Ye Tavern at The Graduate Princeton
Overview: Brunch & Cocktails, Restaurant Interior Design, A Capella Performance, Self Portrait
I recently ran into a friendly fellow, Michael Monarca, while I was scouting out a nice home on the outskirts of Princeton, NJ. We struck up a conversation about the house I was checking out, and my work as an architectural photographer. He says “oh, if you like architectural design, you should check out The Graduate Hotel in Princeton… says the general manager.” followed by a lovely chuckle.
I promised him I’d stop in to check it out, and a few weeks later I did, much to my delight. I snapped a few photos of the scenery (below) and spoke with Eddie, the bartender, about a bit of history and the cocktail list, while I waited to see if Michael could pop down between meetings. He couldn’t, but I did meet someone from the sales team who took my information and later put me in touch with Cece King, their social media manager, who helped line up a photoshoot for me. More on that further down.
First Impressions
I love the design and atmosphere in here. It feels sophisticated and welcoming. The balance of the old world charm and modern atmosphere are perfectly executed. It even has that dreamy hotel scent that reminds me of upscale hotels like One Hotel South Beach. So it feels new, but also looks like it’s always been here. That’s no small feat.
Brunch
The gist they gave me is that The Graduate is owned by Hilton, and so all of the interior photography and such goes through them, so doing that high level architectural photography of the spaces would be a harder project to get going. They do, however, have creative control with the social media presence for the on site restaurant, Ye Tavern. So, we set up a session to capture their newly rolled out brunch menu, along with some seasonal and staple cocktails.
Cece had an idea to do some photo sequences that she could make into animations, where we built a brunch scene on a table one dish at a time, or presented some cocktails one after another. The Bloody Mary board was a prototype invention, so we made a sequence of images where we garnished a bloody mary to spectacular effect. We also did a series of videos with the cocktails, one of which was this fun little “magic trick” idea Cece up with of Eddie abra-cadabra-ing a drink into existance.
Musical Guest
The tavern also hosts musical performances, and we wanted to get some content to show that off. The first performance they brought me in for was the Princeton Nasoons, a historical a capella group. They did a very short set (about 20 minutes) and I quickly jumped around to take some photos of that. I wanted to experiment with more lighting and shooting some videos of that set, but I made the mistake of not begin informed about the details of the set beforehand, so it was over all too quickly. Still, I got a few images that I enjoy, and I imagine as I continue to shoot in the space I’ll find some fun and inventive angles to cover, like a shot looking through openings in the central coffee stand that caught my eye for a moment, but the stars didn’t align for this time around.
Princeton Nasoons A Capella at Ye Tavern
Self Portrait
I used to not be much of a “selfie” person, and I still am not in terms of the “hold out the phone at arm’s length” kind of selfie. But, a ‘Self Portrait’, in terms more of an intention image of myself, taken often in a reflection, with my proper camera…now that, I have found myself enjoying quite a bit. I like to do it most on client shoots when I happen to catch a glimpse of myself, or my shadow. I should make a collection of these. It’s probably because I am often looking my best, standing ‘in my power’, as it were, when i’m deep in the flow of producing work / art, and I often am most dressed up when I’m on a client shoot rather than looking like a slob in sweatpants at home.
Though, to be fair, I wear sweatpants on a lot of shoots, as well. I haven’t had the funds recently to pick up any of the fancy flexible athleisure wear I’ve had my eyes on. I’ve found that athletic performance clothing tends to be pretty crucial for me as a photographer given the amount of movement I do on any given shot. The phsycial activity and movement of it is one of my favorite aspects of being a photographer, and I’m really trying to maximize more of that in-the-field active component to offset all the time I spend sitting at a desk editing, or writing like I’m doing at this very moment.
I love my Fujifilm camera, but it did miss focus on this and require a bit of AI sharpening, hence the funny business you may or may not be attuned to enough to notice. If you don’t see it, you can just ignore this.
I enjoy a serious expression in some of these, as I feel it brings out more of the artist within. My wife thought it was a bit much to be presenting to clients, but I knew right away that my buddy, fellow photographer Benny Krown, would love it. And as you can see, I was right:
Behind The Scenes
I’ve been striving to document my process a bit more, and to remember to get more footage and photos of shoots in progress so I can share a bit of how I work. I tend to be too caught up in the actual image making to remember to do it, though. I really wish I had an assistant or social media fellow that did it, but unfortunately there’s no budget for that sort of frivolity at the moment. If you’ve got a friend that wants to tag along to some photography session, you lemme know.
Thankfully, Cece grabbed a little bit of BTS on this shoot, and I did shoot a tiny bit myself, here’s a peek at that.
