Restaurant Story Project with Carbis Bay Hotel
Carbis Bay Hotel is one of my favourite clients to work with - a 5-star hotel and estate just around the corner from St Ives, complete with restaurants, swimming pool and beauty spa. Their photography and videography requirements are always varied and exciting.
Carbis Bay Hotel's current project is 'Story by the Sea,' a temporary restaurant with Michelin star chef Tom Sellers. It is a unique dining experience that allows guests to take the magical culinary journey of 'Story by the Sea' and is available from 3 August to 14 September 2019.
To promote the Story by the Sea project as much as possible they asked me to come in with my photography expertise, and capture everything they threw my way, as and when it was ready during their manic push to open this magnificent temporary restaurant. Below is just a taster of some of the images I provided for Carbis Bay Hotel.
Food Photography
To provide an edge to their promotional materials, I worked with the natural light of the restaurant to provide captivating food photography. The restaurant at Carbis Bay is filled with beautiful sunlight, so I used this to give these images an extra dimension.
I love photographing food close up, and with food as well-presented as this, many of the dishes could sell themselves. Each dish has its own varied colours and using the natural light I captured both macro imagery of the food and slightly further out, to showcase the table layouts. The header image and image at the top of this article include the table settings and draw you into the aesthetic of the restaurant.
(Photograph above) I diffused the strength of the sun by using the net curtains that run the length of the restaurant windows. This had the added effect of creating more shadows on the table and bowl. I made sure that the food was lit properly to be in the sun; and with use of the candle, glass and other bowl behind, this gives the image a sense of place within the restaurant.
Restaurant Photography
The location of the restaurant is another of Story by the Sea's selling points. Overlooking the stunning Carbis Bay beach, it is a large space to enjoy food and look out onto the incredibly still Cornish seas.
When photographing the venue, I wanted to capture both the size of the space and the character of the restaurant. Capturing the size of the space required my wide angle lens, to get everything inside the photograph without making it look bigger than it really is by distortion. Capturing the character of the restaurant allows for more creativity, in selecting a small number of elements, and seeing how to best bring them together in terms of focus and composition.
Social Media Videos
As well as photography, Carbis Bay Hotel had asked me to record video footage and edit a few videos that could be used on various blog posts and social media to engage their audiences.
The first video was planned ahead of time with main chef Tom Sellers, and I had visited Carbis Bay previously to interview him, with a plan to put the video below together. The cutaways were then filmed later as the restaurant was getting ready to launch.
Opening Night Photography
To put the final touches on the Carbis Bay Hotel's marketing material, I stuck around for a private event at Story by the Sea that marked the beginning of the six-week residency. This allowed me an opportunity to see the whole Restaurant Story team at work and with a full restaurant, turn my images from interior photographs into editorial shots.
Chef Photography
Lastly, being invited into the kitchen to see the chefs at work allowed me to get more behind the scenes photography and video. For this I wanted to try and get across the personality and professionalism of each of the chefs and how much work goes into prepping the food.
They were hard at work of course, so I was careful not to disrupt them too much so nothing was staged. This is a different challenge than other types of photography as I had to be ready for any moments that might occur.
To capture such a wide range of photography and videography in such a short space of time is always a fun challenge and I am delighted with how it has all come together to create a complete body of work that can be used in all elements of Carbis Bay Hotel's marketing for Story by the Sea.
Restaurant Story is available to book at Carbis Bay Hotel and is available between 3 August to 14 September 2019.
