21Oct 2011

Ray Parlour at the Weaver Stadium

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Over the summer I was appointed the official club photographer for Nantwich Town FC. I had previously done a portrait of Chairman Jon Gold and club manager Jimmy Quinn for my exhibition ‘People’ staged at the Lyceum Theatre. Mr Gold was so impressed with the portraits that he invited me to take up the position, which I was very happy to accept.

I now attend all the home fixtures to take action shots which are used on the club website and in the programme! I also have a full page advertisement in the matchday programme. As well as the action shots I have taken the full squad photograph, recently published in the Chronicle and all the player portraits.

There are many fundraising events held at the Weaver Stadium including after dinner speaking. I was privileged to be invited along to a recent event starring BBC football commentator John Motson OBE. I had a good chat with John and also did a monochrome portrait which was also included in the ‘People’ exhibition. Last night England and Arsenal legend Ray Parlour was at the Weaver! I was once again invited to attend and provide the event photography and produced a portrait of Ray.

Ray had some great stories to tell about his playing days and a great evening was had by all!

20Oct 2011

NME Music Photography Competition

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Every year NME hold a music photography competition. There is an amateur category and a professional section. I entered the maximum photographs allowed, five. This year I let my Facebook friends decide the 5 I entered by making their selection of 5 from my narrowed down selection of 10.

The top 5 were:

– a portrait of Al Campbell of Sham 69, a black and white portrait I did at The Box in Crewe.

– a portrait of Matthew Davies-Kreye of Funeral For a Friend, another monochrome portrait.

– a portrait of Kingsley Chapman of the Chapman Family, a hot and sweaty shot taken straight after a performance.

– a live shot of The Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne, taken from the pit at Transmission 001 Live From Jodrell Bank.

– a live shot of Iggy Pop performing with The Stooges, taken at Chester Rocks this summer.

A have a huge passion for live music and music photography. I love photographing bands on stage, in posed group promo shots as well as documentary style shots. I have accompanied several bands into the recording studio and documented the process of recording music.

You can check out my NME entries here:
http://www.nme.com/ratemy/218221/nme-professional-music-photography-awards-2011/item/225945
(Mine are this image and the following 4!)

Also feel free to have a browse on the website where I have many of my favourite music photos in the galleries!

I’m pleased to say that at the time of writing all 5 of my NME entries are in the top 20!!

20Oct 2011

Celebrity Bargain Hunt in Nantwich

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We recently had a great time at Peter Wilson Fine Art Auctioneer in Nantwich, Cheshire. The BBC was in town to film a set of episodes of the popular Bargain Hunt series, including the celebrity Children In Need episode.

I was asked to go along to get some photographs of the proceedings and was pleased to meet up with the celebrity red and blue teams participating! I did a great portrait of the show’s host Tim Wonnacott as well as the two experts on hand to lend their advice to the teams!

I spent some time with the star of The Crystal Maze and The Rocky Horror Show, Richard O’Brien. I love the monochrome portrait! Its in my front wrap on my website if you want to check it out!! I also photographed Jodie Prenger, famous from ‘I’d Do Anything’. They represented the Westenders while the Eastenders were Billy Mitchell and his on-screen wife Honey from the popular BBC soap. Perry Fenwick and Emma Barton were both happy to pose for portraits!

A great day was had and lots of money raised for the wonderful charity Children In Need. The episode is due to be broadcast on November 18.

19Oct 2011

Special Photo Sitting Days in Crewe

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The blog is back, lets hope its here to stay!! I’ll kick things off with a quick post about the special photo sitting days I am holding in the lead up to Christmas. I have organised a set of photo days at various locations which means you can take advantage of our £20 for a shoot and print offer. Its great value for Christmas presents and we offer the usual fantastic quality!

You are free to select your favourite image and have it printed as you desire, in colour or in monochrome. You can also select any other images if you like and may choose to upgrade to one of our good value packages or to a canvas print. There’s no hard selling, you get a unique login and can select your images at your leisure online!

To kick things off we are heading over to RedShift Radio on 6th November and then a week later we will be at The Box on Pedley Street. We are open to Newborns, Kids Photos, Family, pets or professional portraits for social media use! If you are after a nice pro portrait to use on Twitter or Facebook you can choose to have a web resolution digital image instead of the print ready to upload!

If you want to book yourself a slot, just pop along to the page and follow the links!!

http://www.simonjnewburyphotography.co.uk/offers/photositting.html