A recent shoot - Novotel Paddington

We’ve always highlighted that we aren’t food photographers. Yet, here we are, showcasing a recent shoot where the brief - and goal - was to show off the food (and drinks) at the revamped bar at the Novotel London Paddington. So why did we do it?

To explain, we need to take a step back. When we say food photography, we are thinking primarily of advertising imagery. The mouth-watering photographs of fresh food; the refreshing look of a glass of cool beer. Brilliant creative photography, but often with very specialist preparation. Such specialist preparation that the food is often rendered inedible. All perfectly reasonable - and necessary - but not our specialism.

What we can do, what we do do, is documentary photography of food. That is, food prepared to be eaten. Food that we can photograph with ambient light (or supplemented with our portable studio lighting). Which is what we did.

Over two separate shoots, we captured the full gamut of the hotel’s food & beverage offerings - breakfast, lunch and dinner, of course. Plus food for business meeting breaks, drinks and cocktails. Including the launch party for the new bar. See the photos and videos in this post for an example of what we produced.

So when we say we don’t do food photography, it comes with caveats. We do documentary corporate and event photography - and more often than not, this includes food. And we photograph (and film) that… (But, as professionals, we don’t photograph your guests and delegates while they are eating. That’s not nice, and nobody wants to see it!) 🍉