ladies who lunch ( for too long in my opinion )

when i'm shooting restaurant interiors i generally have to do them

at a time when the restaurant is set up and looking perfect, but without

any diners.

ordinarily this means shooting between say 9am to midday

or perhaps in the gap between lunch and dinner

( or if you're up north, between dinner and tea )

however sometimes the diners linger a little.

or linger a lot.

these three ladies lingered a lot yesterday.

they were sat right in the middle of the place too so there was hardly anything i could shoot until they left and the table was quickly reset.

i guess they pay their money and all that but when you go for lunch and you're still there at 5.50pm, all the other lunchtime diners have long since left and the staff are all cleaning up and getting ready for the next sitting which begins at 6pm...

when there's a photographer there trying to do his job...

i don't know... is it a little rude to linger so long ?

perhaps i'm biased because they were stopping me from working and giving me less and less time to shoot in. 

moving on. while i was waiting for the ladies to cough up and leave, i did

witness one of my favourite restaurant things... the staff briefing.

i love the staff briefings, when the chef informs them about today's menu

and then when he leaves, the manager gives them a few service pointers,

maybe mentions any special diners and generally gives a bit of a pep talk.

not long after this i broke the world record for shooting a large selection

 of restaurant interiors in five minutes.

sadly, i was in such a battle against the clock that i didn't have time to shoot

a self-portrait in this place !

grrr !