A showcase dinner beneath St Paul’s
Every year, Create Food puts on a showcase dinner, choosing a London venue to demonstrate its event catering at its best. I photographed this one at St Paul’s Cathedral, where the setting gave the evening quite a starting point.
The photographs take in the building, the preparations and the dinner itself. There was plenty to cover, from the sweep of the long table to the small details of each place setting.
Alongside the event, I photographed the cathedral’s interior. Looking up between the columns towards the dome gives a sense of the scale of the building, before moving downstairs to the more enclosed setting of the Crypt.
Preparing the table
Down in the Crypt, a single long table ran beneath the vaulted ceiling. Warm lighting picked out the stonework, while leafy patterns were projected onto the arches overhead. Flowers, foliage and small trees brought green into the room, carried through into the napkins and printed menus.
I photographed the table from a distance to show the whole arrangement, then moved closer to the glassware, flowers and place settings. Those smaller details deserve space in the coverage of a dinner like this.
The preparations also gave me a chance to photograph the team at work. Here, the line of chairs and place settings leads towards the staff making their checks along the table.
Guests taking it all in
With guests gathering around the table, the photographs began to change. The room was still prominent, but there were now people moving through it, looking at the arrangements and stopping to take photographs.
I like the photograph of guests leaning in with their phones. It brings the table details and the people together in one frame, showing how closely the setting was being looked at.
There was also an address to the guests to cover. Including the audience in the foreground keeps the speaker within the event, with the cathedral’s memorials visible behind her.
Create Food’s menu in focus
The food was central to the evening, so it needed its own attention within the event coverage. The tray of canapés held against a Create apron is a useful connection between the dishes and the team serving them.
For the individual dishes, I kept the table setting in view. The patterned cloth, woven place mats and green napkins carry through the photographs, placing the food within the dinner rather than losing its surroundings.
Dinner under the illuminated arches
Once guests were seated, the view along the Crypt brought everything together: the architecture, the table and the service. The repeated arches draw the eye towards the diners, with a member of the team leaning in to serve at the end of the table.
It makes a fitting final photograph for this set. After the preparations and close details, it shows the room being used for the evening Create Food had put together.
You can see more of my event photography in London, including dinners, receptions and launches. Please get in touch if you’re planning an event and would like to discuss photography.
