Apparently in 9 days time there's this thing happening in Brazil called The World Cup which involves 22 men kicking a ball around a field in a fight to the death in a game they call football... or something like that, it actually might be a lot more fun if it was a fight to the death, maybe something along the lines of Running Man, whatever happens, you can guarantee that I'll be a football widow, actually I think this year I'll be too busy running around the cities of the UK for UK Cityscapes, incidentally I am now only 36% away from my crowd funding target but there are only 4 days to go, if you have been waiting to pre-order your book or you want to get your business on board and back the project then time is running out so please go to the UK Cityscapes page and pre-order your book, canvas or business sponsorship, perks start at just £3 and you get some great stuff in return and a portion from every sale of the book will go to my nominated charity MIND. If you want to know why that is you can read about why I am doing this whole project and photographing all 69 cities of the UK.

Glamping in Northumberland

In other news, I spent the weekend on a travel assignment for the Bells of Hemscott, there'll be a full blog post coming later in the week about this fabulous glamping destination in the wilds of Northumberland but to keep you going here's one of my favourite travel photographs of the weekend, I'm calling it Looby vs the Cows.

I should say that cows, although they're quite a curious bunch they're also shy so Looby definitely won, one of the things I loved about staying on the farm was the fact that you got to be so close up to the animals, it was so wonderful getting back to nature for the whole weekend and I can't wait to go back when it's just hubby and I to have a sneaky romantic weekend away from it all.

Kids and Family Portraits

people keep asking if I am still photographing kids and families, well yes I am, I still love photographing families in the north east of England and beyond, in fact if I'm coming to your city and you would like to book a photo shoot with me please get in touch!  here's some images from recent photo shoots in Tynemouth, Heaton, Jesmond Dene and Saltwell Park and also at home with the clients

if you would like to book a kids/family/couples portrait it's £40 for a regular session on location or at home (for central Newcastle, please contact me for pricing if you are further afield) and you'll get a web gallery for 30 days, 15% off for the first week your gallery is live and you'll also get a complimentary 12x8 print. To book your session you can email mandy@mandycharltonphotography.com or you can click through to my website 

This weekend will see me photographing the first of 3 June weddings, they're all completely varied and I can't wait, looks like the weather is going to be amazing for beach portraits too.

Over on my Facebook Page people are deciding which city I should visit next and they're choosing their least favourite city, at the moment the choices seem to be Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Coventry, Stoke on Trent or Sheffield, I'm kind of scared although I do love a challenge!  Go leave your suggestion for the least inspiring city of the UK and I might be visiting there next!

The Olympic Football at St James Park

Ok, I'll admit it, until today I'd never been to a proper football match, I'd seen it on tv and I'd watched hubby play locally but I'd never been to a match and the only time I'd ever been to St James Park was for weddings.  Well in our house I've been overcome with Olympic fever, I booked the tickets for the Olympic football pretty much as soon as Looby and I returned from the Olympic Torch Relay Party, I knew that this was going to be a once in a lifetime event and although I would have loved to gone to some of the events in London with my work schedule it was just never going to be possible to take the time off so the next best thing was to go and see the Olympic mens football at St James Park.  I have to say that I absolutely loved it, the first match was Mexico vs Korean Republic and it was a party atmosphere, what those mexicans lack in football skills they make up in cheering, singing, chanting and mexican waving.  One of the things they do when there's a free kick is shout "whoooooooaaaaaaaahhhhh, football" as well as doing a hand action which I can't really show you on a blog, you had to be there for that one but I think I might become a mexican supporter as those guys really know how to have fun.  To be honest the Korean Republic fans were also pretty vocal and they brought drums and a mascot who looks a bit like Hello Kitty, I wish I could have gotten that photo but they were too far away, I had wanted to take a slightly longer lens but I erred on the side of caution as the security checks are pretty vigorous and the last thing I wanted was to have my camera taken away.  So heres the story of our day in photos!

 Abigail has decided that she's a girl geek and this is her new style, this includes a pair of 3D glasses with the lenses removed, I do think she suits it though!

Soaking up the atmosphere before the match, it was a bit of a dark grey day today but it didn't spoil our fun!

Looby also loved it, like me i think she enjoyed the party atmosphere a lot more than the actual football.

Warming Up, thats the Korean Rebublic doing some hopping, skipping and jumping

lots of warming up and football, I think it would be great if it was that busy on the pitch during the match, 4 goals too!

I would have sang along if I'd known the words to any of the national anthems

Rocking the sunglasses!

This was during the Gabon vs Switzerland game, not the most exciting and you know what Swiss fans, your cowbells are not half as much fun as big drums and hello Kitty mascots

So all in all a great day, a few points to note if you're going over the next few days, the security is tight but it only took us about 5 minutes to get through it, it's not half as scary as they make out, I didn't take a bag but you basically have to put everything on your person into a clear plastic bag so the security can check that it isn't anything sinister, they're quite a jolly jovial lot, none of them are G4S though, that might be why!

The food, well that was a bit of a let down, they do a meal deal for £5.50 which is a Bacon or Sausage stotty with a bottle of pop, not exactly the cheapest but apparently it's all locally sourced, I asked if I could swap the bottled pop for a coffee (coffee was 20p cheaper) and I was told no in no uncertain terms which seems a bit daft but hey ho!  The snack selection is rubbish, no crisps just small pots of Pringles and the sweets are overpriced and a bit rubbish but you really have no alternatives since you're not supposed to take any food or drinks into the stadium.

All in all we had a great day out, we got to see 2 matches and it wasn't so pricey, adult tickets were £20 and we had great seats and with the kids you just pay £1 per year so a bargain if you have lots of little ones really!

I had such a blast I'm tempted to get some tickets for one of the matches next week, anyone fancy coming to watch Brazil vs New Zealand with me?

Jayne and Stuart Are Married!

I'm knee deep in editing yesterdays amazing wedding at the Stadium of Light, thats Sunderland football clubs home ground for anyone who doesn't know! Anyway, I'm editing some of my favourites so I thought I would share some sneak peeks from their couples session, now Jayne (who looked amazing and beautiful and gorgeous all wrapped up in one) was keen to have intimate photographs which didn't have a football theme (understandibly, take note male readers, just because your wonderful bride is getting married in a football stadium doesn't mean that every shot will have a football theme to it!!) so we hopped out of the front of the stadium and across the carpark to what can only be described as 2 foot of wasteland, if they stepped any farther back they would have fallen off the cliff! But It was absolutely totally worth it because look at these.




I think Jayne and Stuart are a truly magical couple.



I'll tell you more about the wedding tommorrow when I'm finished editing I promise...



Jayne wore the most amazing flowing gown and in the breeze it looked completely sensational.



Stuart and Jayne are the best dancers I know and wait till I share photographs from their first dance tommorrow.



Jayne and Stuart, you are the warmest loveliest couple and I wish you so much love and happiness together.

Check back tommorrow for a full report and the whole story of a truly magical wedding in unique and impressive surroundings (note to grooms and male readers... wait till you see the footie themed photographs ;) )

Hmmmmm Cheeky

I wasn't sure quite what to blog about today as it's really been one of those days where nothing much has happened. So anyway I thought I might share this lovely cheeky photo of Looby who has been doing her level best to drive both me and hubby crazy this evening. I don't know whats going on with her at the moment but i suspect that she's just being 3 and being really really good at it! I even had words with her tonight and after having to go up and down the stairs to her bedroom for the millionth time to tell her to settle down quietly. So I stood there and said "You do know it's mummys night off" (I was scrapping, (I'll share tommorrow), paul gets to go footy like 50 times a week so I fugure I'm entitled to scrapping time) to which the malevolent little pixie replies "No it's not your night off it's daddys night off" Hmmmmm, I'll have to think about that one. I'm pretty sure i need to go out once a week or something to get my me time, I'm wondering if I went and scrapped in the dark in the garden would count!!

So to all those parents who have reached the point of exhaspiration at bedtime with little ones tonight, you have my deepest sympathies!

I went to a football match!!!

Yes I know what you're all thinking, but Mandy hates football, Mandy just doesn't get it at all, well thats true but I find in the last 7 years since I met my man, he's actually made me do a lot of things I never did before and you know what I'm delighted about that, life truly is s voyage of discovery, the match itself was Dire and i mean bland, boring and utterly banal but I enjoy the Craic and spending time with hubby doing something he wanted to do for a change and I got to try out some sports photography, i have to say that I'm not cut out to be a sports photographer as my boredom threshold just doesn't stretch that far but on the whole it could have been much much worse!! on the way home we had a quick stop at The Angel of the North where I took a couple of photos for my stock photography, there weren't any I really loved but I was sort of pleased with this one!!

Oh and the footy photo, well i didn't take many and who knows if it's a good shot but paul is giving it to the player (Willie Moat) in the stripes as he's off to play sunday footy with a new team tommorrow. lets hope Willie likes it, tells everyone and gets me a lot of business!!