Behind the Scenes of Shooting Root House by Gēn @ 1926 Heritage Hotel

Private Dining at Root House by Gēn

Its always fun and explorative when I get an opportunity to photograph a new space. But shooting a new space is rarely a run-and-gun situation; it requires deep coordination. As I believe the initial visuals when done right, will not only attract the first group of potential customers but also set the foundation for the brand's tone and voice in the market. This will also determine how the future visuals will be created.

And because this is a long-term collaboration, I do encourage client onboarding as soon as possible. In the case of shooting Root House by Gēn, they reached out to me three months ago, leaving ample amount of time for us to work on the branding and visual requirements. In which once everything is finalised, we completed our final recce two weeks back and decided the best approach was to split the production into two dedicated shoot sessions. This approach not only allow us to pace our shoot better without affecting the operations since the team is still fresh, but also allow the team over at Gēn to further prepare for the second session, review the frames and further refine our approach. For the first session, the shoot will focus heavily on the food and capturing the core visuals of the private dining interior. The second session will be done later when the space is even more complete, allowing us to focus entirely on the overall ambience and lifestyle portraits.

As expected, the space itself designed by the team from Singapore, Officeof_ is absolutely beautiful. There were even a pair of high-end speakers from Genesis Advanced Technology (one of only two setups available in all of Penang) to fill in the ambience. Safe to also say that the team from Gēn, being a Michelin awarded brand, did deliver up to their standards even though this is just a sub brand. As for the photoshoot, I aim to capture the perfect feel with a certain level of finesse because we are again shooting in an established, historical building like the 1926 Heritage Hotel, The Unlimited Collection by Ascott that has a lot of delicate architectural language to meet their refine brand standards.

Working on food styling

Behind the frames are all the unseen mess

Behind the scenes of shooting fried rice

Large private dining room

Live tethering to show results to the client

For today’s focus on the food and key interior glimpses, getting the mood right comes down to technical restraint. Instead of overpowering the plates or the room with heavy artificial light, the goal is to shape the existing ambient light to highlight the culinary textures against that heritage backdrop. When it comes to the final look, it requires careful color separation—preserving the authentic hues of the local environment while introducing a very subtle, warm tone that communicates luxury. Shooting for a high-end brand is never about slapping a heavy look over the image; it's about elevating the mood that’s already naturally there.