I’ve been doing ongoing lifestyle campaign work for Graduate Hotel in East Lansing since last year (you may remember my rooftop bar photos or my photoshoot with Zeke the Wonder Dog). This time, the team contacted me with a last minute opportunity to take photos of their first School Spirits Dinner—a four course meal with drink pairings.

This photoshoot gave me the freedom to jump in and do what I wanted—the event was happening, and the team simply saw an opportunity to get some shots of the food and drinks to market future events. I challenged myself to give them a mix of photos that showed the vibe of the hotel, showed off the food + drinks and left space to add text in social media.

All of this had to happen in the span of about 45 minutes using what was already there without getting in the way of the team that was actively serving up food to guests.

I literally used a black napkin tucked behind the mirror to take the shot below.

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