Resort video production and photography in Alberta and the Canadian Rockies

Blackstone Mountain Lodge sits in Canmore, the gateway to Banff National Park and one of the densest accommodation markets in the country. Guests planning a Rockies trip see hundreds of listings with the same peaks behind them. What they cannot get from a stock photo is what it feels like inside a particular suite, on a particular balcony, at a particular hour of light.

That is what the Blackstone package was built to answer: cinematic video and aerials of the lodge in its setting, a 360° virtual tour so a guest can walk the property before booking, and a photography library covering interiors, exteriors and the landscape around them.

Basecamp Resorts runs a collection of boutique mountain properties designed for people who come for the mountains and expect the stay to match. With several properties and a strong brand identity, the work had to feel consistent from one to the next while still showing what makes each building different.

I covered video production, drone, photography and a 360° virtual tour across the properties so the brand has one library it can draw on for its website, campaigns and OTA listings, rather than a patchwork of shoots from different years and different photographers.

Drones are prohibited inside Banff, Jasper, Yoho and Kootenay National Parks, so aerial work in this region is planned around what is legal: properties in Canmore, Kananaskis, Golden and the corridor between them, with Transport Canada licensing and permissions in place before the shoot. Where a property is inside a park, the plan leans on ground cinematography and the virtual tour instead.

Seasons matter more here than almost anywhere I shoot. A Rockies lodge sells two different holidays, and I plan for both: larch season and the summer shoulder for hiking and patio imagery, and a winter visit for snow on the roofs and the fireplaces lit.