There's something so precious and special about having a new baby, they change so much in those early days, in fact I think they change more in the first year than they ever will during the rest of their lives.  As a mum of 3 dear reader I wish I'd taken a whole lot more photographs during their first 6 months.  The thing is though that those 6 months whizz by in the blink of an eye and before you know it they're sitting up on their own and you've missed it!

I've been shooting what I call newborn lifestyle photo shoots at home for over 8 years and without a doubt I love meeting all of those teeny tiny babies so much.

The benefit of what I do is that it doesn't have to be done in the first two weeks after birth (you can of course if you want to, I've photographed an adorable 5 day old in my time) and lets face it, we're all just a bit knackered when we've just had a baby so I call newborn any time within the first 6 months.

I've always believed that babies under 6 months are better in their own environments just as children are so much better photographed in the places that they love.

So if you want to celebrate the birth of your little one then why not get in touch, lots of clients do it at around the 3 or 4 months stage and that's when you're more likely to get those early smiles and sparkling eyes and cute smooshy faces.

Newborn lifestyle at home obviously takes just a bit longer than my location photo shoots and it requires a whole different set of skills, something that I hope I have after having 3 children and photographing hundreds (maybe thousands now) of little people that I do have those exact skills so you and your babies will be in very safe confident hands.

Photo shoots are £75 so long as you live somewhere I can easily access from Newcastle and you get a complimentary 12x8 print of your favourite image, a web gallery for 30 days and 15% off for the first week your gallery is live.

Here's some scrumptious examples of past newborn photo shoots.

To book your newborn lifestyle photo shoot why not get in touch today

Wedding Photography, Portraits, here's what you missed...

It has been a manic month hence the lack of blogging so I thought I'd do one of my famous catch up posts to let you know what I've been up to.

First of all I shot Kelly and Simons beautiful wedding at the gorgeous Jesmond Dene house hotel, one of my favourite venues and always a pleasure to photograph weddings and events at.  Here's just a few highlights from their day -

a really beautiful celebration of 2 people in love and I'm so happy that I got to shoot the wedding.

Also this month as usual there have been lots and lots of portrait bookings in the studio

So lots of lovely babies, toddlers, children and families to photograph and it's all been a pretty fantastic month.

In the last week I've booked 5 weddings and I would say that if you want to book me for your 2013 wedding please don't wait around too long or you may find that I'm too full as I only shoot 15-20 weddings a year.

If you would like to talk to me about shooting your wedding or if you want to arrange a time to come in for a family portrait please click through to my website 

Meet Sophie - [Kids Photographer Durham]

At the beginning of February I popped to Durham to meet 8 month old gorgeous girl Sophie.

What a lot of fun this little girl is -


 
Suspicion - Just who are you strange lady with the big pointy thing which flashes?

 
Luckily the suspicion didn't last for too long and I got tons of gorgeous smiles.

 
I love putting Toddlers in front of black screens, I just let them get on with entertaining me and record the fun!

 



 
Of course I still love that muted vintage style too.

When I go to photograph kids I like to capture parents as well because as I always tell mums and dads even if you don't like photographs of yourself your kids will appreciate it so much, it's their history after all!

 

Sophie is on my milestones programme with lots of other little poppets, over the next year she'll have 4 shoots and after every shoot she'll be getting a DVD slideshow, a 10x8 of her favourite image and a web gallery for 30 days and all for an all inclusive price of £150, if you want more details on our milestones programme please click through to my website or give me a call at the numbers on the banner

Proving Babys are Art meet Emily - 3 weeks old [baby photography newcastle]

A couple of weeks before Christmas I went to meet Kerry and Martins new baby, Emily. She is quite the most gorgeous little pumpkin and was perfectly well behaved!

I really love these photographs, and some of them are my favourite baby shots of last year, quite simply sometimes everything is perfect!




The whole family, aren't they lovely?

I really really adore this photograph.

and this one too,



and I don't care what anyone else says this is my idea of art!!

Thought I better update...

Especially since nothing is really going on at the moment. I did have a planned shoot this weekend which was postponed because of the weather, it's now going to be in a couple of weeks which strangely left me with a whole weekend off, I don't get many of those and yesterday we went to the Centre For Life and took the girls Ice-skating for the very first time! Now I didn't think it wise to take my camera so I just had hubbys camera phone but I can't connect it via bluetooth, don't know if we have a USB lead and it won't let me email myself, oh and it won't even send picture messages, what a blinkin joke eh?!

Anyway Ice-skating was fab, you'll have to take my word for that, Looby and Abigail loved it though did of course fall over a couple of times but then again so did hubby, I missed that but apparently he slid from one side of the rink to the other, I went intending not to fall over and I didn't! LOL

Afterward we went around the Centre For Life which was quite fun and then we decided to take the girls to see the Fenwicks Christmas Window which I thought was a total dark, dismal, depressing, disappointment (did you like the alliteration?) I actually can't understand what made the window dressers decide to concentrate on the darker sides of Oliver, a whole double window devoted to policemen searching for the body of Nancy after Bill Sykes had thrown in her in the canal really didn't make me feel festive, stick to singing trees and cuddly animals Fenwicks, get with the Christmas Programme!!

Speaking of Christmas, I have 2 slots next week available for family portraits complete with Santa hats if you wish because I have some of those!! If you want either a Saturday afternoon slot or a Sunday morning slot (Saturday afternoon is Jesmond Dene or similar, Sunday has to be Saltwell Park because thats where I am at 12pm for a shoot!) give me a call on either 0191 2289515 or 07918 121838, email me at mandy@mandycharltonphotography.com or see my website http://www.mandycharltonphotography.com

This afternoon we're going to take the girls to Heighley Gate garden centre because Santa has arrived and we take them every year and since all my weekends up to Christmas are just about full we thought we better take them today. I'm sure it will be lots of fun and Looby certainly is excited about it.

This week for me is all about albums, I have several which are in production at the moment, a couple of them are sent off to various producers and the rest are in the design stages, you can be sure that album design is my main priority, in fact I think about them 24/7 lol, I do wish sometimes that there was another me to help out in the busiest times and maybe if my business continues to grow as it is now I'll be able to hire someone by this time next year, it surely is an exciting time.

Did you know that you can buy gift vouchers for every occasion and any amount for Mandy Charlton Photography, they really do make a great Christmas gift, so if you want to give someone the gift of photography this year give me a call!

OOh - any toddlers or babies in the house? Have you hear about my Milestones photoshoots?

4 shoots over the course of a year at the bargain price of £100 and you get to choose your favourite from each shoot as a 10x8 enlargement and you'll also get a DVD slideshow from each shoot, with your own gallery to choose prints, and mini albums there's never been a better time to get your baby on the Milestones Programme.

Ok, mammoth blogging catch up over, I'm off to watch the Xfactor results show :-)

Amy and Lacey

I went off to meet with Sarah yesterday for her final consultation, it's her wedding in July and I am so looking forward to it. While I was with her I had the chance to shoot a few photographs of her gorgeous 11 week old daughter and her also gorgeous 7 month old niece. Lacey wasn't really in the mood for photographs but since she's going to be having another 3 photoshoots over the next year and I'll be seeing her again in just a couple of weeks it didn't matter too much. We did get a few little gems and she enjoyed wee-ing over my new sheepskin rug immensely!!



Lacey is so petite and light as a feather.



I forget quite often just how adorable new borns are!



Happy with mummy Sarah.



I think she's going to break some hearts when she's older!

Next it was cousin Amy's turn, she wasn't too keen to sit for photos and it was such a dismal day, hopefully next time we meet it will be sunny and we can get outside for a run around.




Gorgeous isn't she!



She's a smiley giggly girl but still doesn't even have one tooth!!



Awwwww

Sarah, thanks so much for yesterday, I enjoyed spending time with you all and I can't wait for your wedding in July and watching Lacey grow up over the next 12 months.

If you would like 4 sessions over the course of the year watching your baby grow from teeny tot to toddler then why not enquire about my Milestones photoshoots, click through to my website for more details.

Congratulations Christine and Darren

You may remember Christine and Darren from their wedding at the end of January, well last night I received an email from Christine to say that she had give birth to a gorgeous baby girl. I just want to wish them many congratulations and I can't wait to come and photograph your little one in a few weeks. :)

Right, I'm off to shoot another fabbo E-session with Kerry and Matt who's wedding I'm shooting in the middle of July!

On a seperate note, I know it's unlikely but since I've had a cancellation for a photoshoot next weekend and a wedding the weekend after I am available and can offer you a great deal so if you need a photographer then please do give me a call :)