Imagine staying at a place so luxurious, so immersed in nature, that when you leave, life feels kind of sad for awhile. It reminded me a little of the feeling I got after watching the movie avatar in Imax. After experiencing it, real life felt a little dull, lackluster and mundane. We’ve since coined this post-bliss blues “the Nayara effect”. We were spoiled, pampered and given the most incredible opportunity to capture world class content. And we all scored big time.
There’s nowhere like Nayara…
In October, we were approached by Nayara Hotels. Nayara has two beautiful resorts in Arenal, Costa Rica that are connected by bridges through the jungle with breathtaking views of Arenal Volcano.
Nayara Springs was named the #1 Luxury Hotel in the World by Tripadvisor in 2016 & 2017 and is an adults only paradise, and their sister hotel Nayara Resort Spa & Gardens was built first but is equally stunning.
Nayara boasts 4 top notch restaurants, 3 pools, 2 spas, a coffee bar with the finest beans in the area, private villas with their own springs fed plunge pools and epic views of Arenal Volcano. So when we were approached by the owners to create fresh new content for their website, brochures and trade shows, to say we were excited was an understatement.
The Brief…
Anyone who has been to Nayara can attest to just how incredible it really is. It’s something you can’t really describe in words, and past guests were saying the images and videos they saw prior to visiting didn’t really do it justice. Our challenge was to create fresh vibrant content that was cohesive and consistently branded, and most importantly, would do the resort justice.
The wish list:
- Show off the amenities (pool, spa, gardens) with models and create an emotional connection. A feeling of wanting to be there and experience it for yourself. A very human perspective.
- Capture the emerson in nature, wildlife and leave people feeling a sense of calm and connection that can be found at Nayara.
- Showcase the culinary excellence and mouthwatering dishes
- Create a little perspective with drone imagery that highlighted the proximity to Arenal Volcano as well as the lush grounds.
Pre-production | The lead up…
After connecting with the client we came up with a minimum image budget and production schedule that outlined the various locations. We decided that a minimum of 3 production days would be needed, a male and female model were hired, wardrobe was donated by one of our clothing sponsors Mika Yoga Wear, a minimum image budget of 30 images was established and we agreed to create a short commercial to promote their new pool Cielito Lindo.
The way we always work on projects like this is we set a minimum budget in terms of production days and deliverables (ie. 3 production days, 30 images & a 30-45 second video). However, during production we capture a large variety of images and video footage. We like to provide our clients with a nice selection of images to choose from, and then they can decide to either stick with the initial deliverables (budget), or if they are blown away by our work, they can purchase licensing rights for images or video.
The idea here is to allow new clients to get a feel for our work without committing to too much. Then it’s essentially in our best interests to over perform and blow them away. It’s a great model and its working really well for both us and our clients.
Production | Capturing the magic…
If you’ve been to Arenal you know that getting exceptional weather and pristine views of the volcano is a gift. We shot during October, and while many of the days were cloudy and overcast there were definitely a few windows of pure magic. The key for us was to get up early. We were up every day at 5 am and production started at 6 am sharp.
One morning we had absolutely beautiful lighting, clouds and an insane view of the volcano. JP bolted out of the room as soon as we saw it and the drone was in the air at 5:15. Having flown a few batteries the morning before he had an idea of where the money shots would be. Our room was near reception, but he ended up flying our trusty Phantom 4 Pro almost a kilometer away to get this view of the volcano with Mis Amores restaurant and Besame Mucho (their new moroccan style private dining experience).
We also got a variety of other perspectives that heroed the proximity of the resort to the volcano and some incredible video footage for their promo video just before the clouds rolled in for the day. The window of nice lighting was literally the length of a drone battery (25 minutes) and as you can see, we scored big!
We focussed on creating a lot of panoramic-style drone images as we knew there would be a big need for banner images (for website, magazines and perhaps billboards in the future). By stitching multiple images together we could achieve larger, higher res images.
For the pool images, we shot each of the 3 pools over 3 mornings at 6 am so we wouldn’t disturb other guests and in hopes of getting good light. We had a bit of everything – sunny, cloudy, overcast. Some of the overcast times actually ended up being good as they created a very moody esthetic. Overall we were really happy with the way the pool images turned out.
We shot the video for Cielito Lindo pool over two days, so we had to pick and choose footage carefully to create a cohesive esthetic given the changing lighting conditions. We ended up re-shooting all the drone footage when we got a little window of nice lighting. It ended up setting the production schedule back a bit, but was well worth it.
Having it all shot listed out in our project management system Asana was really helpful as we could re-organize and change the schedule on the fly when needed to take advantage of favorable lighting. I highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t used it. It’s free, and I can’t tell you the number of people who have credited it as “life-changing” after they started using it.
The wildlife and nature were shot between our other major shoots based on logistics and as moments presented themselves. For example, we captured this adorable sloth while getting some images of the nature trails and bridges. The image has since been featured in Lonely Planet.
The food was all shot over two afternoons. When possible we always like to backlight the dishes using natural sunlight and then flash with artificial light to create a natural yet vibrant look. Unfortunately we had rain both afternoons and had to rely mostly on artificial light sources. But with a multi flash set-up and lots of love and care in post-production (editing) we still managed to create an aesthetic we were happy with.
Each restaurant had a very unique vibe and aesthetic for their food styling. Mis Amores was very modern and classy.
Amor Loco was vibrant with a lot of artistic flare.
And Asia Luna was very edgy and contemporary.
The goal was not to create a consistent look across all the restaurants as each one was so unique and different, but to create a consistent feel for each restaurant, which I think we achieved despite some lighting challenges.
Overall, the shooting went well. The key to making the most out of production is to be highly organized and scheduled, but flexible enough to adapt when the need arises. It was a very professional and focussed environment, yet light hearted and we all had a really good time. These were some of our absolute favorite images.
Post Production
When all was said and done, we delivered a massive contact sheet of images for Nayara to choose from. We use an online platform called Pixieset to deliver the galleries. It allows our clients to view the images and “heart” their favorites. By entering their email they can easily create favorites lists, and work with their colleagues to narrow down and make their final selections.
Nayara is an ongoing client of ours and they have opted to keep the gallery online so they can select marketing content as they need it for various collaterals and campaigns. After reviewing the images, they choose to purchase additional content (over and above their minimum budget), and will continue to pick and choose more images in 2018 as the need arises and budget permits.
They have updated much of the imagery already on their Nayara Hotel Spa & Garden’s website and some images have also been featured in Relais & Chateau when Nayara Springs became an esteemed member, as well as in Travel & Leisure. So needless to say, the project was a huge success.
A massive thank you to the incredible owners, management and staff at Nayara for believing in our work and giving us this awesome opportunity to create. I have to say, I have never met a group of kinder, more caring and capable individuals. It was truly a pleasure to meet each one of you, and you now hold a very special place in our hearts.
What a project. What an experience. Thank you Nayara!
JP & Stephanie
