And that's a wrap!

As the curtain goes down on our 10th year of capturing the Celebrate Voice Festival, we look back at our favourites from this year’s event. Over the decade since we started, the festival has gone from strength to strength and this year’s was the best yet.

The festival opened with the world-renowned BBC Singers (conducted by Bob Chilcott), performing in Wilton Italianate Church. The beautiful choral music filled this equally gorgeous venue with an uplifting mix of songs and melodies.

Ronnie Scott’s All Stars returned to the festival from the internationally-renowned London Jazz Club, with songstress Natalie Williams, one of the UK's most popular soul/jazz artists. People travel from around the world to visit the Soho club, but we were lucky enough to be part of this fabulous evening in our own home-town city of Salisbury.

Come and Sing HMS Pinafore, was a chance for members of the public to immerse themselves in the action, and be part of the production with the stars. A morning of rehearsals, led by Musical Director David Gostick was followed by a performance in which the public became the chorus, and put what they had learnt into action.

Comedic opera “Cosi Fan Tutte” was a riot of a show, full of fun and hi-jinx (set in a 1950s holiday camp; with a nod of inspiration from Hi-de-Hi). The trials of life, love, romance and betrayal twisted and turned to keep us enthralled to the end.

Live at the Musicals brought together Zoe Curlett, Katy Hanna, Keiron Crook and Simon Shorten direct from the glittering stages of the West End, to perform a wonderful mix of iconic and universally loved show tunes. This really was an intimate, up close and personal performance, and we LOVED it.

Comedy and Cabaret at its very best with performances by award winning and acclaimed comedians Amy Webber and Andrew Drew. Their solo shows had the audience (and us) in stitches with their individual takes on modern life and employment issues.

Always the biggest highlight of the festival for us. SEND brings local people with learning difficulties together with the professional singers, to produce and star in their own special performance. It’s just the most amazing, incredibly joyous, emotionally uplifting and inclusive celebration of our local community, and it’s the one we look forward to the most each year.

Showcasing up and coming talent, we were treated to performances by local young artists. Recommended by their schools, these truly are the stars of the future and the ones to watch. We are so looking forward to seeing how their careers progress.

One last word - if the Celebrate Voice Festival has somehow escaped your notice, please do watch out for next year’s offering. It’s well worth the visit and maybe we will see you there!

We love it when a plan comes together!

When we acquired our pro series drone we hoped that our clients would love the new angle it offered. We are so pleased that its proving to be an asset in all sorts of ways.

Whether we are capturing a building for archive purposes, investigating difficult to access areas for maintenance purposes, or looking at your event in a different way, it's always interesting seeing things from a new perspective.

In the image above you can see that the church needed a little attention right at the most awkward point. In the past it would have taken significant investment in scaffolding to see exactly what was going on. The drone was able to quickly identify. the work that was needed and the skills and equipment necessary (and saved a small fortune to boot).

The beautiful St Nicholas Hospital has stood on this site for approximately 800 years and must have seen so many changes in its time. Thanks to aerial photography the archives will now record exactly how it looks today for future generations to come.

This client wanted to show the setting for their summer party. What a great event in such a beautiful setting.

Approved by the CAA to fly drones for commercial use, we are fully qualified and insured, and always work within the latest UK regulations. We use professional drones to deliver 4K video and high-resolution images to our clients.

Click here to contact us about elevating your business with professional drone photography.

Wow! Just Wow!

We recently had the pleasure of hearing and photographing the totally amazing Claire Lomas MBE - Wife, Mother of two, Sportswoman, Fundraiser, Campaigner, Speaker, Pilot, Motorcyclist and all round inspiration.

Having spent the last 16 years paralysed from the chest down after a freak horse-riding accident, Claire shared her personal story and the split second that changed her life forever. Listening to her story told candidly, with humour and sensitivity by the lady herself, we laughed with her in some places, and cried in others.

Claire quotes that “whether you believe you can or whether you believe you can’t – you are right”. She teaches you that a positive growth mindset has huge impact on reaching your full potential, that adversity can be overcome, goals can be achieved, and dreams are to be followed.“

Southampton International Boatshow 2023

We are always reminded that another year is coming to a close when we finish shooting at the annual Southampton International Boatshow Lunch with Hampshire Chamber of Commerce, Paris Smith LLP, Leonardo Group, and British Marine.

This event goes from strength to strength and each year there is something new. This year was no exception: Daredevil Stunts, Incredible Yachts, Inspirational Speakers, Great Company – this event has it all!

Chalk Valley History Festival

Chalke Valley History Festival lets you to step back in time and experience what life would have been like at any point in history.  Transporting you back to the world of Edwardian Explorers, Medieval Serving Wenches, and sharing with you the trials and tribulations of Sailors in the Napoleonic era, it’s an informative and fun few days.

As you wander through the festival you encounter volunteers dressed in authentic period costumes, who will happily share with you the nitty gritty of their lives. WWII and modern day soldiers rub shoulders with Chelsea Pensioners and charities like the War Graves Commission and Gurkha trust.

Social History buffs are enthralled by talks from ex Prime Minister John Major, and Marina Litvenenko, whilst those interested in gardening enjoy the talk by our national treasure, Alan Titchmarsh.

Although principally shooting press images, John loves this type of shoot as it also gives him a chance to get in touch with his creative side and experiment with a variety of subjects and styles.

See you next year maybe? If you spot us, come and say hello!

Work Life Balance

Work Life Balance has been something we have found difficult. As with all self-employed people we sometimes need to be driven by our clients schedules rather than our own. We “prioritise our schedule, rather than scheduling our priorities”

We have been making a conscious decision to rectify this over the last couple of years, and we think we may have nearly cracked it now :)

Last week we took the chance to pop across to West Wales for a week. It wasn’t really planned as we had booked our main holiday for the end of April, but the weather looked good and we had always wanted to see the Puffins on Skomer Island.

Located less than a mile off the beautiful Pembrokeshire coast, Skomer is truly a wonderful place to visit. At a little over 700 acres, the island is one of the most important Puffin breeding colonies in Britain.

After a very short 15 minute boat trip from the mainland, we stepped off the boat and were immediately face to face with Puffins. They seemed completely unperturbed by our presence and just carried on about their business. Later in the day, as we walked the island, they were just wandering around our feet without a care.

Puffins are apparently monogamous, mating for life and when they rub their beaks together it is believed this is like Puffins kissing, and is a way in which they renew their friendships.

They can fly up to 55mph, a fact I can vouch for as I wasted many shots before actually getting one in focus!

Also home to Manx Shearwater (only to be seen after dark), Guillemot, Razorbill, Great Comorant, Storm-Petrel, Common Shag, Oystercatcher, Short-eared Owl, Kestrel, and Peregrine Falcon, and of course not forgetting a large population of Grey Seal. If you get the chance to visit, we highly recommend it. Just be aware that you are on the island for some 5 hours and there is little shelter from the elements.

We will definitely be going back again this year to see the Pufflings.

Harry circuits the moon

It was an emotional and somewhat humbling experience to see 7 year old Harry Byrne from Larkhill run a mile around the pitch side during half time of Saturday’s game between Salisbury and Hartley Wintney.  Harry is on a 6786 mile adventure (the distance around the moon) to raise funds for local children’s hospices “Naomi House and Jack’s place” and “Julias’s House”, who provide respite care for his brother Reuben as well as many other families.

Read Harry’s story at Naomi House and Jack's Place

Sponsor Harry at Virgin Money

Local forge test shots

It’s always good to get back to grass roots and after the excitement and glamour of last week’s Charity Gala, today John is busy developing some product test shots for a potential new client. There are so many tricky but important elements to this type of photography, but having quality items to work with really helps.

Test images ensure that we have fully understood the clients brief, and that both the client and ourselves are a good fit for each other. We are very much in this together and a great team approach is crucial to delivering a quality end product.

If you would like to talk to John about how he can help you by producing eye-catching images of your products or business, drop him an email on john@johnrosephotography.com or fill in the contact form to arrange a chat

Annual Boat Show Lunch with Hampshire Chamber

We are pleased to confirm that the Southampton International Boat Show is back with a vengeance. The show was opened by members of the British Sailing Team fresh from Tokyo 2020, and people came out in force to support them and to enjoy the sea air.  With over 600 global brands represented there was truly something for everyone.

John Rose Photography were privileged to be able to attend and photograph the prestigious Hampshire Chamber of Commerce Boat Show Lunch – the Hampshire Chamber really do know how to put on an event, and it was great to see so many people enjoying the face to face networking again. Hosted by Gary Whittle (Meachers Global Logistics), Gareth Miller (Carswell Gould) and Peter Taylor (Paris Smith LLP) at the Leonardo Royal Hotel Southampton Grand Harbour, the audience was treated to talks by guest speakers Lesley Robinson (British Marine), Mark Denton (MaxVMG) and Councillor Daniel Fitzhenry (Southampton City Council), and a good time was had by all.

Unfortunately we can also report that as John’s lottery numbers did not come in on Saturday, his order for the new Sunseeker had to be postponed – gutted!