It has been a busy and exciting March for me, with three new hotel/restaurant clients. As part of the Hay Creek Hotel Group, these New Hampshire boutique properties have undergone recent renovations and required new photos. I’m thrilled to take on new challenges, to fill in my hotel property portfolio, and of course to add gorgeous new food photos to my restaurant portfolio.
One of these boutique hotels is none other than The Centennial Hotel nestled in the heart of downtown Concord NH.
The Granite Restaurant
My assignment as the photographer was to photograph the beautiful new renovations at The Centennial Hotel which included the guest rooms and the lobby. Also the entire Granite Restaurant received a makeover including new carpet, wall treatments, window treatments, chairs, banquettes, and tabletops.
I also had the pleasure of doing a little menu shoot for them, to provide them with updated images of their amazing dinner menu and beverages. This of course was my favorite part of the assignment. It’s always the food for me! I enjoy capturing these incredible entrees with my lens, using natural light that wraps around the food in a delicious play of light and shadows, creating an irresistible image.
It was my favorite type of environment to shoot in: the restaurant was closed during the day which meant that I had the entire space to find my best light. I was able to manipulate the tables in a way to find the most beautiful natural light and angles. Moving around the stemware and place settings gives me the freedom to create my best looks. This is something that is tough to do when the restaurant is open and there are guests around.
I always turn off any artificial lights in the room when I shoot food. This is another reason to do it when the restaurant is closed. Restaurants often have very yellowy lights that shoot straight down on the tables and that beam of light will negatively affect the food photos. Artificial lights also cast shadows all over things which is undesirable. By turning off all the lights I can control exactly where my light source is coming from, and where I want to place any shadows.
The chef came in early that morning to prepare four entrees for me to photograph and they were stunning. We also had the bartender pop in to prepare four or five cocktails which I photographed by themselves, and also as an accessory to the entrees.
Renovated Guest Rooms
All of the guest rooms at The Centennial have been renovated and redecorated, so this was a great opportunity to photograph the new look. Out of the 32 guest rooms in the hotel, I photographed 6 or 7 to represent different room types. It’s safe to say that no two rooms are the same!
Exterior Photos and Public Spaces
March in New England is pretty much the worst month ever. So would I have preferred to photograph this beautiful hotel in a prettier time of year? Absolutely. Still, we should be lucky that we’re not still buried under dirty snowbanks, which is usually the case in mid-March. Thankfully I had two days for this shoot, so I chose the sunnier day for my exterior photos.
MORE FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY CLIENTS
New Hampshire Food Photography
Erika Follansbee is a published Goffstown, NH food photographer whose job is to make food look amazing. She is available for hire to help small restaurants and cafes to create beautiful images of their dishes to use for marketing, websites, and social media. Magazine-quality food images are the best form of advertisement.
Erika is also a wedding photographer. Visit www.erikafollansbee.com for more information.
