Private Event Photography
at Hampton Manor

Photography for a
birthday celebration at ‘Smoke’ restaurant

The Smoke restaurant sits near edge of the Hampton Manor grounds, just off the Hampton-in-Arden high street.    The building itself was the old furnace house for the manor but had been disused for many years.  In 2021, with a collaboration between the owners of Hampton Manor and Masterchef Professionals winner Stuart Deeley (link), the building was transformed into a small restaurant with  an attractive outdoor terrace area, complete with glasshouses.

Smoke specialises in wood-fired feasts and “celebrates seasonal produce cooked with creative simplicity and soul” and it was here that – on a warm summer evening – Robin was hired for a couple of hours to photograph the early part of a joint birthday celebration of a married couple, with their (grown up) children and lots of friends and family attending.

A relaxed evening, photographed discreetly

The brief was to photograph a couple of hours of guests arriving, drinks & canapes, any required group photos and concluding just before the main meal was served, with everything to be ‘relaxed’.   In many was this was like a small wedding (just without the ceremony) and Robin approached it in exactly the same way, starting off with plenty of scene-setting pictures to set the mood and working discreetly for most of the time, with an occasional request for an arranged group picture.  The result was a nicely balanced set of pictures for the hosts to look back on and enjoy for years to come.

The booking for this event came in just a few days prior and from a photo perspective nothing really needed to be planned in any detail as they were happy for their evening to be photographed in the same way we approach weddings. The Smoke restaurant and its immediate surroundings provide a lovely space for people to drink and mingle and a rich environment for photos, so there was always something interesting going on.  On top of all that, two great musicians were in attendance (with a third arriving later) who provided a fitting musical backdrop to the evening.

This really was a fantastic event to photograph on a beautiful summer evening.  Busy, but not stressed and with a genuinely lovely crowd of people.  A big thank you to everyone and especially to S&A who replied with such kind words of seeing the completed photo set.  Enjoy the pictures…