Heartbreak Hotel

R0002005RICOH GR (18.3mm, f/4, 1/1.3 sec, ISO200)

I have to admit that I don’t like hotels. If you travel a lot you have to stay in hotels a lot but no matter how hard they try it never feels like home.

First of all family and friends are far away. So you are alone and you feel it. That’s why I chose the title.

But if you change location often you also permanently have to search for light switches, bathroom location or fiddle with the air-condition. The bed is either too soft or too hard or feels like a trampoline and it’s covered with about a dozens of pillows. Of course none of those pillows really fit. Combine all that with the constant hum from the air-condition and your jet lag and it’s pretty clear that you won’t sleep until 3am. So maybe it’s no surprise that I don’t like hotels.

R0001994RICOH GR (18.3mm, f/3.2, 1/20 sec, ISO1600)
R0001996RICOH GR (18.3mm, f/4, 1/10 sec, ISO2200)

But that’s not the full story. When i traveled in former Eastern Europe I had a lot of horrible hotels. In some cities there was no choice and I was lucky if the hotel was not filthy. Sometimes I was out of luck. I took images of the most awkward hotel rooms I stayed in. A collection of horror.

But since I travelled to Asia that has changed. The hotels I have seen so far are truly great. They are well built, comfortable, well equiped and clean. The staff is extremely friendly though communication can be difficult. And the breakfast is amazing. You can have anything you can think of and more. So beside pillows and the noise from the air-condition they are perfect.

R0002008RICOH GR (18.3mm, f/4, 1/5 sec, ISO3200)
R0002009RICOH GR (18.3mm, f/4, 4 sec, ISO100)
R0002011RICOH GR (18.3mm, f/4, 1/60 sec, ISO160)

This hotel is located in Bangkok. It is beautifully designed especially in the lobby area. That’s why I took some shots while having my go to bed drink. Instead of relying on the high ISO capability of my Ricoh GR I did what I have done in the days of digital compact cameras. I used my empty glass as a table tripod and shot at base ISO.

But I also shot at ISO 2.200 ( third image ) and if you take a look at them there is hardly any difference at that size. It’s impressive how ISO performance of cameras improved within the last years. A couple of years ago I would never imagined that I will get useful results at ISO 3.200 on such a compact camera or on even higher ISO settings on my Canon 6D. Amazing times for photographers.

The last picture doesn’t belong to the series. I just put it here because it might solve the miracle why Fuji can not keep up with the demand when they launch new products. Maybe they are just busy making you a meal.

R0002062RICOH GR (18.3mm, f/4, 1/125 sec, ISO1250)