The advice that says do what you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life is oddly complicated. These days, I often get paid to visit restaurants and hotels to take photographs. If someone had told me I would end up here while I was finishing my political science degree, I would have laughed. Photography as a profession was not even in my frame of reference. The idea seemed as far-fetched as being paid to binge-watch shows, play with puppies, or eat cinnamon rolls. Yet somehow, I now find myself doing what I love and discovering that even passion comes with its kind of labor.
A Personal Obsession With Boutique Hotels
My affection for boutique hotels borders on obsession. I have realized that suggesting a different hotel for every night of a trip is the fastest way to lose planning privileges. So now I carefully recommend three or four hotels per trip, always leaving room for a few extra photo shoots. Mexico City was no exception. We stayed at four different hotels, scheduled a shoot at a fifth, and popped into two others just to look around. I have developed all sorts of clever ways to incorporate hotel visits into every itinerary. There’s always a new design detail to admire, a hidden courtyard to photograph, or a rooftop that changes how you view the city.
The Search Process for Visual Gems
My process for discovering new hotels begins with scanning through the usual best-of lists featured in travel publications. I explore every surrounding property and review dozens of images before I ever book a room. This method may be excessive, but it’s how I found Casa Decu, a charming hotel tucked into Condesa. The rooms felt more like apartments than traditional hotel suites, with a location that made it ideal for both exploring and relaxing. It’s these little gems that keep my search process so involved and worthwhile.
A Night at Nima House Hotel
Nima House had long been saved in my mental travel file. I first saw it in an Instagram post years ago and bookmarked it, not knowing when I might make it to Mexico City. When this trip came around, I made sure it had a spot on the itinerary. Located in Rome, this former house was converted into a boutique hotel with just four rooms. Its lush courtyard and serene atmosphere made the stay feel personal and distinct. This was not just a place to rest at night but a setting that inspired creative imagery at every turn.
Familiar Names in a New Setting
Last year, I photographed a hotel in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood called The Robey. The experience stayed with me, and later I discovered that the hotel was part of a hospitality group based in Mexico City. Naturally, I became curious about their properties in Mexico. Grupo Habita manages several boutique hotels across Mexico and the United States, and during this trip, I had the chance to photograph two of their Mexico City locations. Each had its own personality and architectural language, blending cultural heritage with contemporary style in ways that were both challenging and rewarding to document.
An Unexpected Favorite: Downtown Mexico
Downtown Mexico was not originally part of the plan. My partner Eli had some reservations based on how it looked online. Sometimes spaces photograph better than they appear in real life, and other times, the reverse is true. From the online photos, we had no idea just how expansive and atmospheric the rooms were. Due to a small disruption in our travel plans, we ended up booking a last-minute stay at Downtown Mexico. It turned out to be the most memorable stay of the entire trip. The architecture, the unexpected scale of the interiors, and the design details provided endless inspiration. What began as a backup option became a creative highlight.
A Quick Stop at Condesa DF
Although we didn’t stay overnight at Condesa DF, I did have the opportunity to shoot there. This is now at the top of my list for future visits. The interiors were filled with natural light, and the balance of modern design with classic charm made every corner feel worthy of a frame. Its location in the heart of the city makes it ideal not only for exploring but for creating vivid imagery that blends urban energy with calm luxury. Even a quick shoot offered a wealth of visual material and left a strong impression.
The Creative Process Behind Hotel Photography
When photographing boutique hotels, there is always a tension between documenting the space as it is and interpreting it through your creative lens. I walk into every shoot with a mindset shaped by both instinct and intention. I consider how the space makes me feel, where the light falls, how colors interact, and which details speak the loudest. It’s not just about showcasing a room’s layout or amenities. It’s about capturing mood, stillness, character, and how the space invites you in. My goal is always to create photos that evoke the experience of being there rather than just showing what it looks like.
Working With Natural Light
Light is everything. I prefer to photograph using only available light whenever possible. Boutique hotels often have interesting sources of natural light coming in through arched windows, skylights, or even reflective courtyard walls. In Mexico City, the light tends to be strong and directional, especially in the early morning and late afternoon. I plan shoots around those times, watching how shadows stretch across tile floors or how the sunlight wraps around textured walls. Using natural light allows the image to feel lived-in, as though the viewer has just walked into the space themselves. Even a simple curtain catching the breeze can tell a story if the light is just right.
Curating the Scene Without Overstyling
Styling is important, but I avoid overdoing it. When I walk into a room, I take a moment to observe before moving anything. Many boutique hotels are beautifully styled already, and I try to preserve that effort. I might fluff a pillow, adjust the drape of a blanket, or move a chair slightly for balance. Sometimes I remove distractions like visible cords or menus, but I resist the urge to over-style. Authenticity matters. People want to see what the room looks like, not a staged version that only exists for the camera. The goal is to refine without removing the character of the space.
Telling a Cohesive Story
Every hotel shoot becomes its own visual story. I think of it in chapters: the entrance, the lobby, the common areas, the guest rooms, and the small details that hold it all together. I move through each space slowly and deliberately, paying attention to flow and pacing. A single doorway might become a transition from one part of the story to another. The color palette helps guide the sequence, and textures create rhythm. I try to ensure that when all the images are viewed together, they give a complete sense of place. It’s not just a collection of pretty photos. It’s a narrative.
Navigating Challenges on Set
No shoot is perfect. Sometimes a room is much smaller than expected. Other times, light sources are limited or the weather changes unexpectedly. I’ve photographed spaces during construction, shared areas during busy check-in times, and courtyards that turned out to be noisy gathering spots. Patience becomes one of the most valuable tools. I’ve learned to adapt quickly, take breaks when needed, and return to a space later in the day when conditions improve. Having a flexible mindset is essential, especially when photographing in cities as vibrant and unpredictable as Mexico City.
Respecting the Energy of the Space
Every hotel has its energy. Some are calm and intimate. Others are social and vibrant. I try to respect that energy in the way I photograph. If the hotel is peaceful and meditative, I slow down my process, seeking angles that express serenity. If it’s bold and filled with design surprises, I allow myself to play more with perspective and color. Understanding the essence of the space helps guide everything, from framing choices to editing style. It’s about aligning the visual tone with the personality of the property.
Balancing Personal Style and Client Needs
As much as I love expressing my visual style, I also keep the client’s goals in mind. Some properties want photos that highlight architecture. Others may focus on comfort or ambiance. I try to balance my aesthetic approach with their branding objectives. Communication before the shoot helps clarify expectations. I review their existing visuals, study their identity, and plan how to complement that through my images. While I always maintain a consistent style, I adapt it slightly depending on the story the hotel wants to tell.
Editing With Intention
The editing process is where the vision becomes fully realized. After capturing hundreds of images, I begin by narrowing down the strongest ones that best reflect the feeling of the space. Editing is never about changing the reality of the room but about enhancing its presence through light, tone, and consistency. I maintain a soft, warm palette when editing interiors, especially in cities like Mexico City, where textures and colors are already so rich. I often soften highlights, deepen shadows slightly, and bring out the natural warmth of wood, clay, and fabric. The goal is to preserve the integrity of the space while creating a cohesive visual experience across the entire set of images.
Choosing the Right Gear
I travel as light as possible, often using just two lenses. My go-to combination is a wide-angle lens and a fixed prime lens. The wide lens helps capture the layout and structure of rooms, while the prime lens allows me to focus on intimate moments and small design details. I keep my gear simple to stay nimble during shoots, especially when working within tight spaces or when moving quickly between locations. A lightweight tripod sometimes comes with me for evening or low-light shots, but I prefer handheld shooting whenever I can. Comfort and efficiency play a major role in keeping the process fluid and enjoyable.
Emphasizing Detail and Design
What makes boutique hotels so photogenic is their attention to detail. Each property has carefully considered design elements that reveal themselves in unexpected ways. It might be a handcrafted lamp, a patterned tile floor, or a vintage mirror positioned just right to reflect the light. I take time to notice these things and feature them in close-up shots. These details not only bring variety to the visual story but also highlight what makes each hotel unique. When someone scrolls through the final gallery, I want them to pause over a chair leg, a plant shadow, or a fabric texture and feel that moment.
Capturing Atmosphere Over Perfection
Atmosphere is what people remember about a hotel. It’s the mood that lingers long after the trip ends. In my photography, I try to capture that feeling more than I strive for technical perfection. A slightly imperfect curtain fluttering in a breeze might tell a stronger story than a symmetrical room with every object perfectly placed. I allow for movement, embrace subtle light shifts, and sometimes include natural imperfections because they bring life to the image. This is especially true in boutique properties, where charm often comes from being a little unpredictable.
Incorporating the Surrounding Environment
Although the focus is on the hotel, I always take time to photograph the surroundings. The neighborhood context adds another layer to the story. I’ll walk the nearby streets, peek into cafés, and observe the local colors and textures. Whether it’s ivy climbing a building wall or the tiled sidewalk leading to the hotel entrance, these details help situate the space in its environment. Mexico City offers so much richness outside the walls of any single hotel. By including glimpses of the street or skyline, the images feel more grounded in place.
Working Around Guests and Privacy
One of the biggest challenges when photographing boutique hotels is working around guests. Since most of these properties are small and usually fully booked, it’s rare to have a space entirely to yourself. I approach this with a quiet, respectful presence. I move through the space slowly, wait for empty moments, and avoid any area that would make a guest uncomfortable. If necessary, I ask the hotel if there’s a time when rooms or common areas are unoccupied. Capturing the human experience of the space is important, but it should never come at the cost of someone's privacy or comfort.
Letting the Space Lead the Shoot
No two hotels are the same, and I try not to come in with rigid expectations. I let the space tell me what it needs. If a room feels dark and moody, I lean into that instead of forcing brightness. If the lines are sharp and geometric, I shoot accordingly. Letting the environment guide the process keeps me present and responsive. Some of my favorite photos have come from unexpected corners or quiet moments I couldn’t have planned. Boutique hotel photography is as much about observation as it is about execution. It’s about staying open and ready.
Creating Work That Connects Emotionally
More than anything, I want my photos to make people feel something. When someone looks at an image from one of these hotel shoots, I want them to imagine waking up there, walking across the tile floors barefoot, or sitting by the window with morning light on their face. Emotion matters more than technical perfection. I think about what kind of feeling the space gives me and how I can translate that through angles, composition, and light. Sometimes it's a sense of quiet solitude. Other times it's liveliness and texture. Either way, my job is to build a visual bridge between a place and a person.
Why Boutique Hotels Make Ideal Photography Subjects
There’s a certain magic that boutique hotels carry. They aren’t trying to serve everyone. They focus on a specific personality, a certain kind of guest. That focus leads to thoughtful design, storytelling through materials, and emotional connection through small details. Photographing a boutique hotel isn’t about documenting a room layout. It’s about telling a story with atmosphere and intention. These places feel like living spaces with a soul, and as a photographer, that gives me endless material to work with. The size, scale, and character of boutique properties offer something layered and intimate, something worth exploring with a camera.
Developing Trust With Hotel Teams
The best shoots happen when there’s trust between me and the hotel team. I do my research before I ever reach out. I understand their values, their aesthetic, and the type of guests they cater to. When I arrive for a shoot, I show up respectfully and prepared. I work around their schedule, stay out of the way of housekeeping, and make adjustments when needed. I’ve found that mutual respect leads to better access and better results. When hotel staff see that I care about their space as much as they do, they’re more open to helping me find the best ways to tell their story visually.
Building a Visual Portfolio of Places
Each hotel becomes a chapter in my growing visual portfolio. It’s not just work. It’s a collection of memories and experiences tied to specific cities, seasons, and people. Looking back at a photo from a hotel in Mexico City brings back the scent of street tacos in the evening or the quiet of an empty lobby at sunrise. These aren’t just pretty spaces. They are settings where stories unfold. Each photo holds a piece of that. Over time, this body of work becomes more than a gallery. It becomes a journal of time, place, and perspective. Photography gives me a way to revisit those moments and share them with others.
Knowing When to Step Back
There are moments during a shoot when I remind myself to put the camera down. Sometimes I sit in the courtyard with a coffee and just watch the light change. I walk through the hotel slowly without shooting anything, taking it all in. This kind of stillness gives me clarity. It helps me understand what matters most in the space and what deserves to be photographed. Stepping back also resets my creative rhythm. When I return to the camera, I shoot with more purpose. That pause becomes part of the process, part of how I connect with the story the hotel is telling.
The Balance Between Professional and Personal
Photography for hotels started as a personal passion, but it’s now part of my professional life. Still, I try to keep it from feeling too transactional. I travel with people I love. I stay curious. I make time for wandering. Even when I’m shooting on assignment, I leave room for play and exploration. That balance keeps me creatively engaged. I believe the viewer can sense whether a photo was made with love or with obligation. The best images come when I care deeply about what I’m photographing and why. That’s why I continue to approach each hotel with fresh eyes and an open heart.
Ending With a Sense of Place
Photographing boutique hotels in Mexico City reminded me how much place matters. The textures of concrete and stone, the sounds of the city drifting in through open windows, and the rhythm of daily life all shape how a hotel feels and how I photograph it. These aren’t isolated interiors. They’re part of a larger narrative. A hotel isn’t just a place to sleep. It’s an invitation to experience a neighborhood, a city, a culture. Capturing that connection between inside and outside, between architecture and energy, is what makes this kind of photography meaningful to me. It’s not just about images. It’s about belonging.
Conclusion
Photographing boutique hotels in Mexico City was more than a creative assignment. It was an immersive experience built on curiosity, patience, and connection. Every space had a personality, every room a rhythm, and every detail a story waiting to be told. From the moment I walked into each hotel to the final click of the shutter, I was engaging in a conversation with design, light, and atmosphere.
This work has taught me that great photography is never just about the image itself. It’s about observation. It’s about understanding what makes a space feel special and how to express that visually without overstating or overexplaining. It’s about slowing down enough to feel the subtle magic of the materials, the way the light hits a window frame, or the way color leads your eye through a hallway.
Mexico City provided a vibrant and diverse canvas. The city’s boutique hotels offered a unique blend of architecture, emotion, and history that challenged me to look deeper and photograph with more intention. Each property taught me something different—how to adapt, how to trust the process, and how to see what might be overlooked.
In the end, my goal remains simple: to create photographs that feel honest and transportive. I want viewers to sense the warmth of the tiles underfoot, to hear the echoes in a courtyard, and to picture themselves stepping into a space full of light and calm. Through my lens, I hope to offer more than just a glimpse—I hope to offer a memory waiting to be made.
If you ever find yourself in Mexico City, I encourage you to explore beyond the familiar. Stay somewhere that surprises you. Look closely at the textures and the shapes. Let the light guide your mornings and the architecture shape your experience. And if you’re lucky, you’ll carry those moments with you, just as I did, frame by frame.