Back in Ireland on Friday last week, I had a couple of jobs lined up. One was a merchandising shoot for a university, the other an evening assignment for a catering company that was serving the meals at an 890-guest gala dinner at City Hall.

I won’t trouble you with a shot from the merchandising shoot as it wouldn’t get you very excited.

The shoot in the evening was quite the opposite. By the time I arrived at the venue for the dinner, about an hour and a half before kick-off, staff from An Excellent Choice Caterers were busy putting the finishing touches to tables and making sure advance wine orders were in right places.

Unless you are the son of a major deity, feeding close to 900 people at one sitting is a major logistical endeavour, so you can imagine the focused energy among the catering personnel. My brief was to capture the preparations and the dynamism of the staff, along with the grandeur and scale of the undertaking - and preferably not get in the way, well not too much at least.

Although I had my off-camera lighting gear with me, this wasn’t the place to be setting up lightstands, so I kept the flash on the camera, mainly using it as fill.

Here’s a trio of my favourite shots from the night:

Dinner Forest
(c) Roger Overall 2008

Wine Delivery
(c) Roger Overall 2008

Grand Space
(c) Roger Overall 2008