Made on location, delivered ready to use
Video, photography, aerial drone work and creator-style content for hospitality, travel and lifestyle brands — every job shot through two lenses: would this persuade a customer, and what would make the experience better.
Instagram & TikTok
venues covered
territories travelled
customer & operator
Open, expose, close
Most of the quality in a shoot is decided before this moment — the light, the timing, the plan. Drag it about.
Why property content underperforms
It's almost never the property. Four causes cover most of it.
The rooms are empty
A room with nobody in it sells a room. A person in frame sells the stay — the arrival, the breakfast, the balcony at dusk. Most property libraries have no people in them at all.
One file, resized four ways
A horizontal film squeezed into Reels isn't vertical content, and the numbers say so. Each platform gets shot and cut for, or it underperforms there.
Shot at the wrong hour
The property was fine; the light wasn't. Timing is most of the difference between the brochure and the reality, which is why the recce isn't a formality.
Polished into anonymity
Technically clean, completely interchangeable with the hotel next door. Nothing in frame answers the only question that matters: why here.
Shot on location, cut for the platform it's going on
Content made where the thing actually is, rather than staged afterwards. Property walkthroughs, food and interiors, destination films, and the vertical cut-downs that do the real work on social — shot for each platform, not resized into it.
I shoot solo by default and as a two-person crew when the brief needs people in frame — which, for hospitality, it usually does. A room shot with nobody in it sells a room. A room shot with someone in it sells a stay.
Usage rights are itemised the way agencies expect them: organic use on your own channels, paid usage for your ad accounts, or whitelisted delivery running through my handle — each scoped to platform and time window in writing before the shoot, so nothing gets renegotiated the moment a piece performs.
How a shoot runs
Most of the quality is decided before the camera comes out, which is why the planning stage isn't optional.
Brief
What it's for, where it's going, and who needs to be in it.
Recce & plan
Shot list, light timings, and permissions sorted before anyone travels.
Shoot
Solo or two-person, depending on whether the brief needs people in frame.
Delivery
Graded, cut to the formats you asked for, with usage rights already agreed.
What brands actually screen for
Agencies sourcing UGC creators don't lead with follower count — they screen on whether the content performs in paid social. Four things decide that, and here's where I stand on each.
On-camera presence
Scripted reads underperform. I speak to camera as myself, and where a brief needs two people on screen I bring a second creator rather than faking it in the edit.
Platform-native craft
Hooks, pacing, transitions, sound. Content cut for the platform it's going on rather than one master file resized four ways.
Range across categories
Hotels, restaurants, destinations and product. Versatility is what makes a creator worth a retainer instead of a one-off.
Built to convert
Show the value fast, earn trust, move the viewer. I also build the booking funnel the content points at, which is a rarer combination than it should be.
Two lenses on every brief
Most content creators are judged on views. Most consultants never pick up a camera. I combine both: every project is viewed through two questions at once — would this persuade a potential customer to visit? and what practical improvements would make the experience even better? The result is content that looks exceptional and an independent set of customer-experience observations your team can act on — two deliverables from one visit.
Aerial work is part of the kit: cinematic drone photography and video from lightweight platforms — the establishing shots, fly-throughs and rooftop-pool views that ground cameras can't reach. The aerial track record is public and named: a 26K+-view overwater-villa reel from Hawar Resorts by Mantis, Bahrain leads the account, alongside an Arctic resort film from Lapland approaching 10K, coverage of Hilton Cabo Verde, and a Zanzibar series averaging 4K+ views per reel — and both the Hawar Resorts by Mantis team and Hilton have featured and reused this content in their own marketing, which is the strongest endorsement footage can get. Operations are planned and carried out in accordance with applicable UK regulations and site-specific restrictions, with permissions and operational limitations considered before filming.
And one principle sits under all of it: I only promote venues, products and experiences I genuinely enjoy and would confidently recommend. That's what keeps the audience trusting the content — which is precisely what makes the content worth commissioning.
What the work looks like
Interiors, food and aerial coverage — the three things a property brief almost always needs.
The practical questions
Rights, deliverables and logistics — settled before anyone travels.
What does a shoot cost?
Day-rated plus travel, quoted per brief, with usage rights itemised in the quote — so there's no awkward renegotiation the moment the content performs.
What exactly do we receive?
A delivery list agreed before anyone travels: film lengths, vertical cut-downs, photo counts and formats. Graded, web-ready and sensibly named.
How do usage rights work?
In writing, up front: which channels, for how long, and whether paid media is included. Extending later is a conversation with a price, not a dispute.
One person on site, or two?
Solo as standard, which keeps cost and logistics light. Where the brief needs people in frame — and for hospitality it usually does — I bring a second creator: same room, same booking, twice the content.
Will you say nice things regardless?
No — and that's the value. Public content only features what I'd genuinely recommend; anything less flattering goes into the private customer-experience observations instead, where it's actually useful to you. An audience can tell the difference, and so can your future guests.
How far will you travel?
Anywhere out of London, with Hong Kong covering Asia-Pacific. Travel is the point, not the obstacle.
Got a property that photographs badly?
Usually it's the light and the timing rather than the property. Send me the listing and I'll tell you which — and what a shoot would fix.
[email protected]