Christina Lauder Portraits

If so, why not capture it in a beautiful portrait so you can cherish these memories forever? I designed and built this set for a client. She came to me with a son and daughter and during the consultation we discussed the interests of the children, as I always do. Our ideas for portraits for her daughter were going to be easy. She loved the idea of modelling pretty dresses so her shoot was sorted. Her son on the other hand was more difficult. Where ever possible I try to incorporate something about the children into each portrait. That can mean books, sports, dance, musical instruments or anything a person has an interest in. In this case he hadn't yet developed any interests, other than pirates. Now my client didn't want me to go to too much trouble. We agreed it wouldn't be easy to make anything pirate themed look as though it fit my style and level of quality. A shop bought costume wasn't going to cut it. But I just had to try. I love dark wood in my portrai...

Teen portraits are becoming a thing. Much like Prom has reached this side of the water, the ever popular teenage portrait industry that has swept across North America is coming to the UK too. And why not? This is an important milestone in our children's lives. I for one want to capture this time in my child's life and I suspect I'm not alone here. They have strong personalities, they have hobbies and interests worth documenting and they might not be living at home for much longer. In this blog post I am sharing some of the teen portraits I've created in recent years to hopefully inspire families with kids of this age to come in and have some done for themselves. The possibilities with this age group are so vast I can't help get a little excited for each shoot I do. 1. Dance Lots of people are involved in dance or performing arts of some sort and for those involved, creating something that relates to their interests will provide a lasting memory and valuab...

I say creature, rather than dog, puppy or even animal only because as I looked through the images I had created on more than one occasion she looked like more like an animated character in a film than any dog I'd ever met. Weighing in at just over 4lbs she was little more than a ball of fur, adorable in every way. Once again my work day felt very little like work. I love creating pieces such as these and the bonus of puppy cuddles is simply wonderful. This one above is a particular favourite of mine. The scales are quite accurate so its nice to have a keepsake that includes just how small a new puppy is. This family will always have this as a reminder, not that this little on will grow particularly big. This image above is quite easy to create because puppies naturally try to climb out, yet they aren't big enough to get themselves out. This results in quite a captive audience giving us some great portraits. Here again this little girl looks like a ball of fluf...

Each year I have the goal of blogging, on average, once a week. That would give me 52 posts over the course of one year. Any guesses as to how close I managed to get???? 45, thats how many and that was in a good year. More often than not I don't even come close, like this year for example. Once you fall out of the habit its hard to get back in. So here I am now, trying to get back in but I find myself wondering should I bother?. Is this getting me anywhere? Is anyone even reading my posts? Should I carry on or drop this and alleviate one unnecessary stress in my life? Opinions welcome. Of course a lack of opinions will be quite telling also. Years ago, when blogging first came about, it was deemed as a way of drumming up business. Regular blog posts keeps our content current and likely to come up in search engines therefore we are more likely to appear in a potential clients search for our services. Over time this actually became a really enjoyable part of my role as a se...

Each year I get the pleasure of photographing little ones at their playschool. Its not an easy age group to photograph since they are all usually rather frightened of the strange person holding a camera and flashing lights at them. But they are an age group that is full of character. Each one is different (some more challenging than others). When I am able to make a connection though, it is hugely rewarding. This lovely young lady knew exactly what to do and I was able to capture loads of her. She gave me that beautiful serious face as well as loads of happy smiling ones. I'm actually a really big fan of the serious ones so she was a dream. Although these portraits are different to my studio portraits I still always try to bring out the best in the children with a little of what I put into my studio work.  For me posing, lighting and styling are still important elements. I just can't take the time to do as much as I would for studio portraits, nor is it possible to...