Fine Art Portraits of Very Young Girls

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 this occasion we had to settle for individual portraits only I'm afraid.

I'm letting you know all this because I want clients who book me to be realistic. At the end of the day these are children and to expect them to perform for strangers in strange clothes isn't always going to go as we hope. I suspect next time it will be a whole lot easier as it has been with several of my clients in the past. Just don't stress about it as I always get something good and if it were to go horribly wrong we can reschedule. I don't mind when a session doesn't go perfectly smoothly and don't want my clients worrying about what might go wrong.

All that being said though, I am delighted with what I was able to produce. I got some very happy portraits and some thoughtful portraits which is always what I aim to provide. I like having a mix of both. To me the more serious expressions have impact and satisfy the artistic side of me while the smiles give a beautiful portrait that is sure to warm the hearts of parents and grandparents. And I leave the decisions to them thankfully because sometimes I really just can't choose myself.

If you would like to organise a session like this please get in touch. You can contact us via our website here or via our Facebook page here. You are also welcome to come in for a free consultation to discuss the options and see the studio.

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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 seemed somewha…

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Its easy to think of having portraits when you have a new baby or when you get married or have a special family occasion where you get the entire family portrait done. But its less often that people think of having their growing children photographed. After all I suppose, they are photographed at school. I even do some of those school photographs. However, those portraits are made in less than a minute per child and they are assembly line style portraits while they are wearing their school uniform. They are never going to be as special as what can be created with unlimited time and outfit changes in the comfort of a private studio.

Its in this environment that I can take the time to talk to the …

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Christina Lauder Portraits

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