20Mar 2013

Press Photography: Crewe to Nantwich Greenway

20 Mar 2013 Press Photography Alvaston Hall, Cheshire, Cheshire East, Crewe, Nantwich Permalink 0

Wednesday March 20th saw the official opening of the Crewe to Nantwich Greenway and the unveiling of the Portrait Bench. We were commissioned to produce the official photography for Cheshire East.

The event was well attended with cyclists, walkers, horses and ponies joining the Mayors of Crewe and Cheshire East at the ribbon cutting. We were also joined by a Roman Centurion, a train engineer and a civil war soldier (all the figures used to form the portrait bench).

The Greenway runs alongside Alvaston Hall and connects Crewe and Nantwich for horse riders, cyclists, dog walkers and ramblers alike.

Simon photographing the Mayors of Crewe & Cheshire East

The Mayors of Crewe & Cheshire East cut the ribbon

The soldier, Roman Centurion and train engineer on the Portrait Bench

13Mar 2013

George Borowski Portrait

13 Mar 2013 Music Photography, Portrait Photography Cheshire, Crewe, Crewe Live, Northwich, The Box Permalink 0

You may have seen or heard our new show ‘The Backstage Pass‘. Its a regular cloudcast presented by Simon and produced by Tina. We are both passionate about local live music and we are the official photographers to local music venue The Box as well as at Crewe Live. The show is designed to showcase local music as well as unsigned bands.

A big part of the show are the sessions. We record our acoustic sessions over at The Rising Sun and exclusive electric sessions are recorded at Project 9 Studio, in Northwich. The sessions are a wonderful addition to the show! We had the pleasure of recording the legend that is George Borowski. George is an amazing musician who has worked with the likes of Radiohead, REM, Tina Turner and Pixies. We decided that we would allow George to simply ‘take to the stage’ in front of a small invited audience and we would record the result as a special show. Special is not the word! Those that were there will remember the ‘gig’ for years to come! The show will be available very soon.

After the show we did a portrait shoot with George. The local landscape was perfect for the Urban Portrait series and so George is the latest person to feature in the series!

George Borowski recording sessions for The Backstage Pass

The Urban portrait of George Borowski:

George Borowski Urban Portrait by Simon J. Newbury Photography

08Mar 2013

Steve Phillips & Tom Seals Charity Photography

08 Mar 2013 Portrait Photography, Press Photography Cheshire, Crewe, Crewe Alex, Football Photography, Nantwich Permalink 0

Quite recently we had the privilege of photographing Crewe Alexandra goalkeeper Steve Phillips on the pitch at the Alexandra Stadium. We’ve also worked with the talented Tom Seals many times. The two are working together to raise funds for two charities. We obviously were very keen to help so did the photography of the pair for publicity purposes!

Tom is including the club fans favourite ‘Blue Moon’ on his upcoming album release and the track will be released as a charity single. The funds will be for Leukemia & Lymphoma Research and Caudwell Children.

Tom’s Pledge page is here: Tom Seals Music Pledge

Keep up to date with Steve’s Fundraising efforts on his Facebook page: Steve Phillips Fundraising Facebook Page

You can even pledge for a set of these signed photos on Tom’s page!

We are very proud to be involved and wish the pair all the very best in their efforts!

Steve Phillips & Tom Seals Charity photography

03Mar 2013

Adam leads out Nantwich Town as Mascot

03 Mar 2013 General Cheshire, Football Photography, Nantwich, NTFC Permalink 0

It’s certainly been a busy week at SJN Towers. Ed Miliband’s visit to Pickmere Court in Crewe was followed by my visit to Media City to meet and photograph Sir Alex Ferguson. Saturday was back to a bit of normality with the visit of Ashton United to the Weaver Stadium.

It was my absolute pleasure to arrange for young Adam Standring, star of the CAFT charity calendar, to be the mascot for Nantwich Town and lead the team out for kick-off. Adam warmed up with the team on the pitch before the game and had a kick around with Caspar Hughes.

Here are a few photographs of Adam’s special day with Nantwich Town FC.

Adam as mascot at Nantwich Town FC

Adam as mascot at Nantwich Town FC with Caspar Hughes

Adam as mascot at Nantwich Town FC

Adam as mascot at Nantwich Town FC with the Officials and team Captains

Aaron Cole in action for Nantwich Town against Ashton Utd

01Mar 2013

Portrait Photography: Sir Alex Ferguson

01 Mar 2013 Portrait Photography Football Photography, Manchester Permalink 0

Thursday was quite an unusual day! Not only did I get to visit Media City in Manchester, I also got to meet and do a portrait of Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson. I took a late booking to head up to Media City to do a portrait of Sir Alex. As a football fan it was quite a nice prospect. As always with these celebrity portraits there isn’t a great deal of time set aside for the photography. If you ever saw the BBC film on The Queen being photographed by Annie Leibovitz you will know what I mean! A private audience with Sir Alex was something of a pleasure! Despite all the tales of “hair dryers” I found Sir Alex to be pleasant and engaging. We talked very briefly about Nantwich Town, where I am the official photographer, and then on to the shoot. I was thinking that the shot would end up in monochrome (it’s nice to have the freedom to choose). When I saw the colour version of my chosen portrait I felt it had a lot about it and so went for that choice. This is my portrait of Sir Alex Ferguson CBE

Sir Alex Ferguson Portrait Simon J. Newbury Photography Manchester United. Cheshire portrait photography

Sir Alex Ferguson Portrait by Simon J. Newbury Photography

28Feb 2013

Press Photography: Ed Miliband visit to Pickmere, Crewe

28 Feb 2013 Press Photography Cheshire, Crewe, Nantwich Permalink 0

Ed Miliband MP, Leader of HM Opposition paid a visit to Crewe on Thursday. A Q&A session was held at Wulvern’s Pickmere Court.

I’ve done press assignments of this nature quite regularly including a commission to photograph the Labour Party Conference last year in Manchester. It was nice to have an assignment so close to home!

I’d previously visited Pickmere Court, off Badger Avenue, for another Press assignment last year.

Mr Miliband held an hour long Q&A session with residents and covered many topics put to him by the audience.

Ed Miliband MP visit to Crewe for a Q & A Session

Ed, Miliband, MP, Pickmere, Court, Wulvern,

Ed Miliband MP visit to Crewe

22Feb 2013

Oli Ng EP Artwork Photoshoot

22 Feb 2013 Music Photography, Portrait Photography Cheshire, Crewe, Nantwich, Old Hall, Promotional Photography Permalink 0

My good friend Oli of Sink or Swim fame, now called The Eyres, is soon to be releasing a solo EP. Oli has an amazing talent for someone so young. I was really proud to be asked to work on the artwork for his debut solo EP. Oli also appeared in my Urban Portrait series.

We sat down and had a good chat about the sort of image he wanted for both front and back. I’ve previously worked on artwork for releases from Thick As Thieves, The Longshanks, Son Of Shinobi, Tim Gallagher, James Gardiner, Steve Bonham, Midnight Lycan Party, Chloe and Jon Tarplee. It’s always important to sit down and moot ideas before heading into a shoot. Thankfully we came up with our idea for front and back and decided on some locations.

We headed out to Queens Park, Crewe and thankfully the weather was on our side! The park has a wealth of locations and I have often shot wedding couple shots there. I was also busy photographing the stills for a few scenes of Gridiron UK. The late afternoon light was perfect for some moody monochrome photographs and we got all the photographs we wanted.

We then headed off to Sandbach for our indoors part of the shoot. I have to say a huge thank you to the staff at The Old Hall. Such a lovely place and they were very kind to allow us time to photograph there. The backdrop of the open fire and old fashioned wall decor and windows created exactly the mood that Oli was looking for.

You can check out some of my music promo work on the website here.

These are some of the final images from the shoot:

Oli Ng Promotional Music Photography

13Feb 2013

Urban Portrait Photography by Night

13 Feb 2013 Portrait Photography Cheshire, Crewe, Nantwich, Promotional Photography, Sandbach Permalink 0

Since the summer of 2012 I have been shooting the Urban Portrait series. I had always been interested in photographing the urban landscape and as an accomplished portrait photographer the series has become a huge passion.

I was really moved to get a foreword to the series from the hugely talented rock photographer Ian Tilton. Ian has just released his new book on the Stone Roses and is famous for his iconic images of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain and the Manchester music scene.

The ongoing project is hopefully destined to become a book and I am currently looking for partners. These partners will get an advert within the book as well as package of goodies! Please do get in touch if you would like to be involved!

As a slight side project I undertook a few Urban Portraits with a difference. These are Urban Portraits by Night. I had two volunteers, Max and Connor and we hooked up in Crewe to do some portraits under the yellow/ orange glow of street lighting. My flash lighting needed to be slightly different to the day Urban Portraits as I wanted to maintain that colour cast. The experiment worked very well and the two images work very well as part of the overall Urban Portrait series!

I am also available for private commissions. If you fancy your own shoot then make a booking and you can select a location. Its just £49 and the price includes an 18×12 inch print of your favourite image!

Urban, portrait, Crewe, Cheshire, Simon J. Newbury Photography

Night Urban Portrait by Simon J. Newbury Photography

07Feb 2013

Steve Phillips Portrait Photography at Crewe Alex Stadium

07 Feb 2013 Portrait Photography Cheshire, Crewe, Crewe Alex, Football Photography Permalink 0

We recently had the pleasure of using the Alexandra Stadium as a backdrop for a photoshoot. Steve has been raising money for his two chosen charities Leukaemia Research and the Caudwell Children’s Charity. We offered to help out by donating a prize of an Urban Portrait shoot.

We also did a set of portraits of Steve on the pitch at The Alexandra Stadium. As official photographer to Nantwich Town we have previously worked with goalkeeper Jonny Brain and did a set of portraits for the club to use for promotional purposes in the goal at the Weaver Stadium. The portraits of Jonny are very striking and fit in well with the urban portrait series with the moody sky. The Alexandra stadium is a superb backdrop and we certainly had good fun on the pitch!

05Feb 2013

Aimee Winter Portraits

05 Feb 2013 Portrait Photography Alsager, Cheshire, Crewe, Family Photography, Urban Portrait Permalink 0

Although the snow meant problems on the roads it is always a good opportunity for us photographers to get some special photos. I had planned to work with Aimee on an Urban Portrait and we had agreed to wait until there was some snow about. It was certainly worth the wait!

As well as the planned Urban Portrait we wanted to do some winter portraits out in the snow in Alsager. The results were very pleasing. It was certainly a chilly shoot but worth braving the cold!!