New Baby, New Portraits, Same Happy Smile

As I've often said, I just love it when families return to update their family portraits. It is always lovely to catch up with the goings on of their lives, meet the new members and see how the older ones have grown.

In this case the family of 3 have now become 4, adding a new baby girl to the mix. And what makes this family a little different is that each time they've chosen to come for portraits their babies have been at the sitting stage, which I quite like for a nice change. Here we can focus on expressions but luckily still have a somewhat immobile child. This little beauty was on the verge of crawling but still too slow to get away from me, my camera and the lights.

She was full of smiles and so easy to photograph, not unlike her big sister at the same age. In fact, her big sister was possibly one of the happiest babies I've ever photographed and I even called her so in my blog post about her session a couple of years ago. This little one wasn't really any different when it came to smiling. Click here to see big sister's session.

We used the balloons again. I love the colours it adds and the enthusiasm it brings with the children. They all seem to love balloons and I feel they really add something to their portraits. When we are finished I let the children take them home with them which as you can imagine they love.

This family brought their own prop too which is something I love and highly encourage. Its nice to add something that is personal to the portraits. In this case this family have a farm and adult sized quad bikes in addition to this lovely little toy one and it provides an important memory, particularly for Dad. It also provides something that amused this little girl which of course helped in getting happy portraits. Not that she really needed much help.

And while we were at it we updated their family group portrait. Unfortunately by the time we had finished getting what we needed of the girls they had had enough and we weren't getting the best from them for the family portraits. So rather than stress everyone out pushing to complete we simply arranged a different date. But to save on trips to the studio though, the family portraits were taken on the same day as the viewing. Its not necessarily ideal however it made things much more convenient for the family having to make just the 2 trips rather than 3 and the children were much happier which was most important. I would always much rather arrange a second session than force a child to sit still when they've just had enough.

I look forward to catching up with this family again soon, although I am told its not likely to be for a third child. You just never know though. I've suggested some lovely ballerina portraits in a couple of years along with an updated family portrait anyway.

If this type of session is of interest to you please get in touch. To contact us or book a session you can either ring us on 01455 611069, follow this link to our contact us page on our website, or send us a message via our Facebook page here. We look forward to hearing from you.

Comments

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

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 creat...

Christina Lauder Portraits

Search This Blog