Christina Lauder Portraits

In addition to creating portraits of children while participating in their favourite activities, I also like to capture them in a more sophisticated light, often wearing something of their choice that they are comfortable in. In this case this lovely young man choose this suit jacket, t-shirt and jeans which I thought was absolutely perfect. And I could see he was proud to be wearing it. Putting a person, whether it is a child or adult, in something they are comfortable wearing is so important. If they don't feel comfortable it will show in their portraits. And that is the last thing we want. I discovered this recently with my daughter when I tried her out in a new dress I had acquired for the studio and quickly realised I was wrong. I couldn't make her be someone she isn't. She isn't a pretty dress sort of girl and it really showed in her portraits. I've decided to scrap those ones now and get her to wear something she is comfortable in (likely to be a sweats

I was once torn between a 10 year love affair with my Canon and a blossoming romance with a newly acquired pre-production model of the Fujifilm X-T2. After posting my initial thoughts on the X-T2 I decided to give it a proper go, leaving the Canon sitting in the drawer, rather than shooting with both throughout sessions. It was scary at first but after just a few more weeks playing around with my new toy I can honestly say I've found a clear winner. The Fuji has the edge over the Canon in ways that leaves the Canon rather unappealing. Returning to it provides no thrill or excitement which is not how I want to feel when picking up a camera. My Canon 5D MKIII is solid and reliable I'll admit. Its been everything I needed since I bought it. I began with the MK I and upgraded to the MKIII. I thought I'd want nothing else but a Canon. I thought I'd stick with it right to the very end. It had everything I needed and could ever need. Or so I thought. I'd been hearin

I love getting the opportunity to create portraits about someone, a photograph that is more than just an image of what they look like at the time but instead is something about who they are. In this case this young boy loves his football and attending training and playing matches is a big part of this family's life. So in years to come, these portraits provide more in the way of memories than just a portrait of what he looks like. These will take them back to memories of standing on the sidelines, in good weather and bad, watching this young boy develop into the man he's on his way to becoming. For me, this makes this sort of work not only more interesting but also much more valuable. I of course still like creating images without the activities being a part of the scene but when it comes to photographing children, I love that these activities can be included and I believe it can make them so special. Not only that, but its a great way to allow the child to have fun doi

I feel this year I've not worked hard enough at creating new material worthly of winning any competitions but I'm determined to keep going. Being creative and coming up with new ideas isn't easy thats for sure. But I did manage to come up with one that I thought had something special.   Here is the link to the page with this months Gold winners.   As always there are some amazing images. And here is my image. I must get working on some more before the year is out.