Sunshine outside my window dear reader, excuse me if I get just a little excited about that, I've heard the temperatures might get close to dizzingly high (for March) today so I'm going to celebrate that, I've also just been informed that it's the International Day of Awesomeness today so go forth and be that my lovelies!

We haven't been feeling so awesome in the Charlton house unfortunately, I came down with flu for the first time since 2008, I am never ever ill so it was a bit of a shock to spend the entire weekend in bed and now Abigail has fully fledged flu, we are not amused, I am hopefully on the mend though.

So here's my weekly recap of what I've been up to personally and professionally.

On Monday I was just happy that it was springlike and sunny in the garden and everything seems to be green again which makes me happy.

I also noticed that it's my favourite time of year for really noticing the golden hour, it's around this time of year when although it happens all year round you really seem to notice it after bland winter days with no sunshine.  Obviously it's a great time to take a selfie ;)

On Tuesday I got very excited because of the arrival of this, sadly the arrival of the lens I ordered has been delayed until the 25th of March so currently I have my pile of new memory cards, batteries, a new double rapid strap, a whole new camera set up and no blooming lens, there are a couple of other lenses I want to add to the Fuji X-Pro1 collection anyway though so I'm hoping to pick up another this week, eventually it's my goal to have the 18mm, 27mm and 35mm which will sit nicely alongside my Canon selection of 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm, I shoot all primes because they're light and they're fast glass, I rarely use f3.5 or above and most of the lenses I own will happily go to f1.4, I actually think if you're just starting out in photography the glass you buy is a lot more important than the camera body, you'll replace that many times anyway but your lenses will stay with you forever.

On Wednesday I met up with one of my best photography friends in the whole world Jamie and we had a mooch around the Baltic (there was nothing on at all) but we did go over to the Side Gallery and saw a wonderful exhibition about the fall of the Berlin Wall (sort of) anyway, I loved the images, I loved the black and whites and the juxtaposition of some of the images was beautiful, go see All That Falls while it's still on.

I also received a delivery from Amazon which was full of inspirational books, if you want to know more about the laws of attraction or if you practice them and want continued inspiration these are the titles to read.

Clearly there were a lot of hours in Wednesday as I also managed to go to see Looby horse riding in the evening, she's really confident now and loves those horses so much, apparently all we have to do is find some land to stable a horse and her granddad is going to buy her one, she's a lucky little girl, no one ever offered to buy me a horse!!

Thursday I went off to Saltwell Park to meet with my favourite Welsh clients, sadly I can't share images of their beautiful little girl because they want to minimise her digital footprint which is fine by me, my clients privacy is of the utmost importance!

So you'll just have to settle for my instagram, perfect photography day it was.

I also met with a couple planning their 2015 wedding and had a great meeting with a lovely friend who I hadn't seen for ages and there's a little wedding photography prospect in there too so Thursday was definitely a good day.

Friday I was feeling snuffly, little did I know that by Friday night I would be ill with a capital I!

I went to Tynemouth on Friday for a 1-2-1 workshop with aspiring kids photographer Stacey, I offer 1-2-1 workshops to help other photographers with the fundamentals of running a successful photography business, over the last 8 years I've dealt with most situations and I've also gone from a teeny tiny business to the behemoth it is today, I've experience in all areas and have coached other businesses on all kinds of things, my speciality is Facebook marketing and social media, if you would like to have a 1-2-1 session it's only £150 and I promise I'll add value to your business.

Here's one of the little models I arranged for Stacey on Friday afternoon

and finally here's what's happening next weekend and a few photos from last weekends sessions, if you would like to book a photo shoot with me or a 1-2-1 or perhaps meet me about shooting your wedding you can contact me through my website, email or my Facebook page

Whatever you get up to this week make sure it's a good one!

Credit Crunch Portrait sessions

The economy sucks right now doesn't it? my gas and electric payments are seriously stupid, I'm thinking that Hannah Hauxwell had a good idea living in hermitude without power supplies. The thing is that there's no point moaning about it but it's how we as people and businesses respond in these trying times.

I have some good news on behalf of Mandy Charlton Photography, with immediate effect I have slashed the price of portrait sessions from £50 to £30, this offer will not last forever but for the time being I think it's the right thing to do and it's obviously an astoundingly brilliant thing if you're currently thinking about having a family portrait session or getting some great professional photographs of the children.

You'll still get your web gallery for 30 days and you'll qualify for a 20% discount off all orders in the first 7 days so it really is a superb deal. As I said this offer will not last forever so don't hang around and book your spot, I've already booked some sessions since the announcement this morning so if you leave it too long you could be disappointed.

On a personal note I'm sorry I haven't had time to update the blog this week, it's a really busy wedding season and my business continues to grow and flourish.

One note to clients, from Next saturday (9th August) at approximately 3pm (I have a portrait session at 2pm) I will be on my holidays and won't return until the evening of the 15th. I will still be able to take calls but it may take me a while longer to respond to emails. I have Lisa and Peters wedding tommorrow, Rachael and Jonathans on the 8th of August and then I'll be home the day before Stephen and Denises wedding. Please be aware that if you want to fix up client consultations I may not be able to fit you in straight away.

So let me tell you about our holidays - Iain decided he doesn't want to come but hey that's 12 year olds for you so he's going to stay at his grandmas for a week. Paul's dad will be here cat sitting for us and we'll be having an adventure. Next saturday after my portrait session we'll be travelling down to Derbyshire so that we can go to Matlock Bath on Sunday and take the kids to Gullivers Kingdom.

On Monday we go further south to stay in Hinckley for our Drayton Manor Theme Park Break, 1 night in a luxury hotel plus tickets to the theme park on the Monday.

On the Tuesday we're going to stay in romantic Slough (lol) so that we can have 3 fun packed days in London and then on Friday we'll make our way back home, that one is going to be a long drive.

I can't wait!!

Have a wonderful weekend and I'll be blogging on Monday with photographs from Lisa and Peters wonderful wedding and beleive me you don't want to miss this one, it's going to be awesome.

Lisa and Fish - The couples photoshoot

Last night I met up with Lisa and Fish for a little anniversary photoshoot, they've been married for around a year and yesterday was their 10 year anniversary of being together, AWWWW. Quite often after you're married it can be ages before your next photoshoot but I recommend one a year just to have fun, keep the love alive and document history as you grow together.

So - on with the photos,




Lisa wore her Dorothy sparkly shoes!




Lisa and Fish are a bubbly couple who are so fun you could spend hours with them.




One of my favourite shots from the session, it's great to see so much love in a couple.



They needed no encouragement from me to get romantic!



Fish is a tatooed, pierced rocker but underneath it all he's a cuddly teddy-bear!



The light was awesome at 7pm last night, i thoroughly recommend evening photoshoots during the summer.



Awww!



I love this one, I take a lot of couples to this spot and you get something different every time.



Lisa and Fish you were a joy to spend time with and I hope it will be the first shoot in a tradition of yearly shoot!!

If you would like to book a couples shoot please do give me a call on the banner above or click through to my website.

Richard and Jeans Couple Photoshoot

I met up with Richard and Jean yesterday evening for a special couples session. Richard and Jean married 5 weeks ago but due to a catalogue of errors by their original photographer they sadly ended up with no great photographs from their special day so when they contacted me I promised Jean we would get her some gorgeous photographs she could both display and show their families.




Jean looked amazing dressed in the same outfit as she had worn on her wedding day.




Richard looked very handsome.



They are such a sweet couple



I asked them to dance and they didn't disappoint giving me their best moves!



You can really feel the love with these two!!



another one of Jean on her own because of course she didn't have a bridal portrait.



They told me they've never had a cross word in the five weeks they've been married, lets hope that continues for a long time to come.



Sitting in their beautiful garden.

Jean and Richard you are such a special couple, I hope that you love these photographs and your families do to.


If you would like to book a couples session call the number on the header or click through to my website HERE

Oh, 1 more thing, if you've left it to the last minute and you're getting married on either the 12th of July, 9th of August or 30th of August please do give me a call and you could save yourself 15% off the price of the package you book and you'll be saving me from twiddling my thumbs on those dates!!

again more details can be found on my website.

Craigs Senior Prom Photoshoot

In the US school leavers routinely go to the prom and have senior photoshoots on the year the leave high school and I'm pleased to say that we brits are slowly catching on to the idea, I think it's really important to document leaving school and starting your journey into the world of adulthood.

Craig lives quite locally so his mum popped round with him for a quick photoshoot before he went off to the prom.

We only had a 10 minute time-frame and we still got brilliant photos!!



He's very dashing don't you think?



I can't even remember my leaving school, I don't think we even had a disco!



all of these photos were shot on the famous patch of grass next to my house, not the most scenic place on earth but it always looks cool!



and one more.





If you would like to document prom night then please call or get in touch through the website and I'll be over just as quick as you can say "I'm sixteen and want to rule the world!"

Happy weekend everyone!

Headshots!

I met up with some managers from the union of Lloyds TSB yesterday, they needed some headshots for posters and id badges and of course I rose to the challenge, I wanted to prove that your id badge doesn't have to look dreadful, I'm sure you know what I mean, well in the style that I do headshots you can still have corporate images but ones that look fabulous!!

Now me being a portrait and wedding photographer I don't own a background, I always say that life is my background and so what did I use for this white background, well the Millenium Bridge of course as these guys are at a conference staying at the Malmaison Hotel!

so here you go -




Our gorgeous lady executive.




and the guys.



I laugh in the face of pop up backgrounds!



These guys are obviously the friendly face of the union although none of them liked having their photographs taken!! LOL



and one final one.



So if you need some new corporate headshots you can contact me through the website, all quotes will be done on a individual basis but as a guide I start at only £50 per headshot and the best part is that I can come to you to fit in with a convenient time in your business leaving you to get on with the important stuff.