Christina Lauder Portraits

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...

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...

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...

I know this breed is becoming very popular, I believe even set to take over the top spot for most popular breed from the Golden Labrador, but I never expected to get quite so many in my studio. Can't say I'm complaining though. They have such a wonderful character and I love to capture those adorable squished up faces. This client came in not just for personal portraits though. Instead she is developing a line of homemade all natural dog treats called Claude's Little Doggie Bag  and these portraits are to be used in her labels. Which is partly the reason why these images differ quite drastically from my usual style. This client had a very specific idea for what she wanted on her labels. But again, this is perfect for me because I just love variety. I don't really want to be creating the same work over and over again. This gave me the opportunity to revisit a style I've not used in some time. This little guy was just 14 weeks old so as  you can imag...

I've not been entering too many images lately. Being a judge now I feel myself becoming much more critical of my work and having an understanding of what isn't worth entering. Also, being a judge means I can only enter the months that I am not judging. And July was one such month. This is the image that caught the judges eye this time. It also happens to be one that has regularly got me to stop and stare. To me it accurately represents the standing this dog must have in his family and its a portrait that I am very proud of. He looks majestic and regal and the tones all work so wonderfully together. I'm hoping it does well for me this year in the annual competitions I am entering.  So hopefully its not the last time you will be seeing this image.

This month I ran a quick competition on Facebook to promote pet portraits. This is something I've taken a serious interest in over the past year and I'm keen to get the word out that I can create something really special of your pet. And I say pet because I am interested in photographing more than just dogs. It just happens that people are more likely to have portraits of their dogs than any other type of pet. So this was the winning dog chosen at random from all those who submitted a picture of their dog and followed the instruction of liking our page and our post. And I must say I couldn't be happier with the luck of the draw. The colouring of this dog works so well with my current favourite style of portrait. I adore the images you see here so much I can't stop myself from coming back to look at them time and time again. It almost makes me want to go out a buy a dog like him so that I can have portraits like this of my own pet. But I shan't be ha...

One of the things I love about my job is that I get to meet wonderful people, spend time with adorable babies and children and I get to have amazing cuddles and play time with gorgeous puppies. I absolutely adore puppies. I'm just not a huge fan of the responsibility of owning a dog. So this satisfies at least a little, the urge to get a puppy. Although the more I do dog portraits the closer I am to buying one, much to my husbands dismay and my daughter's delight. But I'm just not there yet. And as much as I love this little guy, there was absolutely no chance he would win my heart over enough to buy him because this guy is going to be ginormous. He's only 4 and a half weeks and already he's rather large. For now I will stick with my 2 small cats. They are enough work and they cause enough mess. I couldn't get over how big this little guy is. He's so young but already more than 13lbs. I held his paw expecting it to fit easily in my hand but it did no...

I can't say enough how much I adore photographing this breed of dog. They just seem so photogenic to me, with so much character and such a lovely temperament. I think I could photograph these sweet things everyday. This one was a little frightened being on the wooden boxes. We weren't sure really why. It wasn't too tall that she couldn't jump down if she wished but for some reason we struggled to get her to settle. She just remained glued to the spot, which I suppose helped us in a way. In my attempt to get her to settle we tried a variety of boxes to see if she felt more stable on different ones and I think we finally got there. There is something about having the dogs sitting or standing on these wooden boxes that really appeals to me. And the ones in the boxes I think are just so sweet. The beanbag was a little easier. She certainly looked more comfortable but keeping her there was a little more difficult. When she wanted down she just left. But for the most...