Are you going the Great Yorkshire Show next week? It’s on from 13th – 15th July and I will be exhibiting. If you will be there come and say hi, and take advantage of special offers and free sweets and balloons…..!

I will be on stand 500.

Hope to see you there!

Just to finish, here is an aerial shot of Newby Hall I took last week whilst microlighting with my friend. It was amazing – there is nothing between you and the ground so it’s fantastic for taking photographs. You can see my studio on the right! More to follow as soon and I get to the bottom of my mountain of editing!

Where does time go?! I moved into my new photography studio/office at Newby Hall over two months ago now and am only just posting these photos. So without further ado, here goes:

Newby Hall is so gorgeous, when I drive up the drive to work in the morning I pretend it’s my house:

My sign. The offices are in the old stables, which is a lovely courtyard to the side of the house. Suits me fine, I’m at home in stables!

There are some rare breed sheep, and the cutest lambs roaming in the section of the park:

The courtyard seen from my door:

And the view to the park:

So, the inside. It’s only a small space, but it’s all I need. I can use the grounds for portraits and am not intending to do any photography in the studio itself, apart from babies. It was a beauty spa before (The Treatment House – they are now upstairs and we share the unit. They are lovely, if you need any beauty treatments you should call them!).
There was lots of glitter on the walls – you can see it here under the lights. It was also covering the entire chimney breast. It may not look like much, but take it from me, it’s not easy stuff to remove!

The glitter is slowly disappearing:

And up goes my wallpaper, and grey paint:

Almost done! Just got the sample frames and canvasses to put up on the walls:

There are some of them:

And, of course, some sweets. There’s not that many any more ;-)

A couple of vintage cameras I’ve collected. This one was my grandmas, both still work:

So there you have it. I’m doing more portraits now, and love the grounds here. There are endless places for interesting and beautiful photographs. If you haven’t visited yet, you should!

I love the snow. It turns everything into a magical winter wonderland, and even usually boring things take on a new, glittery persona.

The dogs love it! Here are Crumbs and Biscuit:

Crumbs has thankfully fully recovered from her Christmas operation. Snow everywhere!

Just a very quick post today to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I hope you all enjoy the snow if you have any (if you don’t, it’s snowing here on my blog and also on my website!), and wrap up warm with some mulled wine and mince pies.

I’m off to my parents home in Northamptonshire, and as the eldest of seven (yes, SEVEN) brothers and sisters the house will be packed with people and presents, and rather too many little naughty dogs!

Also, Sarah and Chris’ beautiful wedding at the York Maze was featured on Rock My Wedding yesterday, part one is up and part two is coming soon!

This is not my usual area of photography, but when I was asked to photograph the charity calendar for Helperby Cricket Club, I said yes straight away. I was glad I had, the calendar girls were amazing fun, completely frank, and (after a glass of wine!) open to any suggestions I made.

The result is a calendar full of beautiful, slightly naked ladies, which will hopefully make big bucks for two charities: Helperby Cricket Club and York Breast Care Unit.

If you’d like to see more, you will have to buy a calendar! They are a steal at just £10 each. Email me for details. And yes, I was made to pose demurely for the back page ;-)

I was thrilled when Rebecca and Edward’s beautiful wedding at The Star Inn Harome was chosen to be a featured wedding in the Wedding and Lifestyle show guide. Rebecca and Edward had gorgeous weather for their wedding last September, and both of them looked stunning!

Rebecca’s dress was from Angel Brides and her flowers were by The Flower Box in Helmsley.

If you’re getting married at The Star of Harome visit my Yorkshire Wedding Photography website for more information!

Last week, a group of photographers who met through the [b] school and the Randall Photography Network, went to Blackpool for a work outing (as we all work for ourselves we don’t usually get work days out)! We stayed the night so we could enjoy the Blackpool hospitality to the full ;-)

The agenda was loosely adhered to as we all excitedly discussed albums, marketing, websites etc etc, over very cheap wine that was all we seemed to be able to find. It was a photography geeks dream.

After the afternoon’s chat, we headed out to the beach for a bit of a play with our cameras.

Here is Olivia Brabbs looking rather lovely:

The wonderful Laura Lawson:

The Godfather (I stole this nickname from the Lawsons!), Stewart Randall:

Susie Lawrence doing a spot of modeling:

These are from Barnaby’s blog, the first one is of Barnaby himself, one third of the trio that makes up 3b media. The other two are Rob Booker and Phil Barber.

The Lawsons took these, we were pretty hard to spot in a crowd ;-). This is James Pearson, Mark Byrne, Stewart Randall hiding,
Mark Lenik, Hayley Ruth and Barnaby, and I think Phil is hiding in there some where too.

3b media at work:

Pete Lawson:

Me and Chris MacKenzie:

Laura Lawson looking amazingly gorgeous!

I stole Laura’s camera and took these. Look at those amazing Biscuiteers biscuits:

Chris, Laura, Pete and Stewart:

Barnaby modeling the teeny jammy dodgers we got with our morning lattes:

Mark Lenik filmed some of the activities. If you need a wedding videographer, call Mark NOW! He is amazing!

THE RANDALL NETWORK BLACKPOOL MEET from Mark William Lenik on Vimeo.

Neil Matthews, also came along, spot him in the video!

I love love LOVE my business cards, which were designed and made by Invited Ink. They are letterpressed, with rounded corners and a custom duplexed back in my signature colour, hot pink. I love them so much I don’t want to give them away, which may defeat the object a little ;-)

I was thrilled to find out they have been featured on 3 websites that showcase unsual and creative business cards, Best Design Options, Card Observer, and Business Card 24. It’s good to know I’m not the only one that loves them!

In case you haven’t seen them yet (and you’re not likely to, I’m hanging onto these babies!!) here they are:

My first pet was a chicken. Or a pair of Pekin bantams (small chickens!) to be exact. I was nine years old and must have been an unusual child. While my friends were getting my little ponies and smurfs, hamsters and guinea pigs, I had chickens.

I love all things small and fluffy and so was very excited when I got a hen house for Christmas last year, as I could have my own little brood in the back garden, and get fresh eggs as an added bonus. I borrowed a broody hen, did some hen research, and found some fertilised white Silkie bantam eggs on ebay. Three weeks later, and hey presto, out popped 5 lovely little lemon yellow chicks (the other 5 didn’t hatch, so were not fertilised). They are now 3 weeks old now and their first feathers are just showing, it will be nearly Christmas before we have any eggs (provided they are not all cockerels!) but we are well on our way to the good life! Just need a vegetable patch now…..

10 creamy white eggs before they went under the hen:

The first little hatchling three weeks later (chicks are born on time!):

A few hours later and they are the cutest little fluffy things ever:

You are not supposed to help chicks out of their egg. If they can’t make it alone, chances are nature is telling us something. But, being the softie that I am, I helped one little chick who had been dutifully pecking away for hours and hours and hadn’t managed to make much headway at all. He (or she, he is named Harry but this may change to Harriet) was very weak just after being born. The next morning, Colin bought a little weak, cold chick inside. I didn’t have much hope but made him a cotton wool bed in an old plastic container and put him on the boiler to keep warm. Colin was dispatched to get a jar of baby food (Mum mum was told years ago by a vet to feed an ill bird baby food so I though it would be the right thing to feed him), and I dug out an old syringe we had to worm the puppies (there was no needle, just the syringe!). The next morning, hey presto, Harry seemed to have gained strength and was cheeping enthusiastically. He went back out with Mum and siblings and is now doing fine.

Big brothers and sisters while Harry was inside getting 5* treatment:

One chick is hiding behind Mum:

Happy families, Harry included:

A happy ending!

I have always loved stationary, and I fell in love with letterpress printing the first time I saw it. It is just so luxurious! I think that if a business card is just so damn cool that you can’t throw it away, then that has to be a good thing. Mine were designed and printed by Sally Ann of Invited Ink and I am so pleased with them. They are almost too nice to give away but I will have to remind myself that that is what they are for!

Sally Ann also designs and prints wedding invitations so brides and grooms, take note. You could hardly hope for a more stylish introduction to your wedding.

Here they are, with my signature colour on the back:

And notecards to match: