My working life isn't always filled with only portraits. Thats one of the things I love most about my job. Its full of variety. One day it might be babies, the next its class photos, another day may be artistic nudes and another hotel bedrooms. Rarely am I ever bored. And each subject gives its own creative challenge.
For the hotel rooms the challenge is in lighting and composition. To light a room correctly when trying to include some natural light can be very difficult. By combining studio flash with long exposures and in some cases an HDR technique I was able to capture the rooms in a true likeness. For me these rooms have been depicted exactly as I saw them on the day of the shoot.
Composition can also be tricky when the location the camera needs to be happens to have a desk in the way, or a wall or side table blocks the view. Often furniture rearranging is required along with a tight squeeze behind the camera.
The shot above in particular was a rather tight squeeze when myself and the member of staff helping me were stationed in the small hallway, with the camera on a tripod in the corner and a light stand directly beside it. Checking the back of the camera to make sure we got the shot was tricky to say the least.
I found the experience quite interesting, getting a tour of the hotel and seeing virtually every style room the hotel had to offer. Probably the strangest part of all though was the visit to the offices. Of course it makes perfect sense that a hotel would have offices but to see something that looked like everyday business park style offices seemed odd to me in this hotel for some reason.
The above image was one of my favourites and my first try at an HDR style image. I'm dying to get the chance to do something like this again. Actually, the chance to photograph any hotel again will be a very welcomed opportunity and pleasant change from portraits.
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Simon