Voco, by IHG

InterContinental Hotels have around 5000 hotels under numerous household brand names;  Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza & Staybridge Suites and most recently; Voco. With Voco hotels in Dubai, Saudi, Australia and now the UK. Being an IHG approved Photographer gives me access to photograph all these brands.

Glasgow Hotel Photographer

Being a brand approved hotel photographer will inevitably involve travel. When a brand like IHG like your style for their hotels, being a London hotel photographer becomes being a UK hotel photographer. So for 36 hours, I'm a Glasgow interior photographer, getting to capture the this amazing hotel.

The Photoshoot

This hotel had a huge renovation to convert to the Voco brand. These images were taken over the course of 12 months to capture the hotel's new features as they came online. Working alongside tradespeople, working out timing schedules to not over lap, it's all part of being a Glasgow interior photographer on commercial photoshoots jobs.

Champagne Central; Glasgow Grand Central's F&B

The Champagne Bar at Glasgow's Grand Central Hotel is infamous across the city. The bar won the Best Hotel Bar in Glasgow in 2019 and it will take something special to knock it off it's perch. This bar is known for its ultra stylish decor, claiming to evoke the golden age of travel. And it does; the golden brass finishings, the royal blue chairs with rich cream or red seats, and the eye-catching chandelier orb take you back in time to a luxury first class travelling experience. This bar is one of the business in Glasgow, packed out every weekend and an enviable weeknight trade. 

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Photographing a Hotel Bar

The Grand Central Hotel Champaign Bar is the crown jewell in a a remarkably beautiful building. This bar photograph was to be the hero shot for this hotel. In a single frame, the aim was to create an image that catches the eye, shows the  luxury and grandeur, while keeping the bars charm and warmth.  Being a hotel photographer can be quite demanding when faced with challenging photographs like this; all worth it in the end. IHG and the hotel were thrilled with the final bar photographs. 

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Hotel Photography F&B Continued

The Grand Central Hotel's restaurant continues the first class travel theme, upholding its claim of having 'a sash of style and lashings of charm'. 

The photography for this hotel restaurant needed a three shot approach - one to show the scale of the decor; that it's beautiful from floor to ceiling and wall to wall. A two new compositions of an inviting vignette to show the attention to detail in this gorgeous restaurant. 

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Hotel Photographer: Photographing the Lobby

Hotel lobbies are possibly the singularly most important feature of hotel photography (behind bedrooms). The importance of first impressions to visitors and guests, it sets the standard for the rest of the hotel. Voco, an IHG brand, has clear guidelines on the look and feel that guests should experience in the hotel. When photographing the lobby of the Glasgow Grand Central, it was important to capture the Voco styling as well as the history of the hotel itself. Thankfully the designers had done a fantastic job in melding the antique decor and modern furnishings.

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Photographing the Grand Central Hotel Chandelier & Wall of Fame

Chandelier

The Grand Central Hotel chandelier is huge. Spanning five floors at 22 meters in length, it catches every visitor by surprise. It's impressive, beautiful and the biggest feature of the hotel. Photographing the hotel chandelier that's tall, narrow and spanning multiple levels creates some challenges, namely how to get it in a single frame.

Wall of Fame

The portraits of famous paintings are all previous guests of the Glasgow hotel. Painted by local artists and employees, this wall acts as a launching off point for staff to talk about each of the famous visits with guests. This feature was recently installed to highlight the history and lineage of the hotel. Bring an interior photographer in places like this, where there are stories to tell, it quickly becoming the most enjoyable to capture.

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Hotel Photography: Photographing in Glasgow Winters

Daytime Exteriors

I honestly don't know how Scottish architectural photographers manage to capture buildings the winter months. At no point during daylight hours did the sun hit the hotel. Combine that with three days of downpours and you end with some challenging conditions for daytime photographs. Flat, directionless light! Thankfully we had a 60 minute window during the day when the rain stopped to photograph the hotel's exterior.

Twilight Hotel Photography

Wet streets, glowing streetlights and some camera tricky made the twilight photographs really stand out. Thankfully Glasgow hotel photographers can use the colours of the sky and streets to bring the exterior hotel photographs to light.

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Hotel Photography: Meeting Rooms

A reality of recent times is the need for c-word friendly social distancing throughout hotels. Being an interior photographer, there is often a need to capture functional, commercial spaces like hotel meeting rooms. Images like this help generate M&E sales for hotels by giving their customers a clear visual understanding of the room and its layout. As a result, identical photographs were taken with numerous set ups that show both a normal layout and a socially distanced layout.

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Photographing Hotel Bedrooms & Bathrooms

The selling point for hotels; the bedrooms. Where people sleep is such a huge determining factor when booking a room, that the photographs of these bedrooms have to be perfect. They may not be the hero shot for the hotel, they may not be the most beautiful photographs of the hotel, but they're worth spending time on so they look their best. Interior photographers will tell you that bedrooms are surprisingly complex to capture, for how simple they appear. 

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