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Owais Rafique | Luxury food + Hospitality photographer

@owais_rafique

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CHDM
Luxury hospitality content & brand strategy
Photo, video, and short form hospitality content
🇨🇦 based in Tampa
Founder @owaisrafiqueagency

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Somewhere between the shot list and the final edit, every ORA crew member becomes Cameron Tucker.

#behindthescenes #contentcreator #hospitalitymarketing #modernfamily #onset

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A Thanksgiving menu can photograph beautifully and still read as just dinner. What sells the table is the work around it: plating built for the room, and a table set to feel like the middle of the meal, with dishes still being passed and people in no hurry to leave.

This year, ORA is thankful for the people making those calls. The crew who arrive before the first plate lands and wait out the steam for the one frame that works. And the clients who trust the process enough to let that happen.

This carousel features ORA’s Thanksgiving work.

Which frame would make you book the table? 1-10

#thanksgiving #luxuryhospitality #hospitalitymarketing #foodphotography #ora

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The creative question at Sheraton Gateway was simple: what does a hotel at the edge of a runway feel like?

The rooms were composed around the window so the planes became part of the frame. The lobby was shot for movement, with travellers passing through. The restaurant took a fun approach, with shared laughter with friends and family, as the place where the trip still lives on.

The before shows the space. The after shows the thinking.

Save this for your next shoot brief, and follow for more.

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A few years ago me and my good friend filmed a TV show. During the interview process, they asked me to put up 3 dishes as options that I could cook for the show.

In this order, I suggested:
1) Pork Belly
Why pork belly was my first?
It was the protein I used to win my first competition back in 2019.
2) Duck Breast
Why duck was my second?
It was something I cooked for my father in-law to get his approval.
3) Classic Turkey Dinner
Why even suggest Turkey Dinner?
The concept of the episode was winter in a snow globe. Me being creative, I took every detail to heart. From my chosen dessert being themed to mimic snow balls with edible silver flakes and a winter wonderland for my main dish to reflect Thanksgiving or Christmas. One thing I learned in culinary school was how to make a proper stuffing. Over time, I kept adding things to it. Peak stuffing was when I added chorizo sausage and wrapped it with bacon.

The producers made me pick Turkey Dinner. I wasn’t super stoked because at the time I felt like that was my least favourite thing to cook. Nevertheless, I knew with the help of my friend, we’d rip it up.

We filmed the show, and lost both challenges 😂

But here are the things I’ve learned:
- You can serve raw donuts and still win on a TV show.
- The mic is always HOT so be mindful how vocal you are backstage.
- Even though you didn’t win, you can still learn from the experience. And in hindsight, Turkey Dinner is actually one of my favourite things to cook because it reminds me of family. And my brother carries on the tradition making the famous stuffing while I’m not currently living in BC.

A goal of mine was to win a big competition on TV and it still is. Culinary student version of me wanted that to boost my ego. Current version just wants to do it so my family can see me finish my story and so my daughter can know her daddy never gives up.

But even if I never get called up to do another show, it’s still mind blowing all I’ve been able to do while chasing that. And being Thanksgiving weekend, I’d like to say I’m most THANKFUL for my family, friends and also for not being washed and still feeling like prime KOBE.

- Happy Thanksgiving -

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A hotel's video is only as good as what happens after the shoot.

The opening is the shoot itself, camera rolling on location. Then the finished cut takes over. The edit set the pace, and the colour grade carried most of the mood, which is the step most hotels underestimate.

Save this if your property's video library still looks like it came straight off the camera.
Comment STORY to see how ORA plans a shoot before shoot day.

#ora #HospitalityMarketing #HotelMarketing #LuxuryHospitality #HotelVideography

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How much work goes into a few seconds of cinematic bar footage?

Most of it you'll never see. On shoot day there was a camera on the counter and a pile of gear just out of frame.

The real work happened before ORA walked in, though. The angles were picked in advance, and so was where the light had to sit for the bar to look the way it does at night.

Comment SHOOT to see how a bar shoot gets mapped out.

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The hotels with the best Christmas feeds shot them in October.

Most properties wait until December. Then the photos sit in edits and approvals, and by the time they post, guests have already booked Christmas dinner somewhere else.

The shoot date is only half of it. Before the shoot is planned, a property needs to know which Christmas it’s selling: more of the magic, or a warm place to hide from the cold. A champagne tower and a robe by the fireplace need very different shot lists.

The full shot list is in the carousel, plus the checklist ORA runs before every holiday shoot.

DM “SHOOT” to plan yours.

#hospitalitymarketing #hotelmarketing #restaurantmarketing #foodphotography #holidaymarketing

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Sunlight is the best light for food. The problem is it leaves by 5pm for half the year.

So on this set, the sun was a bare bulb 💡. Flash with nothing in front of it, aimed straight at the plate. That’s what gives you the hard, bright midday look where every bit of glaze and crumb shows up.

The bulb throws heavy shadows, though. A second light with a softbox went slightly opposite to soften them, and Mila stood off to the side with a reflector to lift whatever was still too dark.

Final shots are at the end.

How do you recreate sunlight when you lose it? Drop your setup below and follow for more from set.

#luxuryhospitality #hospitalitymarketing #lighting #photography #lightingsetup

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Fifteen seconds on screen. A lot more behind it.

Every ORA video starts with a pre-shoot consultation, where we plan the concept, the shot list and the scene order. Then comes a half day on set with lighting and a gimbal, and an edit that's cut to the music and graded shot by shot.

With 15 years in hospitality, we know which moments make a guest book: the suite at golden hour, the first pour at the bar.

One half day of video gives you 5 cinematic videos, a library of edited b-roll, and files ready for Reels, Stories and web.

DM "RATES" to book a free, no-obligation call.

#hotelmarketing #hospitalitymarketing #hotelvideo #luxuryhotels #hotelcontent

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Unstyled and unlit, this dish looks like something off a room service tray five minutes too late. That's just what food looks like before anyone's decided how it should be seen.

Same plate, same ingredients, run through ORA's lighting and styling. Sauce line redrawn, height added where it was flat, light angled to catch the steam instead of flattening it. That gap is what ends up on Marriott's menu page, and almost none of it happens just in retouching. It happens before the shutter clicks, the part most people assume is the easy part.

Comment 'SHOOT' if you're still deciding whether styling is worth the line item.

#foodphotography #beforeafter

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This walkthrough moves through each space with what actually changed, lighting setup, angle, plating suited to that room specifically. Less a tour, more the decisions that never show up in the final photo but decide whether it works. For a property running multiple concepts under one roof, that’s the difference between a cohesive feed and one that looks like four photographers worked the same day.

Comment ‘HOTEL’ for more.

#luxuryhospitality #hospitalitymarketing #hotelmarketing

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