Christina Lauder Portraits

I love receiving calls from past clients wanting to update their family portraits. It means so much that my work was appreciated enough the first time that they want to return rather than finding someone else. And I get the chance to catch up and see how everyone has grown. This is more of an honour than I'm sure my clients realise. (Their portrait from March 2008)  The boys sure have changed loads but I have to say I don't think Mum and Dad have and its been nearly 9 years since the last portrait was taken. That's pretty impressive.  It was great to see their family had expanded too since I last saw them. They all had such a loving and lovely relationship. They were a joy to work with. Very easy to photograph with such natural smiles. Family portraits are the kind of thing we all put off as one of those things we will get around to one day. But look how much changes. I know it is my business to sell to you. But whether you book me or another photograph

Again this is the sort of work I enjoy very much. I love creating beautiful portraits and capturing a special moment that will produce a beautiful piece of art to hang on a wall. However it doesn't always go to plan. I made burgundy tulle dresses, one for each, which I felt worked well for a Christmas time portrait. I thought it would be wonderful to create a loving sister portrait. But we can't always get what we want, particularly when working with 2 young girls under the age of 3. First, the youngest was not keen to be wearing the burgundy dress. I understand that though. There were parts that were perhaps a little itchy. I get that, My daughter was the same when it came to dress up clothes. I couldn't even get my daughter in a cute fairy costume or princess dress. A sibling portrait was not to happen in burgundy. So we moved onto my ivory clothes. Now this was better. But getting them to look good next to each other at the same moment just wasn't possible. On

As a follow on from my Mother's Day promotion blog (click here to see the Mother's day promotion blog post) I wanted to share the individual portraits that were taken on the day. I think I'm in love. I never quite know the direction a session is going to take until we begin. I always have ideas and a plan of course but it still comes down to the people in the room, particularly when working with children. On this occasion I had never met this young lady. I usually try to meet with the people I am photographing prior to our session so I know who I am working with and more importantly they know me. But this time I had already met the mother on more than one occasion so we didn't really find it necessary to meet again. Besides, at the age of 12 I was comfortable knowing she'd be fine with me. Younger children I would definitely prefer to meet first so that they aren't spending their day with a complete stranger causing an uncomfortableness that could show in t

I've been wanting to do something like this for some time now but have never really had the opportunity to do it. Funnily enough, women don't often want to be in pictures. It tends to be that I do a full family group shot or children only. So this was something different. And as it happens to be approaching Mother's Day I thought it was as good a time as any to run a promotion for just such portraits. Years ago I went to another studio to have a family portrait done of my own family and while I was there I chose to have one done of myself with my then 2 year old daughter. But I didn't get what I wanted. It didn't have the emotion or the connection I wanted to capture with my daughter. It was more just a snap shot of us smiling for the camera. I bought the photo as it was meant to be a gift for my mother but I didn't buy one for me. I regret not ever having something like this done of myself with my now 13 year old daughter. And maybe one day I'l