01Jan 2012

Review of the Year – 2011 – Part Four

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2011 was also a special year for our wedding photography. We got to share and document the special day of Emma & Ben, Jane & Tom, Kate & Matthew, Michelle & Matthew, Sarah & John, Emily & Mike and Joanne & John. We visited some wonderful venues and had a great time photographing all of them! A few highlights were the 50s theme, the Glastonbury Festival theme and the helicopter ride for the bride and groom to Crewe Hall!

We’re looking forward to lots of weddings in the new year, and have quite a few already booked in!

I was also honoured to be asked by Cheshire East Council to be involved in two big events. The first was the Centenary week of celebrations at the Lyceum Theatre. I was the official photographer for the week of events and photographed the performances that were put on in celebration and also photographed the buildings interior which is an amazing building and also the exterior when it came to life for the magnificent Illuminos Project, a fantastic light show telling the history of the building.

The second event was being asked to sit on the judging panel for a photography competition covering various categories designed to encapsulate Cheshire East in picture. The standard of entry was very high and choosing the various winners was not an easy task! It was inspiring to see so many great images of Cheshire!

We have also been up to lots of kids photography. From some lovely monochrome newborn photography through to babies and toddlers and through to some great shoots with older children. Lots of patience leads to some very rewarding images!

I was also pleased to produce the mayoral portrait for the Worshipful Mayor of Crewe in the Municipal Buildings mayoral portrait.

We’ve also kept busy with lots of product and commercial shoots. A great way to spruce up a website!!

All the best for 2012!

31Dec 2011

Review of the Year – 2011 – Part Three

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I’ve been the official photographer at The Box in Crewe since 2009. I’ve watched it grow and go from strength to strength. This year has seen an amazing set of bands and musicians appearing at the venue, as well as the capacity increase.

One of the best nights I had photographing at the Box was when Guillemots played. Fyfe Dangerfield and his band all posed for portraits and a group shot before a wonderful performance in front of a brilliant crowd. My monochrome portrait of Fyfe is one of my favourites of the year.

The immense Funeral For A Friend were also just amazing. A ram packed Box lapped up the Welsh rockers who headed off to Download the following week. Another great set of portraits, again all monochrome!

One of the nights that took me by surprise was the UK Subs. A brilliant night was had followed by some green room documentary photography and a pint from Charlie, the lead singer!!

My annual charity event Boxjam (all in aid of Oxfam) extended to 2 days this year. Boxjam III crammed in nearly 60 acts over 2 stages and raised £720! Really pleased to bring My Preserver and Benjamin Bloom back to Crewe as well as a host a brilliant local acts.

A fine night was had in the company of Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly! Aka Sam Duckworth. Arriving late due to traffic hold ups we did the portrait shoot after the gig. One of my favourite portraits of the year and also a great set of live images.

Amongst the other (hundreds) of bands stopping by were Futures, Tellison, James Cleaver Quintet, Sham 69, Adam Ficek & Gary Powell and Blitz Kids!

I’ve also worked with many great local bands including: Junker, Skeletal Damage, The Escape, Violet Omen, The Retrospective, Hayley Strangelove, James Gardiner, Chloe, Revelation, Midnight Lycan Party, Longshanks, The Resistance, and Sumofly.

I also travelled to Birmingham’s O2 Academy to photograph The Bluetones on their farewell tour at their penultimate gig.

I’ve also covered some big events this year. Working with WTD Promotions I have photographed some great professional darts exhibitions. Simon ‘The Wizard’ Whitlock, Terry ‘The Bull’ Jenkins, Andy ‘The Pie Man’ Smith and John ‘Darth Maple’ Part all headed to Crewe for some great evenings down at Crewe Alex. I’ve also covered some after dinner speeches including Alastair Campbell and Labour Leader Ed Miliband MP at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool.

I was also booked to be the official photographer at the North West Regional Labour Party Conference in Blackpool. This inevitably led to loads of MP portraits!

31Dec 2011

Review of the Year – 2011 – Part Two

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Following my request to photograph the Chairman of Nantwich Town, Jon Gold, and club manager Jimmy Quinn I was invited to become the official club photographer. I was delighted to accept this position and have attended every home game at the Weaver Stadium. I have also travelled to several away games and I am loving being involved with the club.

It’s certainly been an historic season. The club reached the 1st round proper of the FA Cup and were drawn away to Milton Keynes Dons at their new stadium. Although the scoreline was pretty harsh (6-0), everyone at the club had a great day out and the financial input from the cup run has made the world of difference to the South Cheshire club!

As a result of my involvement with the club I have been able to produce many portraits of many of the game’s luminaries. John Motson OBE paid a visit to the club and was happy to pose. England and Arsenal legend Ray Parlour was also a visitor to the Weaver Stadium. The Club’s Life President is former Chelsea and England star Frank Blunstone. Frank won the 1st Division title with Chelsea after moving from Crewe. He also went on to represent England. Certainly a legend and a great subject for a portrait! Another legend I photographed at the Weaver this term is former AC Milan and Italy sweeper Franco Baresi. Franco brought a charity XI to the Weaver along with a few other former Italian internationals.

Aside from the football I have been as busy as ever with my music photography. I have been fortunate to photograph at some wonderful events this year. The Crewe Live Festival was back after a year away and Tina and myself undertook to photograph as much of the event as we could. Spread over 12 venues and 4 days with over 150 bands playing it was no easy task! We managed to photograph 100 bands between us and had a great time. The festival was headlined by Funeral For A Friend and I was pleased to do portraits of the entire band as well as a promo shoot before they took to the stage in front of a packed Box!

The Cloud 9 festival near Sandbach was a wonderful one day event. Again Tina and I attended as official photographers and really enjoyed the variety of music on offer. Our good friend Sheena Bratt appeared with Nick Bayes guesting on bass and it made for some great photos. Over on the main stage Ed Sheeran was amazing. I was pleased to meet Ed and do a portrait. Also on the bill was Bez and The Futureheads.

The first ever Transmissions – Live from Jodrell Bank took place this year as well. The event was headlined by The Flaming Lips along with British Sea Power and OK GO!. A phenomenal event which was truly a visual treat. I entered one of my images of Flaming Lips front man Wayne Coyne into the NME professional photography competition and it finished in the top 20. I certainly hope that the event continues next year -its such a wonderful venue for such an event!

The very next day I headed off to Chester Rocks at the racecourse. They had a fantastic lineup! Tommy Scott (Space), I Am Kloot, Lightning Seeds, Australian Pink Floyd, Feeder, Leftfield and Iggy Pop & The Stooges. A great day in the sun and was amazed at the fantastic performance from Iggy. Came home with a wonderful set of images!

Also on a musical note I was pleased to do a portrait shoot with former Guns ‘n Roses musician Duff McKagan. Duff was on tour with his new band Loaded! We travelled to the Garage in London to do the portrait and capture the live performance. A late night but a music legend!

31Dec 2011

Review of the Year – 2011 – Part One

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2011 has been an amazing year for Simon J. Newbury Photography. I’ve met and photographed so many amazing people!

One of the most notable things of 2011 for me was the 2 major exhibitions I staged. The first was the conclusion of the massive documentary project I undertook with Wulvern and Cruden Construction documenting Phase One of the Regeneration (now award winning regeneration!).

The major exhibition was funded completely by Wulvern and ran for a week culminating in a huge VIP event and tour of the Sherborne Estate. I was very proud and honoured to have my images displayed and viewed by so many people. It was a fitting conclusion to the work I had done over the previous year. It remains the biggest project I have undertaken.

The second major exhibition was held throughout May at the Lyceum Theatre in Crewe. A very different project on display entitled ‘People’. This was an exhibition of my portraits including many famous names as well as some local people and even an anonymous gentleman photographed on the streets of Florence in Italy!

‘People’ included some of portraits I had made previously from my portfolio such as James Toseland (who announced his retirement this year), Mark Morriss (The Bluetones), John Pienaar (BBC 5 Live), Ben Montague, Darius (before his appearance in Crewe), John Bramwell (I Am Kloot), Mat Horne (Gavin & Stacey), Jez Williams (Doves), Bez, Mark Chadwick (Levellers), Garry Christian (The Christians) and Lord Prescott. I also did some portraits especially for the exhibition. Nantwich Town Chairman Jon Gold and manager (and former Northern Ireland international) Jimmy Quinn, former Crewe Alex player Joel Grant (now with Wycombe Wanderers), Fiona Bruce MP, John Motson OBE and Simon ‘The Wizard’ Whitlock. The exhibition was a huge success and once again thank-you to everyone who attended during the month, everyone that left comments in the book, Tom Seals and Hayley Strangelove for performing at the VIP evening and Volume PR for the promotional work. Huge thanks to Nick Bayes for the professional hanging and display work!

I am pleased to say that the exhibition now exists as a permanent feature at the Brierly Centre in Crewe and at the Rising Sun Vaults around the corner from RedShift Radio on Earle Street.

Lots of people are familiar with my images appearing regularly in the local press. The Crewe & Nantwich Guardian, The Chronicle and the Sentinel have all borne my images this year and each has had my images on the front cover at some point. On a national level I have been published in two major publications this year.

The first was a full page poster in Kerrang! which also included the image on the front cover. The images was a promo shot of The James Cleaver Quintet taken straight after their performance at the Box in Crewe. The other major publication was two images of Nantwich Town manager Jimmy Quinn featured in the December issue of Four Four Two magazine. One was the portrait featured in my exhibition and the other was a shot of Jimmy in action in a charity match at the Weaver Stadium.

Definitely one of my main highlights of the year was appearing on Granada Reports with Sharon Burrows of Hullabaloo Kids. Between us we have been pioneering an innovative package for mums-to-be entitled ‘Paint & Portrait’. Sharon, a professional face painter, paints a scene onto the baby bump and I produce some quality portraits of the pampered mum-to-be! Again with the help of Volume we landed ourselves in all the local press including a half page front cover photo in the Sentinel! Not long after we got a call from Granada Reports asking to do a feature! This lead to a film crew heading over to join us with a selection of mums and mums-to-be. Paul Crone and his team filmed Sharon doing her painting, and me making the portraits and interviewed us both about the package and the feature went out that night on ITV!

15Dec 2011

Christmas Gift Vouchers & ‘Last Chance Saloon’ Prints!

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Well its that time of year again and we are all dashing around looking for special gifts for loved ones this Christmas. We have a few ideas for a special present to give this year.

Photographs can bring such immense pleasure not only at the time of giving, but for years and years to come. If you don’t have time in the busy festive period to get some pets photos, family shots or kids photography, you can always give one of our gift vouchers. It can be for as much or as little as you decide! It can go towards any of our photography in the new year so if you know someone planning a wedding it’s something that could make a real difference!! The vouchers can be put to use for prints or for canvasses!

We can also do some last-minute photos for you. We can come to you and do the photographs, and produce mounted 6×4 prints there and then! All next week in the build up to Christmas we will be available! We can also organise 7×5 or 8×10 prints within 24 hours! It’s not too late yet!!! Your local award winning photographer is available at short notice right here in South Cheshire!

08Dec 2011

Working with Cheshire’s Poet Laureate

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Many of you will know I volunteer my services to local Community Radio station RedShift Radio. Presently on the airwaves on 87.7FM in the South Cheshire area I am doing four shows a week in between the busy festive photoshoots! I ordinarily present the local music show on a Monday but have stepped up the shows and present the local community show called Community Roundup three days a week!

Recently one of our many guests was Cheshire’s longest serving poet laureate, Terry Fox. He delivered several poems and one, Homage To Cheshire, was so full of wonderful imagery that I had to ask if we could collaborate. I have recently put together some slideshows of various areas of my photography and thought the idea of photographing a set of images to put to the poem would be a wonderful project. I am pleased to say that Terry was very keen, he commented “I am enormously pleased by the prospect of my poem being used with your photographs.” I can’t say how proud I am to be working with such an esteemed poet!

I will of course keep you up to date on the progress of this project!!

Meanwhile there is still time to get Christmas bookings in. I use local suppliers so I can guarantee prints and canvas for a while yet so please do get in touch if you fancy a kids, family or pets shoot for Christmas! We also offer vouchers which make wonderful Christmas gifts!

On Saturday 10th December we will be at the Kingsmead Primary School Christmas Fair in Northwich. You can pop along to see some of our canvas montages and printed work including our kids photography, family photography and pets photography! We’ll have images of newborns, baby & toddler shots, maternity photos and lots from our portfolio! I’ll also have my portrait portfolio and some of my wedding books! See you there?

01Dec 2011

Christmas Family Photos

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Well here we are in December so I guess we can talk about Christmas now! Its obviously a busy month but we still have bookings available with prints and canvasses guaranteed in time for Christmas!

Family photography is very popular this time of year, as is pet photography! We have some great packages that are very reasonably priced so please do get in touch if you want some kids photos, family shots, pet photos or some nice portraits from your local award winning photographer!

We can also offer vouchers for any of our packages which make a nice gift for Christmas!

I’ve also put together a little slideshow of some of my kids photography which is on Youtube! On my main website follow the link at the bottom to my new Youtube channel!

11Nov 2011

Dabbers in FA Cup History & Guillemots at The Box

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I spent the afternoon at the Weaver Stadium in Nantwich. Nantwich Town have made history by reaching the 1st round proper of the FA Cup for the first time in their 127 year history and head down to Milton Keynes for Saturday’s fixture. The place was buzzing as the team got ready to set off with Sky Sports News broadcasting live as well as all the local Press. I’m off to the Stadium:MK on Saturday to photograph the match for the club and local press.

Thursday night saw one of the best nights of music at The Box in Crewe I have witnessed. Guillemots were in town and the performance was special. I had a good chat with the band before they took to the stage and shot a portrait of each band member as well as a group shot of all the band together.

I also was the official photographer for the WTD Promotions darts exhibition at Crewe Alex with three times world champion John Part. Did a great portrait and also all the shots with the fans!

I’ll be working with the Retrospective on Sunday on a band shoot. Got some great ideas and looking forward to an interesting shoot!

09Nov 2011

Duff McKagan and Four Four Two Magazine

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Another busy week is underway at SJN Towers! After a weekend spent partly in Blackpool photographing loads of MPs and a day at RedShift Radio for the special photo day we have loads underway this week.

On Tuesday night I was off to London to meet and photograph former Guns ‘n Roses musician Duff McKagan. Duff is now with Loaded and I met him at The Garage in Islington. We did some portraits followed by some live shots of the last gig on their UK tour! Great gig it was too!

I recently received a request from the famous football magazine Four Four Two for some images of Nantwich Town manager Jimmy Quinn. I photographed the former Northern Ireland international leading up to my exhibition at the Lyceum Theatre earlier in the year. The resulting article is in the December issue and is a humorous take on Jimmy featuring on the bench for the Dabbers due to suspensions and injuries! I photographed Jimmy in a charity match in which he found the back of the net against Franco Baresi’s AC Milan Legend XI.

Still got lots on over the rest of the week. Guillemots stop by Crewe on Thursday at The Box. On the same night I’ll be photographing three times world champion professional darts player John Part. John is taking part in an exhibition with WTD Promotions at Crewe Alex’s Carlsberg Suite. Friday sees another gig at the Box before a weekend which will involve heading down to Milton Keynes for the historic match between the MK Dons and Nantwich Town in the first round of the FA Cup. Sunday I have a family shoot followed by a music promo for local band The Retrospective!

07Nov 2011

Cheshire Market Towns Photography Competition Judging

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I am very pleased to have been asked to sit on the judging panel for the Cheshire Market Towns Photography Competition run by Cheshire East Council.

I took charge of 2 of the 6 categories and I have to say the selection of images from amateur photographers around Cheshire was very good indeed. It reminded me how amazing the Cheshire countryside is and how much there is to photograph so close to home! The winners are due to be announced on Wednesday and congratulations go to all the winners in all categories, the overall winner and the under 18 winners.

The competition was run through Flickr which is an amazing site dedicated to sharing photographs! I have had a Flickr account for many years now and still use it regularly. If you want to check out some of my images that aren’t necessarily on the main website in the galleries check it out:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/simonjnewbury/

Meanwhile this week I will be photographing The Guillemots and Canadian former darts world champion John Part!