Skip to main content

Portraits from my Latest One to One Training Session

Over the years I've offered a small amount of training but it was only recently that I've decided to make a more concerted effort in promoting it. Since gaining my Fellowship, receiving a few awards for my portraits and joining the Bowens team I've started to really feel as though I have something worth sharing with other photographers. Basically, I want to provide the sort of training that I would have liked all those years ago when I first started out. I've taken what I've learned from various workshops, seminars, demonstrations, vasts amount of reading and extensive trial and error and put it into a concise training plan that will give anyone new or struggling with their lighting a solid foundation in lighting along with guidance and inspiration for posing and styling portraits.


Yesterday I provided a one to one training session and the portraits here are what I created to show how you can light, style and pose to create a beautiful, timeless portrait of a child.



The image above, although I took the photo, I cannot take all the credit. Ian Stacey, my attendee, brought in his stool and he had choosen to have our lovely model Chloe lean on the stool. I liked the idea so much I chose to take a few for myself to see what I could produce. This is another great example how shooting with others is a great opportunity to start to see things in a different way. Sometimes we can get in the habit of shooting a certain way and its good to change things up. For example, I often stick to shooting at F8 and take more full body shots, partly because that was what I was doing for my Fellowship panel and have since had requests for similar portraits. But here I wanted to demonstrate changing the look by switching to F2.8 which meant using the 70-200mm lense which is better suited to close ups. So this is what we created.  Ian produced a fantastic image himself. I love the shallow depth of field here and the connection we have with those eyes staring so intently into the camera. 


I finished off with my suitcase and books shot. By this point poor Chloe was worn out. She'd been with us for a total of nearly 4 hours (including lunch) and I think we were pushing it asking for this final setup. But we each managed to get a few good ones, albeit with a little more effort and patience on our part.

By the way, this is the same girl I used in a couple of my portraits in my Fellowship panel. Here is one of hers below so you can see how much she has grown in just over a year. She is such a lovely girl to work with. I really enjoy having her around. I even get cuddles now when she visits.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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 ...

Burbage Carnival 2009

For the past few years my husband and I have been attending the Burbage Carnival and remarking to ourselves at how much better it could be. The carnival seemed to be declining in recent years. Earlier this year I met someone (Harvey) who mentioned that he joined the committe. When I asked him why he said he had been remarking that the carnival could do with some improvements. The response he received was rather than complain why don't you join the committee and do something about it. Its hard to argue with that. The following week I found myself, along with my husband, at the Burbage Carnival meeting. And we've been attending (most meetings) ever since. With this being our first year we didn't want to dive in head first. We contributed where we felt we could but it was great to see that what little we were able to offer still made a difference on the day. We're now very much looking forward to seeing just how much of a difference we can make next year. I just hope it ...

5 Reasons you Should Consider Getting a Professional Headshot

Headshots, or profile pictures are becoming a requirement of so many tools we regularly use or reference today. From Facebook to Linked In, Instagram to Twitter and often any website that represents a company for which you work or own will have a place to include a photograph that is meant to show your audience who you are. And how you present yourself there will tell your audience so much about you. 1. A profile picture is your first opportunity for your audience to see you. Its often the first impression you make and we all know you only have one chance at a first impression. A professional photographer has the skills to show you in the best, most suitable way to give a great first impression. (These headshots were created for recruitment firm  Optima UK  who asked to have their logo placed behind them. I think it makes these headshots quite eye catching and they should do their job well.) 2. Using a professional to create your headshot will ...

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...

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...