Desert resorts are the hardest properties we shoot, because the building and the ground it stands on are the same colour.

At Bab Al Shams the architecture is deliberately low, earthen and unshowy, which is exactly what makes it beautiful in person and invisible at midday. Everything worth having was made near either end of the day, when the sun is low enough to put a shadow on every wall and separate the resort from the sand behind it. After dark the lanterns and firelight do the separating instead.

Nearly forty finished frames, covering the courtyards, the terraces and Al Forsan.