My Eye Opening Work Experience by Chloe Grantham

After my build up of excitement, my week of work experience has really opened my eyes to a whole new level of helpful and interesting skills on how to create and capture a picture perfect photograph. I came to Christina knowing a few things about photography but not a lot and not in great depth at all. Since I have been working alongside Christina I have learnt a range of different things. This included activities such as learning how to process photographs using Photoshop, which actually has been one of the skills I have always wanted to learn about. I have also learnt how to apply the right sort of filters and so there set to the suitable lighting and opacity which is how strong the filter is.

One of the activities I enjoyed the most was when I was lucky enough to take some of my own photos of a close friend of mine using Christina's equipment. I had a lot of fun trying different levels and re-arranging the lighting and so on. I am very proud of some the images I created and it has helped me for future references. This helped me gain a lot more detailed knowledge on what settings to have the camera at and what type of lighting is suitable for certain types of photo's. I feel a lot more educated on the subject of photography and I have gained more confidence with experimenting different ways on how to capture a high quality photo.

The skills that I have gained and the things I have seen and done during this week will be carried with me forever in the future as I will now be able to go on to more photography related events and develop my skills. I can proudly say I am extremely glad I picked Christina to do my work experience because I don't think I would have been able to gain such strong skills with anyone else. The environment I have been working has been so welcoming and I have looked forward to coming everyday. Before I arranged my work experience I was very intrigued into the style of photographs that Christina produced and took a large liking to them. So being able to see photo's being processed and to know how her images were fulfilled was such a great experience to have been apart of. It has also made me realise that I would absolutely love to have photography as a job and to own the type of equipment that I have seen here. It is a true enjoyable hobby of mine to take and edit photo's so this week has added to that hugely. Here are a few more of the photographs I produced.

I really like how this photo has turned out, I love the use of different angles that Christina introduced me too. Different angles are made by positioning the camera at different levels such as above the subject level or at the bottom of the subject. It's really helped fulfill the image I wanted which was an urban/rock style.

This is one of my favorite photographs, I just love this pose and after quite a few attempts I got the crop much better than the first version I made of this image.

This may not appeal to everyone but it really does to me because I like the facial structure and the basic pose and expression. It gives it an unusual/edgy look.

With this photo it took a lot of decision making to know whether I wanted it to be in black and white but I am very happy and proud with what the outcome of my decision was.

Overall I am extremely pleased and proud of these images that I produced, and I am very excited to try similar things in the future.I will honestly miss being able to come to work alongside Christina and having the opportunity of having the access to the high level of equipment and doing something I adore everyday. I feel honoured to have been able to have attend Christina Lauder's photography studio I am very greatful to have been accepted to for this week. I will always remember it and it will be one of my many loved memories :)

Comments

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

Its a Dog's Life

When life gets tough I always look at dogs or my cats and think how lucky they are. I know not all are treated well but those lucky enough to be in a good home, like the ones who come into my studio, have a really great life. They look so happy and its a wonderful thing to see. I honestly love photographing dogs. They are a joy to work with and its almost impossible to produce a bad portrait of a dog which does of course make my life a little easier. I am someone who really needs to love the work I create. I can't help but love the portraits I've created of all the dogs I've photographed over the years. And this shoot was certainly no exception. I found it a real pleasure using a lighter background this time too. I do often gravitate towards darker looks but seeing as this dog had a light coloured coat I thought I'd produce lighter images. This gave me the chance to use a canvas I painted a couple of years ago but never really used and I absolutely love it

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

To Blog or Not to Blog? That is the Question.

Each year I have the goal of blogging, on average, once a week. That would give me 52 posts over the course of one year. Any guesses as to how close I managed to get???? 45, thats how many and that was in a good year. More often than not I don't even come close, like this year for example. Once you fall out of the habit its hard to get back in. So here I am now, trying to get back in but I find myself wondering should I bother?. Is this getting me anywhere? Is anyone even reading my posts? Should I carry on or drop this and alleviate one unnecessary stress in my life? Opinions welcome. Of course a lack of opinions will be quite telling also. Years ago, when blogging first came about, it was deemed as a way of drumming up business. Regular blog posts keeps our content current and likely to come up in search engines therefore we are more likely to appear in a potential clients search for our services. Over time this actually became a really enjoyable part of my role as a se

School Photos Are Not As Easy as You'd Think

Every year I do a load of school portraits and I rarely get the chance to share them as I never share anything without permission. Gaining permission is just that bit more difficult when you don't meet face to face with many parents. So I just don't bother. But this year I thought I'd give it a go and get some permissions as they are just too lovely not to share. (You know you got it right when you show Mum and she gets tears in her eyes - this family has been coming to me for years now and I love watching them grow) School portraits give me a chance to work very differently than usual. In some ways its not how I like to work at all but in others its a chance for a little freedom. You see for me, I like to be a perfectionist with my work. And being such can be draining. This usually means creating just a few really great portraits for my studio clients and having all the time in the world in which to do so. With school portraits on the other hand, there is only so

Christina Lauder Portraits

Search This Blog