Hotel photos - DPChallenge Forums

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

10/13/2023 09:57:57 PM · #1

Just curious if others find themselves evaluating the photography posted as decor in hotels and offices they visit. Frequently the images are of local landmarks and offer me inspiration. Other times I cringe, feeling I could do better with my eyes closed.

Here is what is in the hotel room I am presently staying in near Baton Rouge. Not anything local and not my personal style, but I find it interesting and pleasing.

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

10/13/2023 10:05:59 PM · #2

I do -- I keep trying to figure out how to place some of mine ... ;-)

posthumous

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

10/14/2023 01:58:05 PM · #3

they look like dpc ribbon winners to me

10/14/2023 04:06:04 PM · #4

Originally posted by posthumous:

they look like dpc ribbon winners to me

So, pretty common and boring then?

posthumous

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

10/14/2023 09:13:19 PM · #5

Originally posted by Yo_Spiff:

Originally posted by posthumous:
they look like dpc ribbon winners to me

So, pretty common and boring then?

I think it's great that there are people who find hotel photos exciting. They must have very exciting lives.

Message edited by author 2023-10-14 21:13:30.

10/15/2023 12:35:23 AM · #6

ok. we need a hotel photo challenge. what would you like to see in your hotel accommodations? (apart from some outrageously spelled bovines).

10/15/2023 01:13:18 AM · #7

Originally posted by tnun:

ok. we need a hotel photo challenge. what would you like to see in your hotel accommodations? (apart from some outrageously spelled bovines).

Sounds like a freestudy to me.

10/15/2023 01:35:06 AM · #8

oh I don't know. I was thinking of something bucolic, restful ... or something ridiculous.

10/15/2023 02:50:44 AM · #9

Originally posted by tnun:

oh I don't know. I was thinking of something bucolic, restful ... or something ridiculous.

Now that I think of it, we've never had a "Hotel" challenge: "Photograph a hotel/motel interior or exterior." :-)

10/15/2023 03:11:57 AM · #10

Originally posted by Bear_Music:

Originally posted by tnun:
oh I don't know. I was thinking of something bucolic, restful ... or something ridiculous.

Now that I think of it, we've never had a "Hotel" challenge: "Photograph a hotel/motel interior or exterior." :-)

Whoever is in Las Vegas will win.

Neat

Canon Canon 1d x Mark II

Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM

10/15/2023 08:21:06 AM · #11

Oh man, I wish this was suggested a week ago, we stayed in one of the best hotels ever. And the artwork was probably the nicest we�ve ever seen.

Steve, I have to agree with your statement regarding hotel artwork on the whole, it�s pretty boring and most of it is very dated or cliched. Including the photo, you uploaded.

10/15/2023 10:33:32 AM · #12

Originally posted by Yo_Spiff:

Originally posted by Bear_Music:

Originally posted by tnun:
oh I don't know. I was thinking of something bucolic, restful ... or something ridiculous.

Now that I think of it, we've never had a "Hotel" challenge: "Photograph a hotel/motel interior or exterior." :-)

Whoever is in Las Vegas will win.

You've obviously never seen the Madonna Inn at San Luis Obispo... And LevT lives just up the road from the rather magnificent Hotel del Coronado...

10/15/2023 12:14:36 PM · #13

not at all what I had in mind. never go to these places either. was hoping to use our imagination.

10/15/2023 01:30:06 PM · #14

Originally posted by Neat:

Steve, I have to agree with your statement regarding hotel artwork on the whole, it�s pretty boring and most of it is very dated or cliched. Including the photo, you uploaded.

I kinda like the one of the flower stems, The colorization and perspective makes it look like like an alien landscape. The flower and water drop are good but not anything different.

I was staying in a hotel just outside Chicago, which is famous for all the bridges over the river. Someone must have been told to decorate with pictures of bridges and local bridges may not have been specified, so every room had a photo of the Brooklyn Bridge in it.

10/15/2023 03:23:27 PM · #15

Originally posted by tnun:

not at all what I had in mind. never go to these places either. was hoping to use our imagination.

Not to worry :-) I was just riffing off on a tangent. Now that it's in my head, I'll probably DO a Hotel/Motel challenge someday for y'all, but it won't be THIS challenge. Forgive the hijacking...

Sony DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspherical ED Zoom Lens for Sony Alpha

10/15/2023 04:46:54 PM · #16

no problem. after all the thread starts with hostelry art. i wanted to go somewhere i might want to go with it.

nam

Sony DSLR-A580

10/16/2023 01:05:04 PM · #17

I, for one, would love to have some of my work selected for a hotel . . . or better yet a hotel chain. And I don't care how boring or prosaic or unimaginative or whatever anyone might call it as long as it put the pennies in my pocket :)

mariuca

Fujifilm X-T30

Fujifilm XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 OIS

10/16/2023 03:43:00 PM · #18

Originally posted by nam:

Oh Nikky, you broke my heart and hopes!
boring or prosaic or unimaginative photos to put the pennies in your pocket?
We strive to make exiting, fascinating or imaginative photos, that's why we use our cameras. We want to take people away from only making a penny, to learn to see more, to try to eat different food, to listen to more sounds, to read, to experience more than what they usually do, see, eat, watch, observe, expect. Give them interest, beauty, let them think ...
I worked for 40 years trying to do this and spent all my life so far in the arts. If I did not put a lot of pennies in my pocket I had and have instead a marvelous time.

10/16/2023 04:26:50 PM · #19

not averse to pennies... However my idea - the theory that is mine... - was to come up with something we would be delighted/astonished to find a guest accommodation, whether sweet, pretty, beautiful, gorgeous, witty, provocative or simply outrageous.

10/16/2023 07:26:57 PM · #20

Originally posted by tnun:

When you put it that way it sounds good, doesn't it? My problem with the challenge, though, is that it would basically become a Free Study where the usual awesome pet-bird-landscape images would dominate. How can we "make" it be the way you want it to be when we can "control" neither the photographers nor the voters in pursuit of our desire to see quirky, enlightening, playfully DIFFERENT images, THOUGHTFUL images for guests to ponder... You get the idea... Any thoughts? Maybe if it were a juried challenge... But that's a whole 'nother beast...

Sony DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspherical ED Zoom Lens for Sony Alpha

10/16/2023 09:18:41 PM · #21

well, that's the thing. always. isn't it? I would not wish to control, but simply to provoke, delight.

nam

Sony DSLR-A580

10/16/2023 10:33:37 PM · #22

Originally posted by mariuca:

Originally posted by nam:
I, for one, would love to have some of my work selected for a hotel . . . or better yet a hotel chain. And I don't care how boring or prosaic or unimaginative or whatever anyone might call it as long as it put the pennies in my pocket :)

Oh Nikky, you broke my heart and hopes!
boring or prosaic or unimaginative photos to put the pennies in your pocket?
We strive to make exiting, fascinating or imaginative photos, that's why we use our cameras. We want to take people away from only making a penny, to learn to see more, to try to eat different food, to listen to more sounds, to read, to experience more than what they usually do, see, eat, watch, observe, expect. Give them interest, beauty, let them think ...
I worked for 40 years trying to do this and spent all my life so far in the arts. If I did not put a lot of pennies in my pocket I had and have instead a marvelous time.

I admire and envy your art and the artist in you, Mariuca - and the art of and the artist in so many others here. And I didn't really mean to say I would sit down and deliberately "produce" photos simply to please a hotel chain and make some money. However, I am not an artist - I don't have the gift that you and others do. And when it comes to my photography, I do what pleases me - which is sometimes "slick", I'm afraid. It's rarely what others would call "art"; but when I "keep" a piece, it's because it speaks to me in at least some small way. Others might call it "pretty" or "boring" or "ordinary" . . . but I like it for whatever reason. And if someone else "tells me", by wanting to purchase and hang it, that it pleases them, too, I'm vain enough to enjoy that thought. The smiley face after my statement was intended to indicate that I was speaking lightly, but in so doing I did not intend to make light of anyone's art.

mariuca

Fujifilm X-T30

Fujifilm XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 OIS

10/17/2023 05:21:34 PM · #23

Nikki are you calling these, just a few of your portfolio, "slick", "pretty","boring" or "ordinary" ?

I objected to your wording and did not see the smiley face to appreciate the intended humor. I'm sorry to have jumped at your post.
Keep doing what you just mentioned:

And when it comes to my photography, I do what pleases me

nam

Sony DSLR-A580

Sony DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspherical ED Zoom Lens for Sony Alpha

10/17/2023 11:16:04 PM · #24

Originally posted by mariuca:

. . .
I objected to your wording and did not see the smiley face to appreciate the intended humor. I'm sorry to have jumped at your post.
Keep doing what you just mentioned:

And when it comes to my photography, I do what pleases me

No offense taken at all, Mariuca. I'm enjoying the exchange. I always shift a little after a conversation like this; and that is, doubtless, a good thing.

Must confess that when I made the comment, I was kind of thinking of the only "mass" sale I've ever made. Many of the pieces were what some would call pretty, facile, slick. But they spoke to their intended audience and I liked (and like) them, and that's what was and is important to me.