Hotel photography in Brighton

Brighton has a fantastic new hotel and spa right in town on the seafront. I love doing a bit of hotel photography and this shoot was one of the most enjoyable for a while. Harbour Hotel And Spa is not your ordinary establishment, as you can see from this photo!

The spa is in the basement, in the cellar of the building. They call it The Grotto, and I fell in love with it immediately. The round wooden barrel bath tubs reminded me of Japanese hot spring baths. I wanted to step right into them. One of them is a jacuzzi and the other was hot hot steaming one.

We had to turn the heating and the bubbles off so that I could shoot these tubs. Otherwise my camera lens would have steamed up even more and quicker than it did. Quite tricky taking photos in a hot steamy room… I had to acclimatise the lens into the environment for at least 10 minutes before I could get any shots.

There is a permanent resident chilling just outside the sauna and steam room.

Next to it is the official chill-out area for less permanent visitors.

Before and after your spa indulgence, you can also relax in the reception area.

For this first shoot for Brighton Harbour Hotel I was commissioned to take photos of the newly finished spa, but the two beautiful pools hadn’t yet been filled with water so they were dry during my visit. This is the hydrotherapy pool –

…and the swimming pool.

I promised to come back and take photos of the pools when they are filled with water. Can’t wait, to be honest!

This is the entrance to the grotto. Don’t you just love it? I’ve never been a spa kind of person, but Harbour Hotel may have just converted me.