Hotel bedroom interiors photography for Shepherd Neame
Following a £1.1 million refurbishment, I stayed overnight at the Ostrich in Colnbrook in order to complete an early morning shoot of hotel bedroom interiors photography for Shepherd Neame. Winter sun provided a relatively short window of 5 hours to shoot a variety of angles and bathrooms of 10 or so rooms.
With more modern interiors you’re working with straight verticals, level floors and window frames that are regular. Not so with the Ostrich because of it’s age and character. The foundations of The Ostrich were laid in 1106, when Henry I was on the throne so it’s no surprise that it was only on the newly built bedrooms that the ceilings and walls lined up!
They say that over 60 murders were committed at the Ostrich. Most famous of all were those committed in the 17th century by the landlord of the time, Jarman, who with his wife made a very profitable sideline by murdering their guests after they had retired for the night. They had a trap door built into the floor of one of their bedrooms and the bedstead was hinged to tip the sleeping victim into a vat of boiling liquid immediately below, thus killing him. The ghost of the inn’s final victim is said to walk the halls and I only learned all of this after I had stayed the night.
Now classed as a boutique hotel, you’ve a choice of 11 en-suite double bedrooms: four standard rooms, six superior rooms and the feature room with a freestanding roll-top bath. I shot all of the bedrooms in my usual way using lighting rather than HDR. Lighting is necessary simply because the camera doesn’t see it as we do – so weak winter daylight needs to be boosted, interior lights balanced and occasionally strong low sunlight that can burn out walls and curtains, phased out. For more information about hotel bedroom interiors photography or other types of commercial interiors, architectural and property photography do please get in touch.
Ref: Hotel bedroom interiors photography for Shepherd Neame
