Portraits & Weddings – Review of the Year

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!

Charlotte Bradbury & The Olympic Torch

Well July is certainly the season for weddings. It’s just a shame the weather hasn’t realised yet! We have a wedding at Old Hall in Madeley and if the sun responds to it’s invite we will be outside. If not I am sure it will be a lovely occasion indoors! We are then off to St. Oswald’s Church in Worleston, Nantwich. Its such a beautiful church and we have been along to the wedding rehearsal so we can find the best spots for the photography and meet the vicar in advance of the big day as we like to do!

In May the Olympic Torch relay passed through Crewe. Swimmer Charlotte Bradbury carried the torch through the town centre and I was pleased to get some great shots of the procession and Charlotte as we enjoyed some early morning tunes from Tom Seals!

Charlotte Bradbury carrying the Olympic Torch through Crewe, Cheshire

Charlotte Bradbury carrying the Olympic Torch through Crewe, Cheshire

Charlotte is a swimmer from Nantwich who had hopes of taking part in the Olympics but injury ended her hopes of qualification. I arranged to do a photoshoot with Charlotte at Cheshire East’s Crewe swimming pool. We did a variety of portraits with such a perfect backdrop!

Charlotte Bradbury

Charlotte Bradbury, Swimmer.

Another interesting shoot I have undertaken recently was of Kiss tribute band Dressed To Kill. It was certainly an experience! The pictures speak for themselves!

Simon photographing Dressed To Kill

Simon photographing Dressed To Kill

Dressed To Kill Promo

Dressed To Kill Promo (Click on the image to view the others)