My First Styling Project: Learning to Find the Shot in the Chaos

When I look at these photographs now, they look calm.

Warm light. Beautiful rooms. Mountains in the background. A perfectly placed cup of coffee. A throw sitting exactly where it should. Everything looks effortless.

It wasn’t.

This was my first styling project, and it was also one of the most intense learning experiences I’ve had professionally.

Styling a space for a photograph is very different from simply making a space look beautiful. I learnt that pretty quickly.

It started with a blank canvas.

Storii by ITC, Naina Tikkar was a pre-opening property, and I was stepping into a completely new world for me, sourcing props, figuring out what belonged where, creating little moments within the rooms and, most importantly, understanding how all of it would translate through a camera.

I had a lot to learn.

And I was lucky enough to have Mr. Mohsin Taha, the photographer, trust me with that opportunity.

He gave me a chance to step into styling before I had really figured out what being a stylist meant.

And then the shoot happened.

Enter: the rain.

Of course, it had to rain.

And not the romantic, cinematic kind of rain.

The kind that completely changes your light every few minutes.

We were working with unpredictable weather and constantly changing natural light. At one point, we had two or three rooms styled and ready simultaneously, simply so that the photography team could move wherever the light was working.

One minute we'd be in a bedroom.

Then someone would shout that the light had opened up in the living room.

And suddenly everyone was running.

Props in hand. Cushions being moved. F&B being reset. Curtains adjusted. Beds tweaked.

Run. Shoot. Reset. Run again.

And repeat.

I learnt that styling is problem-solving.

Before this project, I thought styling was largely about having a good eye — choosing beautiful objects, arranging them well and creating an aesthetic.

I realised very quickly that it is so much more than that.

It is about understanding why something is in a frame.

Why the cup is placed there.

Why the book is open to that particular page.

Why the throw falls a certain way.

Why a chair needs to move two inches.

Why a flower needs to be turned slightly.

Why sometimes the most beautiful arrangement in real life simply doesn't work on camera.

I started learning how photographers see.

How light changes a room.

How shadows fall.

How much negative space a photograph needs.

How precise everything becomes once you are looking through a lens.

Something that looked perfect to my eye could look completely wrong through the camera and vice versa.

That was probably one of my biggest learnings from the entire project.

And then came the people.

A photoshoot at a hotel isn't just about the stylist and photographer.

There are housekeeping teams, F&B teams, service staff, kitchen teams, operations, hotel management, production, florists, prop teams…

Everyone has a role.

And everyone has to move at the right time.

This project taught me how to coordinate all those moving parts, how to communicate what I needed, when I needed it, and how to keep things moving without creating unnecessary chaos.

I learnt that sometimes the most important part of styling isn't the object you're putting in the frame.

It's making sure the person bringing that object knows exactly when and where it needs to be there.

The long days were no joke.

There were hours of standing.

Hours of running.

Hours of waiting for light.

Then suddenly having five minutes to get everything perfect.

By the end of the day, I was completely dead.

But somewhere between the exhaustion, the rain, the constant resets and the last-minute changes, something clicked.

I realised I genuinely loved this.

Not just making things look good.

I loved the process of building the story.

Taking a room and figuring out what it needed to make someone looking at the photograph imagine themselves being there.

A morning coffee.

A book left open.

A drink by the window.

A throw casually placed on a sofa.

A breakfast tray.

A little bit of life.

And then we saw the photographs.

Suddenly, all the running made sense.

The chaos disappeared.

The rooms looked warm, lived-in and inviting.

And the images felt effortless which, ironically, is probably the hardest thing to achieve.

That project gave me something much bigger than a set of photographs.

It gave me my first real understanding of what styling actually is.

It's part design, part photography, part storytelling, part production and a lot of problem solving.

And sometimes, it's simply knowing how to make things work when nothing is going according to plan.

Looking back, I don't think I could have asked for a better first project.

I learnt on the job, made mistakes, improvised, ran around in the rain, questioned everything, learnt from the people around me and somehow, we made something I’m incredibly proud of.

Most importantly, I walked away knowing that this was something I wanted to keep doing.

And perhaps that's the best thing a first project can give you.

Styled for Storii by ITC, Naina Tikkar

Photography: Mr. Mohsin Taha