Enjoying Oktoberfest

Description

Four friends seated shoulder to shoulder behind a long beer-hall table, lifting one-litre glass steins of pale lager above their heads mid-toast. Three of the women wear dirndls — black with pink trim, black with a red skirt, and pink with a green gingham apron — and the man in the centre wears a checked shirt with embroidered grey lederhosen and braces; all four are laughing or smiling at one another rather than at the camera. Behind them the room reads unmistakably as a brewpub: the domed copper top of a brewing kettle at the left, heavy wooden benches and tables, and a painted German inscription beginning "Prost, dass d'Gurgel..." across the back wall. Warm pendant lighting above, daylight from tall windows at the right.

The foreground is the point of the shot: a blue-and-white Bavarian lozenge tablecloth crowded with classic Oktoberfest plates — a roast pork knuckle on potato and cabbage, breaded schnitzel with lemon and potato salad, soft pretzels, a garnished cold board with radish and spring onion, a skillet of cheese noodles, sliced rye bread with mustard in a small ramekin, and a white lidded soup tureen. Shot slightly above table height so all the plates are legible.