Workshops, Seminars and Speaking Engagements, Oh my!

Following on from my recent successes, with my Fellowship and awards over the past 14 months, I have decided I am ready to offer training on a more official and regular basis. So I have added a page to my website which you can find here, listing what is on offer in the coming months. This will include any and all speaking engagements I'm currently booked for.

At the moment there are 4 opportunities that I am involved in. The first being the Newborn Photography Show where I'll be doing a seminar on applying textures. This one and a half hour seminar that will show in detail all the steps I take in creating the textured look seen in most of my portraits. Click here to see more details.

The second is being held in Scotland at a studio run by Nicola Denny called Newborns by Nicola and this will take place in Arbroath, not far from Dundee. We are running 2 workshops that are somewhat linked but each can exist independantly. The first is a 4 hour lecture style session for up to 15 people at a cost of £75 per delegate. We will be covering many aspects of running a child portrait session, from pre shoot styling ideas and requirements, through to lighting, posing, composition and more. We will be covering the basics on lighting patterns, lighting kit, positioning and where and when is best to use what in order to provide a thorough grounding in portrait lighting that can be applied to any shoot.

These principles will then be elaborated on the following day in a more in depth and hands on session for a limited number of up to 6 people. It is not essential to attend both and certainly those with a good foundation in lighting will not need to but if you are new to lighting it is recommended that you do attend both. This class has a cost of £195. If you would like to attend both the fee is just £225 for both. Each day will include a light lunch and refreshments. Click here for more details.

The third session is actually being run out of my studio, the first in a long time so I'm quite excited about that. The date for this is Thursday July 9th and will be limited to just 4 delegates making it a great opportunity to get in depth and hands on training. The cost of this session is £195 and will run from 9:30-4:30. this session with cover the same material as the above sessions in Scotland. Click here for more details.

And the final session is with PhotoLive who are holding various events throughout the country. On July 11 though it is being held in Birmingham where I'll be speaking on 2 different topics. The first is a 1 hour lecture on getting started with newborns. The second is a 1 hour lecture and lighting demonstration on child portraiture.

If you are interested in any of these events and want more information get in touch using the links provided or give me a call on 01455 611069.

Comments

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

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

4 Merits, 3 Finalists, 2 Awards and a Masters!

This past week at the Societies of Photographers Convention in London was just about perfect in every way. As always I look forward to this event with mixed emotions. As a judge and speaker anxiety levels can be high. And I always know that through both working and socialising it can be an exhausting experience that is often hard to get through. However the high I finish on is simply incredible and worth all the sleepless nights and hard work, in large part due to the incredible people with whom I get to spend this week. (Photo Credit: Mike McNamee - Sitting on a panel) (Photo Credit: Mike McNamee - The entire judging team including print handlers) Being amongst the judging team just gets better and better each year. It is very intimidating sitting on that panel and being resposible for assigning a score and then often providing a critique to substantiate it however the rewarding feeling when doing it well is immense. I know I am still a relatively new judge but hope I

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

A Most Wonderful Portrait Session with 3 Lovely Ladies

This was a dream session for me. Not only did I have 3 beautiful young ladies, but they also brought with them a fantastic wardrobe and their very own hair stylist too (mum owns her own salon). So all the elements for beautiful portraits were there. And I was thrilled to get this opportunity. Its easy to think of having portraits when you have a new baby or when you get married or have a special family occasion where you get the entire family portrait done. But its less often that people think of having their growing children photographed. After all I suppose, they are photographed at school. I even do some of those school photographs. However, those portraits are made in less than a minute per child and they are assembly line style portraits while they are wearing their school uniform. They are never going to be as special as what can be created with unlimited time and outfit changes in the comfort of a private studio. Its in this environment that I can take the time to

Christina Lauder Portraits

Search This Blog