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13Feb 2013

Urban Portrait Photography by Night

13 Feb 2013 Portrait Photography , , , , 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

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

Night Urban Portrait by Simon J. Newbury Photography

05Feb 2013

Urban Portrait Private Commissions

05 Feb 2013 Portrait Photography , , , , Permalink 0

You may have noticed a few changes on our homepage! We now have direct links to our three main sites! As well as the main photography site: www.simonjnewburyphotography.co.uk which covers all our aspects of photography we have direct links to the dedicated wedding site: www.yourweddingphotographercheshire.co.uk and our page dedicated to the Urban Portrait Series: www.urbanportrait.co.uk

We really hope you like the extended new sites and would really welcome your thoughts and comments!

With regards to the Urban Portrait series we have made a package available to anyone wishing to privately commission us. For just £49 you can book a shoot at a location of your choice (in the Crewe area) and get a large 18×12 print of your favourite portrait from the shoot.

Urban Portraits private commissions by Simon J. Newbury Photography

Urban Portraits private commissions by Simon J. Newbury Photography

The Urban Portrait project has proved to be very popular indeed. After a very successful exhibition last year we still have plans to turn the project into a limited edition book run. The book is open to book advertisers priced at just £50 which includes a discount voucher, a signed copy of the book and a print! If you would be interested in being involved, please get in touch!

Meanwhile if you would like your own personal Urban Portrait then please get in touch to make arrangements! We are also available for band/ musician Urban Photoshoots!

03Feb 2013

New Bespoke Wedding Books, Olio & Farina Photography & Swansway at Crewe Hall

03 Feb 2013 Commercial Photography, Event Photography, Portrait Photography, Press Photography, Wedding Photography , , , , Permalink 0

Well we are looking forward to a busier than ever wedding season this year. We have kicked the year off by updating our collection of sample books for our brides to have a good look at! All our books are hand designed by Tina who has a background in Graphic Design as well as being an accomplished photographer. We have selected a range of weddings from the many we have covered to best show off our style and the wonderful variation in design, papers and covers available from our Italian wedding book supplier.

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31Dec 2012

Review of the Year – The Dabbers & Gridiron UK Photography

31 Dec 2012 Press Photography , , , , Permalink 0

A few other notable things we have been up to this year include the stills photography commission for Gridiron UK and the ongoing rollercoaster of photographing Nantwich Town FC.

Gridiron UK Film Cast by Simon J. Newbury Photography

Gridiron UK Film Cast by Simon J. Newbury Photography in Crewe, Cheshire

Gridiron UK was filmed in and around Crewe. It was a very exhausting but rewarding 4 weeks. It was really interesting to see the behind the scenes work that goes into making a motion picture. The film is based on the true story of the formation of the Crewe Railroaders in the 80s by writer and director Gary Delaney. My main role was to photograph the behind the scenes work, create the official stills for the film publicity and appear briefly as an extra! Although I haven’t yet seen the final cut I have been informed by the director that my main scene, while slightly cut, is still part of the film!! I appeared briefly behind lead character Derek (Michael Dixon) in a scene filmed at the Market Centre in Crewe. I also appear behind Derek’s parents at a fixture at the Cumberland Arena. I’ll be sure to let you all know exactly where to pause your dvds when the film is released! The next stage for the photos will be an exhibition planned. Again, we’ll keep you posted!

Nantwich Town FC Cheshire Senior Cup Winners

Nantwich Town FC Cheshire Senior Cup Winners at Chester FC

We are now well into our second season as official photographers to Nantwich Town FC. Last year saw the club reached the first round proper of the FA Cup for the very first time in the history of the club. Last season was finished by a visit to Chester City’s Deva Stadium to take on Stalybridge Celtic in the Cheshire Senior Cup Final. The Dabbers ran out 1-0 winners and it was a great way to end such a great season for the club! This season has seen the Dabbers stronger in the league. Home form has been fairly indifferent but the Dabbers have been far stronger away from the Weaver. All being well the Dabbers will be involved in the playoffs come the end of the season!

31Dec 2012

Portraits & Weddings – Review of the Year

31 Dec 2012 General , , , , Permalink 0

Well its been a good year on both the wedding and portrait photography fronts. It’s great getting to meet well known people and quite often celebrities make for good portraits because they must be posing all the time!

Portrait Photography, celebrity portraits

Main Image: Jonny Brain (Goalkeeper). Top Left: Chris Ramsey (Comedian). Bottom Left: Michael Dixon (Actor). Top Right: Beth Tweddle (Gymnast). Bottom Right: Dorsey Levins (American Footballer).

Among some of the faces we have made portraits of this year are: Tim Wonnacott (BBC Bargain Hunt), Richard O’Brien (Crystal Maze), Chris Ramsey (Hebburn), Perry Fenwick (Eastenders), Daniel Ilabaca (Freerunner), Right Said Fred, Dorsey Levens (Green Bay Packers Superbowl Winner), Beth Tweddle (GB Olympic medalist), Eddie Izzard, Dion Dublin, Steve Claridge, Tony Christie, Guy Garvey (Elbow), Darren Fletcher (Man Utd), Andros Townsend (Tottenham Hotspur), Kevin Painter (Darts), Steve Beaton, Colin Lloyd, Michael Dixon (actor), Rebecca Pitkin (Actress), Jonny Brain (goalkeeper), Charlotte Bradbury (swimmer), Ed Miliband, Yvette Cooper MP and Alan Johnson MP.

But, as I always say, I love making portraits of non celebrities far more. An example of this is the Urban Portrait project. Other than the Sherborne Regeneration Project I undertook with Cruden and Wulvern the Urban Portrait has become my biggest project to date. It never really started as a project but which I did the first portrait and showed it to people the popularity was immense. Before I knew it I had a raft of volunteers wanting to be in an Urban Portrait, and the project was born! I am really loving working on the project and held a successful exhibition back in July. I was really flattered to get a foreword to the project from renowned rock photographer Ian Tilton. Talks are currently underway to turn the project into a book of 53 portraits. We also have a dedicated site www.urbanportrait.co.uk

It has also been a busy year of wedding photography. Tina and I have been lucky to attend a wonderful array of weddings and get to some new venues as well as a few we have photographed at before. We were really pleased to get all our bespoke wedding books over from Italy and delivered to our clients in good time for Christmas. A few of the new venues we photographed at this year include: Wincham Hall, Northwich, Soughton Hall, Flintshire, Old Hall, Madeley, Haslington Hall, Cheshire, Bangor-On-Dee Racecourse, Reaseheath, Nantwich, and St. Oswalds Church, Bickley. We’ve got quite a few weddings booked in for next year and room for more!!

We have plans to launch a dedicated website to our wedding photography in early 2013! We’ll keep you posted!

31Dec 2012

Review of the Year – Music Photography

31 Dec 2012 Music Photography , , , , Permalink 0

Well another year has gone by so it’s time for the traditional look back over the past year. It’s certainly been a great year with loads to photograph and some interesting projects which will stretch well into the new year.

Music photography has always been a huge part of what we do. Both Tina and I share a passion for music be it local unsigned bands or well known artists. Hence we both love music photography!

Cheshire Music Photography. Ash, PABH, Hadouken at Crewe Live

Left: Hadouken. Middle: Ash. Right: Pulled Apart By Horses.

This year we have been particularly busy. We’ve been the official photographers for Crewe Live in all but the inaugural year. 2012 saw the festival headlined by Ash, Hadouken and Pulled Apart By Horses, marking their return to The Box. As well as putting on amazing shows, all the bands took the time for a promo shoot. Great additions to the portfolio! Between us we managed to cover every single venue and photographed as many bands as possible!

Music Photography in Nantwich Cheshire

Main Picture: Dame Cleo Laine. Top Left: The Beat. Bottom Left: Wilko Johnson. Top Right: Scott Matthews. Bottom Right: Tony Christie.

We were also the official photographers for the 16th Nantwich Jazz & Blues Festival. Some wonderful acts headed to Cheshire and the highlights include Tony Christie, Dame Cleo Laine, The Beat, Scott Matthews and Spikedriver. It was great to get around all the varied venues and enjoy such a diversity of acts. You can check out some of our photos in our slideshow on Youtube or on the official Jazz Festival website.

One of the biggest (and wettest) gigs that we photographed was Live from Jodrell Bank, Transmission 002. The show was headlined by Elbow. Despite the wet weather it was a fantastic gig and even better was getting the opportunity to chat to Guy Garvey backstage before the show! sadly the wet weather meant that the Paul Weller show scheduled for the following day had to be cancelled.

We also photographed The Australian Pink Floyd in Manchester and Stoke. The light show was truly spectacular! We also visited Birmingham to photograph The South.

We also headed over to Sheffield City Hall and to Leicester’s De Montford Hall to photograph Thin Lizzy. One of my favourite photographs of the year was taken on stage with Thin Lizzy in Leicester!

A little bit closer to home we have seen many great gigs at The Box in Crewe. Some of the bands who have passed through include: Sham 69, Dodgy, The Twang, Catfish & The Bottlemen, The Fallows and many more. We have been the official photographers to The Box for four years now and look forward to the 5th year!

We have done quite a few promo shoots with various bands and musicians this year. Recently we headed over to Dunham Massey for a Winter shoot with Dayve Dean to provide images and artwork to accompany his new album ‘Winter’. The photo-shoot with Interception involved a Russian aircraft in Sandbach. The Human Condition shoot took on a real urban feel under a railway bridge! The Son Of Shinobi shoot took advantage of a wonderful moody sky. Indoors we did shoots with Sink Or Swim, Sham 69 and Dodgy.

October saw the annual charity event we organise called ‘Boxjam’. It’s all in aid of Oxfam. This years extravaganza took place over 3 stages and saw Sink or Swim, George Borowski and The Slippery Hill Boys headline the respective stages.

Looking forward to a wonderful 2013!

10Dec 2012

Interception Promo Photography

10 Dec 2012 General, Music Photography , , , , Permalink 0

We recently took a booking from Crewe band Interception. They wanted a set of band images for promotional purposes. They came up with an idea to shoot at a scrapyard in Sandbach which has, of all things, an old Russian aircraft!

Needless to say such an interesting visual landscape led to a great shoot and some really interesting photos!

The images are very akin to the Urban Portrait project. We have managed to photograph several bands now in the Urban Portrait style, and indeed it was this that inspired the shoot with Interception! We’ve done similar shoots with Son Of Shinobi (which appeared on their album artwork) and Human Condition.

The book idea has had a few changes. Initially it had been hoped to produce the book in time for Christmas but it seemed mad to rush it so it’s still under way and will hopefully be available early in 2013. The book will now be bigger in physical size as well as having more portraits inside. The overall product will be much better than the original plan which can only be good!

You can purchase one here: http://www.justgiving.com/Guy-Standring1

The Children’s Adventure Farm Trust charity calendar we worked on is now available and is being snapped up. They are only £6 and it gives us great pride to think that the idea that Simon had to do something worthwhile for the local Cheshire charity has proved to be a huge success. Thanks to the support of individuals and local companies every single penny of profit the calendars make goes straight to the Farm! Nantwich Town FC are very supportive of the calendar and have allowed us to sell the calendars at the Marine game on December 29th. Adam, featured in the calendar, whose mum Lorraine did all the organisation for the calendar, will lead the team out as mascot!

All of our bespoke wedding books arrived in good time from Italy and have been delivered to happy clients! It’s been really good to see the final products and get them to the happy couples in good time for Christmas. All the books were designed by Tina exactly how the customer wanted! We’ve also taken quite a few orders for parent books, which are duplicates of the main wedding books and make ideal Christmas presents!!

And as we get closer and closer to Christmas it’s a good time to let everyone know we offer gift vouchers. If you are interested, just get in touch!!

28Nov 2012

Sham 69 & Chris Ramsey

28 Nov 2012 Music Photography, Portrait Photography , , , , Permalink 0

Well it’s been a busy week for us here at Simon J. Newbury Photography! I’m pleased to say we are due to receive our bespoke wedding albums from Italy ready in time for Christmas! We also have our event albums on their way. All the books have been lovingly designed by Tina and its a good feeling when they are with the printers in good time to meet the Christmas deadline.

We’ve got the first of our family photo days out of the way. We had a good time at Nantwich Town on Sunday and have loads of lovely photos. Our next family, kids and pets photo day will be held in Crewe at Via Dance Studios on Middlewich Street. It will be on Sunday 9th December and places are still available and can be booked now! You can get prints or canvasses and they will all be guaranteed to arrive in time for Christmas!

Music Promo Photography in Cheshire: Sham 69

Sham 69 Promo image

Meanwhile Simon has been down at the Box for a photoshoot with Sham 69 followed by photographing their show. A great gig once again! Tina is at the Box every Friday photographing all the local bands!

Cheshire Comedian Portrait Photography in Cheshire

Chris Ramsey Portrait

After Sham 69 it was on to the Civic Hall in Nantwich for the Feeling Lucky Tour with Chris Ramsey. Chris was in Nantwich last year and Simon was there to photograph the show and do a portrait shoot. Since then Chris has gone on to star in a host of comedy shows and has starred as the lead in the BBC sitcom Hebburn.

The Urban Portrait project is still underway with a book planned in the new year. you can always check out the latest info about the project at the dedicated website: www.urbanportrait.co.uk 

13Nov 2012

Children’s Adventure Farm Fundraising Calendar 2013

13 Nov 2012 General , , , , Permalink 0

Well now Boxjam is all done and dusted and the money raised is safely deposited with the local Crewe Oxfam shop all ready to go to work making a difference I decided I wanted to get another charity fundraising project off the ground.

I had long been thinking of a project which helped to raise awareness of disabilities as well as raised some funds for a good cause. I came up with the idea of a charity calendar. I spoke to  my good friend Lorraine who herself has a son with Down’s Syndrome. She loved the idea and within 24 hours had a set of willing models and a majority of the sponsorship needed to make the project a reality.

CAFT Mascot Bobby with Wendy & Wesley from the Wacky Warehouse

We had a meeting at The Children’s Adventure Farm based in Cheshire and that charity will be the beneficiary of all the funds the calendar makes.

We held a photo day at the Farm and all the images have now been taken and the calendar is at design stage and is all set to be ordered this week so we can get selling them in good time for Christmas! They will be priced at just £6 and as mentioned, all the money we raise will go to the good work of the Farm! It really has been a wonderful project and Tina and myself have met some wonderful people along the way!

Even a Polar Bear got in on the action at the CAFT Calendar shoot!

We also have 2 Family Photo Days coming up if you are thinking of getting some photos for Christmas. The first is on 25th November and will be held at Nantwich Town Football Club (where I am of course the official club photographer). There are a few places left if you want to book a sitting! The other is in Crewe at Via Dance studios on Middlewich Street. The slots are available between 10AM and 4PM and you can book by either phoning 01270 581315 (messages may be left!!) or by email on info@sjnphoto.co.uk The photos can be family, pets, kids, whatever you like!!

Family Photo Day at Nantwich Town

All prints and canvasses from the shoots will be delivered in time for Christmas!