Jonathan Syer Photography / Blog

Laura & Ben

I've posted a quicker blog than I normally would this time as the wedding of Laura & Ben took place right in central London where last Saturday's protest march took place against government cuts...so here are a couple of images from the day - I'll post more later this week or early next.

The placard was found lying in a back street behind the Strand and Laura wanted to use it as a prop, a sort of Dylanesque Subterranean Homesick Blues kind of theme, something to remember a big event by that made its impact on their wedding...

I think this shot below really tells the story of the day - to my mind it is the 'decisive moment' as the protester has caught the bride & groom's eye at exactly the moment that the two parties are moving on their ways to two very different scenarios and objectives. The two parties are together in the present and their lines have crossed but only for the briefest moment in time...

Errr....never had this happen before - this ice cream van obviously had a driver with a certain degree of entrepreneurial spirit who saw his opportunity on this day. The van drove past us and then stopped, backed-up and proceed to serve ice creams to all takers. 

Design Museum, Shad Thames | Samsung Wave II Photo Exhibition

This was a commission to shoot a photo exhibition/competition organised by Samsung as part of its promotion of the new Wave II camera phone at the Design Museum on the banks of the river Thames. The entrants themselves were quite an eclectic crowd, the venue was fabulous with amazing views to Tower Bridge and downriver to Canary Wharf and a great evening was had by all...

 

 

 

 

Hannah & Ewan

Hannah & Ewan's wedding was at the RSA in London in the Great Room on the top level within the building. This is always a challenge again for photographers as despite some degree of natural light coming through a glass-domed roof...

Lots of kilts on this wedding which was great to see...I'm not sure how many I counted but there must have been a least a dozen kilted up for the day. 

 

Waldorf Astoria Syon Park

Here are some images from recent shoot at the newly opened Waldorf Astoria Syon Park - these were shot as part of a recent interiors commission. 

This is the first hotel that the Waldorf group has built an hotel as new - all previous Waldorf Astorias have been set in traditional period buildings as I understand it. However the hotel does not disappoint and the attention to detail inside was quite astonishing...here are some images from the shoot.

Note the huge block of ice in the American Bar at centre - here guests can chip off their own ice into their drinks...

Sue & Matt

I've just received a letter from Sue & Matt whom I shot for back in January (seems a long time ago now - or is that me ?)...really very nice indeed to get this sort of feedback so I'm going to share it here.

'Dear Jonathan

A rather belated note but we just wanted to let you know that we were absolutely thrilled with our wedding photographs. We have had so many compliments on them.

You really did a fabulous job, and more than that, we enjoyed having you there as you were such fun to work with.

Kind regards

Sue & Matt'

 

 

Katherine & Martin

It's always good to get an image of a bride coming up the aisle...the face is aglow with expectation, nervousness, excitement, anticipation, sheer joy...I could go on with these adjectives but you get the picture of the rollercoaster of emotions going on at this point in a wedding.

To give an image context in this situation I like to shoot right through the groom at a very wide aperture when a bride is coming up the aisle - most often it is F1.4 but here in this example it is F2.2 as the subject is moving and sometimes I will just close in a little to help focusing. The F1.4 aperture though does gives the image a very natural look...almost replicating what the human eye does when focusing on a subject in the distance while blurring the short range subjects into almost nothingness but at the same time you know they're there. To my mind you can only get this look when shooting 'wide' - I don't mean the focal length of the lens of course but at maximum aperture of F1.4 which of course means again that only the very best lenses will do - in this case F2.2 was close enough !

The first image below has been shot on Nikon's new 24mm F1.4 lens, while the second image has been shot on Nikon's 85mm lens and this time it is F1.4 as the subject is more or less stationery and focusing wasn't too much of an issue - this really demonstrates the point I was talking about in the previous paragraph.

I will post more once editing is complete...

Katherine & Martin were fantastic clients to work with on the day and were very happy to let me do my thing and allow me the freedom to document their day in the way that they knew I could. In fact I've just had this extraordinary endorsement come through from them both:

 

'Hi Jonathan  

Just back from the honeymoon and have just been sat playing the slide show of the wedding photos on the TV via our laptop!!

There probably aren't many people that get excited about the prospect of coming home from their honeymoon, but knowing we had your photos to look forward to certainly made coming home much much easier!! 

So we've looked through them now several times and what can we say other than AMAZING!! 

You have provided us with a fantastic set of photos that are more than we could have ever hoped for and we are so thankful for all your hard work both on the day and during the photo editing phase over the past couple of weeks! The photos are a true reflection of what to us was the greatest day and they also show what a true talent you have for photographing people!

You know how much I love photography and so choosing a photographer for our wedding day was probably one of the most important choices for us! It was in truth probably the easiest decision though as just meeting you and seeing the quality of your work left us in no doubt that you were the one for us!

You were fantastic to work with and we loved how you just went about your work and captured everything as it unfolded. We're still a bit astonished how you managed to cover so much ground and get so many great angles on the preparation, ceremony, speeches, first dance etc...

Obviously feel free to use any of this as a testimonial! We have nothing but great things to say about both you and your photos!!

Katherine and Martin'

Here's some more images as promised...

 

 

 

Lulu & Bing

Lulu & Bing had their wedding day on a cold Monday during school half term at Hever and understandably they were concerned that the place could be overrun with children on the most important day of their lives. In a way it was fortunate that it was so cold because the throngs of kiddies failed to materialize and we were lucky to have the time to explore the Italian gardens and get some shots without too many faces getting the way. It must be said that Lulu was very brave and stood the cold in the quest to capture some memorable shots.

This was the first time that I have shot in the banqueting room of the old part of the castle and it was truly warming to hear the fire crackling in this old mediaeval hall after being outside in the cold for so long. Here are some favourite shots....enjoy !