I've been fortunate enough to work with two very well known hotel in London being the o2 intercontinental and the Taj hotel in St James. Working with them showed me another level of photography and how much difference it is compared to everyday real estate stuff I usually do. It even trumped the highest end property I've shot in the heart of London in Mayfair. I showed me another level of perfection and attention to detail. On my first shoot, I may have taken the job without full and proper preparation. I did some research and ask my other photographer friends for tips on hospitality photography, but it wasn't even still as each hotel is different and working with 5-star hotels photographing their penthouses and restaurants it really threw me off.
Luckily the photography techniques I use to shoot are usually used on the high-end property so it is very easy to transfer those skills over to hotels. my starting point was strong and I didn't have to worry about my ability to photograph these immaculate places. The greatest thing I struggled with is I could use a longer lens it didn't matter about showing off how much space the places had and more on composition and the interior design and the layout is far more important in showing off a premium brand. It really took me back to the days I used to shoot with a 50mm at weddings to take away an option and gave me one less thing to think about and made me more creative as a photographer.
I always thought that photography was photography, that because I shot real estate that it would be possible to shoot a hotel room. it turns out while some of the basic principles were the same most of the time it was preparing the room for photography adding small detail like candles, having the right flowers in the room, the right height the right colour were all far more important than just having flowers in the room. Making sure that the room was prepared as best as the hotel could offer all having optional welcome packs in the room.
Hotels aren’t a joke to shoot, it requires more equipment and even an assistant in my case to help out moving things and moving lights around. All in all i love shooting hotels as they look stunning they lighting is great and just needs to be emphasized. You really get to stretch you photography legs and you really learn what you are good at and what you aren’t good at. It forces you to perfect your images as they expect nothing less because they are paying a lot of money and they want the same end product as you.
Please take a moment to look at my work on my site.
https://www.garyaskewphotography.com/hotel/
