Exhibition at the Atkins Building is Up and Ready!!

This has been a long time coming. Probably for as long as I can remember I've wanted to be the sort of person who could put on an exhibit. I remember being 8 years old and asking for a camera because I wanted to produce the sort of photographs I admired from others. I always had a fascination with the family albums and our slide projector. I was forever asking to put on a slideshow, much to my parents annoyance. I remember vividly loving some photographs of me as a baby sitting on a shag carpet with the light coming in from a window to the side and thinking it was a fantastic photo. I realise now that I was already admiring good available light. I might dig that photo up one day and post it actually.

So finally I've done it. My work is on display and it is everything I wanted it to be and more. I didn't realise how much seeing all these images in print would mean to me. I spend so much time working on them on a computer and sharing them on social media that I don't get to have a lot of these in print. Of course my clients do but they don't stay with me for long before my clients come to collect them.

It made me realise how much more impact a print has over a digital image. When I saw for the first time some of my portraits framed I actually felt a little emotional to the point where I had a lump in my throat. These are images I've worked on over and over again, either preparing them for clients, competitions, my Fellowship and for social media. I would have thought they would have lost their impact on me by now. But the way I feel when I see an image digitally is nothing compared to the feeling I had when I collected my work from the framers. Jo from The Frame Game in Hinckley does all my framing. She did a fantastic job, as she always does for me.

I am now incredibly excited for the preview night on Friday May 15th. I keep getting emotional thinking about it and seriously hope I can hold it together on the night.

I can finally say that I am where I've always wanted to be and doing what I love. I've heard it said before that if you do what you love for a living you will never work a day in your life. That feels so true for me because so much of what I do feels nothing like work. Even as I write this now I'm happy to be doing so.

The Atkins building is a superb venue for this event and I'm so pleased with all the help and support from Hinckley council in putting this all together. My exhibit will be running through to June 1st and as I mentioned above we are hosting a preview night on Friday May 15th starting from 7pm. All are welcome and the more the merrier. So if you are in the area I'd love to see you there.

And while you are there I'd love it if you'd sign my guest book. This is an important event for me and this will make a cherished keepsake for me to remember this by.

I hope to see you there!!

Comments

Male Nude Masterclass at the Societies Convention in London

Here are the results from my masterclass at the convention just over a week ago. During this talk I set out to show 3 different lighting techniques using just 2 lights and a white background. I sometimes use more than 2 lights but I wanted to show that good photos can be produced with the minimum of kit. For the first we used a beauty dish to light our model with a second light for the background to give us a high key result. Had I been in my studio I would have used 2 lights to light my background but for such a tight crop the one light (centralised) was clearly good enough. For the second I used a softbox (strip light) on one side with barn doors on the second light on the other side. In hindsight I wish I had a grid with me to soften the light coming from the barn doors side. Not being in my studio I didn't have all my kit to hand so had to use what was available on the day. I found the bare bulb a little too strong here. Notice how we managed to get the whi

Fine Art Portraits of a Beautiful Young Girl

So this is really becoming my thing lately. I am having so much fun working with children individually where I can direct and interact in ways that bring the best out of my subject. This has certainly become a process now of creating rather than taking photographs. And its what I have always wanted to be, a portrait artist rather than a photographer. I cannot put into words fully just how rewarding this is. For each of these shoots (as with nearly all of my shoots) we begin with a consultation where we discuss what we would like to achieve in the shoot. Here we will consider the type of clothing and any possible props. We will look at both the clients clothes and my ever growing collection so we can pick what will work best. In all circumstances we are heavily guided by what the child in the portraits wants to wear as I see this as vitally important. If he or she is uncomfortable its going to show and the portraits won't work. But most are happy to play dressups and wear a com

Portraits Even a Teenager Boy Loves

Finally I've had the opportunity to photograph a young man in my studio again. And funnily enough this was the second time that week which is absolutely superb. In both cases these young men were just as enthusiastic to be involved as I was, which is something I don't often get when I'm working with very young children, my usual subjects. With young children I find my energy in their cuteness. But with young adults I get energy from their excitement over how the portraits are working out. I get such a buzz from the experience and that can keep me going for hours, often editing the photos straight after the shoot for hours more. Shoots for teenagers is something I've been wanting to focus on for some time. Its not something that I often get asked for though unfortunately. It tends to be parents of very young children who want to capture moments that are slipping through their fingers at lightening speed. Maybe its teenage moodiness that means these moments don&

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

Family Photos with Flair - Vanity Fair Style Family Portraits

This style of portrait continues to be the eye catching success I had always hoped it would be. Once again I created a beautiful family portrait that I am really proud of and I know this family loves too. Over the years I have developed this style through influences such as Vanity Fair and the many photographers I follow, though I hope that there is something in here that is entirely my own. Having my work easily identified as my own was a goal of mine from the start. Getting to the point where people will want not just a portrait but a Christina Lauder portrait is where I've always wanted to be and I'm hoping I'm on way. These portraits were created for the family of two professional photographers who wanted some portraits of their own. Family portraits isn't really something one can do of oneself, at least not easily. So they needed the services of another and I was honoured to be chosen for the job. They chose me not just for my style but also for my ab

Christina Lauder Portraits

Search This Blog