Christmas maybe done and dusted, but on the Friday before Christmas I was invited to photograph the SCOR Christmas party at the most wonderful of venues. SCOR is a French based, global reinsurance company with offices across the world. The venue of choice for the 2013 Christmas Party was the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, on the banks of the River Thames in London.

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, was founded by American actor and director Sam Wanamaker, he has created a "unique international resource dedicated to the exploration of Shakespeare's work and the playhouse for which he wrote, through the connected means of performance and education". The Underglobe is a large, versatile space underneath the main theatre and is available to hire for a variety of meetings and events, SCOR and Swan put together a fabulous evening around the theme of Shakespeare's Nutcracker.

The space as you can see from the photographs was exquisitely decorated and furnished, guests were welcomed with champagne and canapes, before dining then music from a live band.

My brief was simply to capture the atmosphere of the event and provide imagery that could be used in-house by SCOR and given to their staff as a reminder of their evening. I utilised the low light capabilities of my Nikon D3 with on-camera flash for many of the shots, allowing lit faces but still colour and atmosphere in the background. For many of the shots I've posted here, I wanted to capture the interior finish and the ambience of the space. As much as it was very well lit, from a photography point of view it was still very dark. To keep image noise to a minimum I used a very low ISO which required the need for a tripod to keep the camera steady for the long exposures, this also allowed me to have a excellent depth of field. 

I'm delighted with the results, as is the client, so all round, it was an exceptional fun and festive winter shoot.