Christina Lauder Portraits

This style of portrait continues to be the eye catching success I had always hoped it would be. Once again I created a beautiful family portrait that I am really proud of and I know this family loves too. Over the years I have developed this style through influences such as Vanity Fair and the many photographers I follow, though I hope that there is something in here that is entirely my own. Having my work easily identified as my own was a goal of mine from the start. Getting to the point where people will want not just a portrait but a Christina Lauder portrait is where I've always wanted to be and I'm hoping I'm on way. These portraits were created for the family of two professional photographers who wanted some portraits of their own. Family portraits isn't really something one can do of oneself, at least not easily. So they needed the services of another and I was honoured to be chosen for the job. They chose me not just for my style but also for my ab...

This was a dream session for me. Not only did I have 3 beautiful young ladies, but they also brought with them a fantastic wardrobe and their very own hair stylist too (mum owns her own salon). So all the elements for beautiful portraits were there. And I was thrilled to get this opportunity. 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...

I have a love and hate relationship with family portraits. I love the finished piece and creating something that is truly special to the family. I love that in years to come something I made is going to be a cherished and valueable memento for this family. What I struggle with, is getting all members of the group to look their best at exactly the same moment in time. You would be surprised at how difficult this actually is, particularly when it comes to 6 children. But I always get there in the end, whether it is the luck of a moment or with the aid of Photoshop. I ensure that everyone in the portrait is looking their best, even the dog. Seeing as this family is actually made up now of two families we also did portraits in their respective groups which I chose to do in different style to their main group. I love adding a bit of style for the overall main group and what you see above is something that is proving popular with my clients. I love adding props and giving a sort of Vani...

Much of what I do has been about babies and little girls and recently I've begun encouraging mothers to be included in portraits with their daughters as I find it is so important to capture the mother/child relationship, or father/child relationship for that matter. It was posting one such image that attracted this next client and got her to book in with me as she wanted something to mark her son's 21st year with a memory to cherish before he goes off to live his life as an adult. I often feel that these are more for the children to appreciate later in life and I tell my clients this when they are hesitant to have their portrait done. I think its hard to ever see our parents as anything but old because to us they are always old. When we are little 30 is ancient. Then as we grow, whatever age they are still seems so far away to us. So parents are just always old. Having a special portrait will serve as a wonderful reminder of an earlier time in our lives and help us remem...

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...

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...

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...