For Irene’s 90th birthday her daughter Elizabeth helped organise a very special evening at London’s Savoy in one of their private dining rooms, where two dozen of Irene’s friends and family gathered for wine, food, laughter and even a good ol’ fashioned Pub Quiz – when it’s my 90th can someone do this for me please! I’ve photographed private dinners at the Savoy before, as well as at Fera at Claridges, and being such small affairs (usually!) they always make for great photos with a fun and intimate atmosphere, just the sort of thing I love to shoot.
With that in mind I left my Nikons at home and went exclusively with my Fuji cameras, the X100S and the X-T1, which I used mostly with the gorgeous 56mm f/1.2 lens. I’ve said it before, I love this kit! The cameras are much less noticeable and imposing than larger SLRs, although the X100S often attracts curious glances for it’s retro stylings which can be a great ice-breaker for getting chatting with guests. But, rather helpfully, I also love the colours and just the general feel of the images I can make with them. And Elizabeth and Irene loved the images too, which is all that really matters of course!
As part of the collection Elizabeth included a commemorative PhotoBook album of her favourites, so once the gallery was online we collaborated on the design by email for a week or so making sure it was just right, and then I wrapped up the finished book and had it delivered as a surprise late gift to Irene. It’s always so satisfying to design an album for a client, photography books are such a great way to preserve and enjoy images and I often hear back how much their family love them, so hopefully Irene loves hers!
Below there’s a gallery of some of my favourites. If you like what you see you can find out all about my event photography here. Thanks for visiting!
Dear friend, your pictures made me think of my father Osvaldo as the Savoy was his preferite hotel after the war.
I still remember he told me they have the elephant fried milanaise fried cotolette (cotoletta alla milanese) and at that time he was one of the few hotel with no damages, or very little.
He was employed with a London based company all his life and he could not go to London for many years due to the war and he had some difficult moments as he was employed by an “enemy ” company and my grand father was of US origin.
Many remembers.
If you come to Milan I’d be very pleased to see you
Hey Tealdo, nice to hear from you! I’m really pleased these photos touched you in that way, and I love that story, thank you for sharing it. And you know, the next time we’ve got some time to take on holiday we’re definitely going to look at Milan first – why not go somewhere where at least one person will be happy to see you! :)