Yep Paul has been using the camera, he's recently started those first tentative steps in photography and I think he's doing rather well he took this photo of Boo Boo last night,



Now I can rarely manage to photograph Boo Boo being that he moves so quickly so well done to hubby for his fabbo attempt! I processed it for him and gave him a little chat about not using direct flash and I think with just a little guidance Paul could be the next rising photographic star!!

Here's mine for last night, taken at 800iso in the dimmest livingroom light, we have one teeny light for the evenings which is kind of nice but not conducive to great photography, especially if like me you despise the use of flash. I loved this one of Abigail though, I like the angle and the look she has on her face, it has had some post processing but only just a little in lightroom, I rarely have to send photos into photoshop these days which is good because I've noticed that Photoshop doesn't seem to like it when I have more than 2 photos open! I was trying to do 8 the other day and my poor laptop was practically steaming!! The Mac Book Pro is in my shopping list but at nearly £2000 it may be sometime before I realise that dream.

Happy Sunday everyone, we're just watching the Great North Run on tv, funny because we only really live 10 minutes away from seeing it live! We're having a lazy morning though, this afternoon we'll be off for an autumnal ramble to Rothbury, mostly because I've noticed that most of the trees are just on the turn to gorgeous rich colours and I can't wait to capture some of that!!

A is for.....

Adorable Abigail of course!!!

It's the weekend so not too much going on, booked a fantastic couple yesterday for 27th of October 2007 and then by contrast booked an amazing couple today who won't actually marry until June 2009! Thats why I love my job as a wedding photographer, I get to meet such lovely people and share in their celebrations of love and commitment, of course it helps that I'm a romantic at heart!!

Talking of romance, hubby and I had a date last night, we had some cocktails down on the quayside in Newcastle and then we went off for dinner at the Kublai Khan restaurant, the Kublai Khan is the citys only mongolian/chinese restaurant and although I stuck to the safety of the chinese delights hubby tells me that his mongolian dish which was freshly prepared almost in front of him, was the most delish Mongolian food he's ever eaten, funny because it's the ONLY Mongolian food he's ever eaten!!

After this afternoons consultation we stopped off at the Marquis of Granby and I can honestly recommend this pub as we had the best pub lunch we've eaten for atleast 6 months!! So if you're ever in Gateshead I recommend you take a trip up there to sunniside where you'll get a great welcome and fabulous lunch!!

I think after all that food tommorrow will be spent having a long walk with the dog and the children who is has to be said have had a very busy weekend themselves, they were whisked away for the evening last night to one set of grandparents and they're due back from the other set of grandparents at around 6ish, so I'm thinking that the afternoon nap I promised myself may well not happen!!!

Iain in Autumn

I promised I would show an autumn portrait of Iain and here it is, I'm thinking that since the weather this week has definitely had more of a chill in the air, this next couple of weekends might be even better so if I can persuade my kids I might get some even better portraits of them, better get them in quick though as I have a couple of wonderful weddings coming up, more on those soon!

If you've been thinking of booking me for your wedding photography don't forget my win you wedding album competition where you can win a gorgeous album made by an Italian manufacturer who currently supplies Harrods with all their albums. Anyway there's only a couple of days left to book me if you want to win, the draw will close at midnight on 30th of September so go on click on Mandy Charlton Designs and go to the contact us page, must also mention that 2008 is filling, especially the popular dates, some I've already had to turn down twice!!!

Also don't forget my Christmas portrait package where you can have a photoshoot, 5- 8x10's, 2-7x5's and 2-6x4's at one all in price of £100, this offer only lasts till the end of October and the diary is filling fast so get in before it reverts to the usual prices, wouldn't grandma love some great photos of the children this year!!

Well thats me for the day, thank goodness I've gotten this far, every time I tried to sit down and blog yesterday someone called or hubby came home or the children wanted my attention, on the upside though Looby and I had a great game of Dora Dominoes!!! (Looby won!!)

Looby is 4

Yep, My baby is 4 today, all grown up but forever my Looby Dooby Dumpling Pie, or as she is in the Autumn, Looby Dooby, Pumpkin Pie ;)

She started full time nursery yesterday so it's just me on my own working from home all day and whilst half of me loves that I can get on with work and I can make phone calls in peace but the other half is missing having that low level burbel like mad!! Oh well I suppose it's only a month until half term!!

Autumn Portraits.

I adore Autumn, I love the light, I love the colours and I always make time to update our family portraits which we have on the wall. I was just giving a brief guide to autumn portraits over on my forum Craft so don't forget to go and check out my article written for even the camera-phobic!!

Back to my photos -

So we have gorgeous portraits of Abigail looking SplendidLooby looking wonderful in black and white and of course Mr C himself looking just gorgeous. Tommorrow I'll share Iains Autumn portrait and another wonderous one fo Looby, speaking of whom it's her 4th Birthday tommorrow and Paul and I spent the morning in Toys"R"Us where we bought her Doras Talking Cash Register amongst many other Dora the Explorer toys in fact I would go so far as to say that we didn't leave the shop without buying just about 1 of everything with Dora on!!!

If you want to have wonderful photos of your family this year why not check out Mandy Charlton Designs and book yourself a photoshoot, if you quote Autumn I'll even give you a free 7x5 print.

Favourite Images from Blackpool

So for me the fun in Blackpool really begins as the sun starts to set. The golden mile comes alive filled with gaudy lights and street sellers who pretty much sell anything that glows in the dark.

I think for all it's a little tacky I love Blackpool at Night.


This final favourite shot was taken when we returned to the pleasure beach, I was determined to get value for money as it had cost us £95 for wristbands!! We went on this flying machine thingy and it really is a lot of fun and yet calm enough for us all to have fun on, I shot this whilst in full flight and we felt like we were travelling incredibly fast and you must agree with this motion blur it looks like we actually might have been!!

Blackpool - The Return of the Charltons

We had an absolutely brilliant day, spent a fortune, spoilt the children rotten and partook in pretty much everything that is Blackpool.

More tommorrow, just wanted to post a quintisentially british Seaside photo!

Oh and yes it is 2am, we didn't get home until just after 12.30am, thank goodness Tommorrow is Sunday!!!