a sort of Vani

Christina Lauder Portraits

Search This Blog