Destination photography for the Manta Resort and the Manta Underwater Room

Pemba Island, Zanzibar, Tanzania, Africa

This is an example of what you as a client will get when hiring me as a

Destination photographer
Resort photographer
Travel photographer

Typical clients for this kind of job

Destinations, tourism industry and tourism boards
Hotels & resorts
Travel agencies
Travel magazines & travel guidebooks (like National Geographic, Lonely planet etc)
Airlines

All photos and videos you will see on this page is from the Manta Resort and the Underwater Room (located in the same area and managed by the same client) to give you an idea about what you will get when working together with me. Check out www.themantaresort.com and www.underwaterroom.com to see my work on their websites.

My mission

My mission here is to give the viewer of the images and videos

the feeling of “I want to be there!“
enough visual information that they make the decision to book their trip

To do that I structure my mission into the following subcategories that are based on how you as a resort or hotel should use the images and videos.

The goal is to present the destination in the absolutely best way and still be truthful. If you promise more than the future guests will experience, it will be very bad for the destination as the disappointed guest reviews will start popping up.

My structure

Money shots / Kickass photos & videos

These are the photos that work as an eye catcher, that summons the most interesting things about the destination and is the door opener to the new clients. Usually you need at least 3 to 5 of the money shots. These are the ones that go viral, that magazines love to publish and that TV will use when talking about the destination.

If you have 10 days to cover a destination you should use at least 8 of those days for the money shots, and 2 days for the rest. The money shots should usually be from a few different categories of the ones I mention below. And the photos need to geographically locate you, in other words, these photos can not be taken anywhere else than in this excact spot. So since the main attraction at the Manta Resort is the Underwater Room, all my money shoots are focused on that. Even though I have fantastic underwater shoots of beaches etc they will not be the money shoots since they can be taken anywhere.

Aerial (overview) photos & videos

Activity photos & videos

Emotional photos & videos

Facilities & room photos & videos

Night photos & videos

Underwater photos & videos

The photos of the underwater room – courtesy of Genberg Art UW Ltd.

No one calls you “sir” or “boss”.

No one gives you a “special price”.
No one plays crappy music they think you’ll like.

The sand grain is so fine it squeakes under your feet.
The water is so clear you get a fear of heights snorkeling outside the reef.
The beach is yours and yours alone.

This is barefoot luxury.

My USP (unique selling point)

There are gazillions of photographers and videographers out there. The market is harder than ever before. Taking kickass photos alone is not enough to stand out. So for the last years I have been developing my skills in photography and video on land, from the air, in the water and under the water.

Instead of working with four different professionals (photographer, videographer, aerial photographer and underwater photographer) you work with one person. What you get out of it is a much easier workflow and the best possible photo and video. No matter if it is from the air, on ground or in the water.

Here are some behinds the scenes photos from the photo gig for the Manta Resort and the Manta Underwater Room.

What is travel photography?

Travel photography is a subcategory of photography involving the documentation of an area’s landscape, people, cultures, customs and history. The Photographic Society of America defines a travel photo as an image that expresses the feeling of a time and place, portrays a land, its people, or a culture in its natural state, and has no geographical limitations. Travel photography can either be created by professionals or amateurs. Examples of professional travel photography can be found in the National Geographic magazine. Amateur travel photography is often shared online through photo sharing websites like Flickr or niche travel photography websites such as TrekEarth.

Travel photography, unlike other genres like fashion, product, or food photography, is still an underestimated and relatively less monetized genre, though the challenges faced by travel photographers are lot greater than some of the genres where the light and other shooting conditions may be controllable. This genre of photography entails shooting a wide variety of subjects under varied available conditions, e.g. low light photography indoors, available ambient light photography for exteriors of buildings and monuments, shooting on the streets where sometimes conditions may be hostile, capturing moments which rarely recur, capturing the magic of light while shooting landscapes, etc. (source Wikipedia)

My gear for this project

2 x Canon Eos 5D Mark III with 15mm, 24mm, 35mm, 50mm and 85mm prime lenses
Aquatech Underwater Sport Housing
- AquaTech DC-5 V3 Sport Housing For Canon 5D Mark III
  together with a LP-DWZ port for my Canon 24mm f1.4 lens
- AquaTech DC-5 V3 Sport Housing For Canon 5D Mark III
  together with a LP-3 port for my Canon 15mm f2.8 lens
Induro’s CT-114 Carbon Fiber Tripod
Rhino Slider
Aviator Travel Jib
DJI Phantom
2 x GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition

Press & publications

The following articles is a handful of all the media publications that my photos of the Manta Underwater Room have been exposed in.
There are also several TV shows that are not listed here.