Wellness & Retreat Photography and Film
Since my early twenties I've had a genuine, ongoing interest in yoga, meditation, Qigong, breathwork and the wider world of contemplative practice. It started as a personal thing — something I did for my own head — and it's become one of the areas of my working life I care about most.
Over the last few years I've been fortunate enough to be invited to photograph a number of wellness and yoga retreats — a natural marriage of two of my favourite things, considered travel and considered practice. This is a short post to say I'm actively taking on more of this work, for retreat organisers and wellness practitioners across the UK, Europe, and further afield.
Retreats and practitioners I've shot for
Back To Our Roots(Kirsty Hobson · Sardinia, Egypt, Norfolk) Kirsty runs some of the most considered retreats I've experienced. Sardinia was the first — a slow, unhurried week of yoga, meditation and cold-water swimming on the island's east coast. I've captured her programmes across Sardinia and Norfolk, and she remains one of my favourite people to work with in this space.
Freedom Yoga & Retreats(Jax · UK, Thailand, Morocco, Nepal, Greece, South Africa) Freedom is a Norwich-based certified tour operator running yoga retreats across the world and 200-hour yoga teacher trainings closer to home. Photography and film capturing the practice, the participants, the teacher training environment, and the small everyday moments that make Freedom's community what it is.
Qigong.love & Yara Retreats (Naomi & Shakura · Sweden and Norfolk) Naomi teaches Zhineng Qigong internationally, having been trained and certified by Zhineng Qigong masters. Shakura co-leads with Yara Retreats, which runs breathwork, Qigong, and holistic wellness retreats across the UK, Sweden and Morocco. Together they invited me to document an immersive Qigong and breathwork retreat in rural Sweden — early morning practice, forest walks, cold plunges, evening dinner — and a follow-up retreat closer to home in Norfolk. A privilege to document while also learning from teachers I'd previously only read about.
What a retreat actually needs from a photographer
Most retreat founders come to a photographer thinking they need the yoga class shots and the sunrise meditation photos. Those matter — but they're a fraction of the actual content a retreat business needs to market itself well.
A proper retreat library covers:
The practice — yoga sessions, meditation, Qigong, breathwork, sound baths, workshops, ceremonies. Captured quietly, at a respectful distance.
The accommodation — the rooms, the beds, the interiors, the private spaces, the details that make guests picture themselves there.
The facilities — the shala, the pool, the sauna, the treatment rooms, the grounds, the views.
The food and drink — communal dining, plated dishes, the kitchen at work, coffee rituals, evening meals shared under lights.
The small moments in between — guests lounging, reading, walking, in conversation, drying off after a swim, dozing in a hammock. Often the strongest content, because it captures the feeling of retreat rather than just the activity.
The landscape and location — the sense of place. The reason someone chose this retreat over any other.
This is where a hospitality and editorial background helps. I've spent years shooting for hotels — The Hoxton, 1 Hotel Copenhagen, 25hours, Inhabit — and the same eye that captures a boutique hotel captures a retreat. Interiors, food, guest experience, atmosphere, the invisible details that make somewhere feel considered.
Beyond retreats — for wellness practitioners
The work extends beyond retreats themselves. I'm equally happy shooting for individual practitioners building their brand and marketing presence — the kind of considered, editorial content that separates a professional wellness offering from a hobbyist one.
Regularly available for:
Yoga teachers — class photography, teacher portraits, About-page imagery, social content, marketing for teacher trainings
Yoga teacher training programmes — capturing the cohort, the shala, the depth of the training, testimonial content from students
Qigong instructors and Zhineng Qigong teachers — practice documentation, teacher marketing, retreat and workshop content
Breathwork facilitators — session photography, facilitator portraits, brand campaigns
Pilates instructors and studios — studio imagery, teacher content, class photography
Sound bath and sound healing practitioners — session documentation, portraits, marketing imagery
Meditation teachers — considered portraiture, retreat coverage, brand-building content
Holistic health practitioners — acupuncturists, therapists, energy workers, herbalists — editorial content that reflects the considered nature of the work
Wellness brands and holistic businesses — supplements, teaware, incense, botanicals, skincare, apparel
If you're a wellness practitioner and you've been thinking about upgrading your imagery, that's exactly the kind of work I love taking on. Editorial portraiture, class and session documentation, longer-form video for websites and social — all shot with the same practitioner-led sensitivity.
The approach
I photograph retreats the way I approach everything else — quietly, respectfully, with a small footprint. The camera should never be the loudest thing in the room during a meditation session. Available light throughout, minimal setup, film alongside digital for the softer, more textural moments.
Because I have my own contemplative practice through my Samu Studio work, I understand the pace, the silence, and the sensitivity these environments need. I'm not the photographer who arrives loud, sets up flash rigs during savasana, or breaks the atmosphere of a shared sit. That understanding matters more in this world than any technical credential.
On guest boundaries
Some guests love being photographed. Some really don't. Both are valid, and I always work carefully around that.
My honest advice to every retreat organiser I work with: give your guests a heads-up before the retreat starts. A single line in their pre-arrival email letting them know a photographer will be present and asking them to flag if they'd rather not be in the images. Almost everyone is fine with it. The small number who aren't — I steer wide, and they retreat in peace.
That single email removes 99% of on-the-day awkwardness for everyone involved.
Deliverables
Depending on the retreat or the practitioner, I typically deliver:
Editorial photography for websites, brochures, retreat marketing, teacher training brochures, and press
Short-form video clips for Instagram, TikTok, Reels — the raw material for daily social content
Longer edited films — retreat overviews, teacher intros, day-in-the-life edits, brand films, teacher training documentaries
Client testimonial capture — natural, on-location, framed conversationally rather than as talking-heads
Documentary coverage across all activities, meals, ceremonies, landscapes and quiet moments
A full evergreen content library — retreats and practitioners often use imagery for years across newsletters, socials, brochures and websites, and I shoot with that longevity in mind
Where I work
Based in Norwich, working across Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Essex, London, and internationally. Wellness commissions have already taken me across Sardinia, Croatia, Sweden, and the UK.
Actively available for retreats and practitioner work across Europe — Ibiza, Mallorca, Sicily, Portugal (Comporta, Alentejo, the Algarve), Greece (Crete, Corfu, Paros), Spain, Italy, France, Morocco, Turkey, the Balkans, and further afield when the fit is right. Long-haul destinations — Bali, India, Costa Rica, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal, South Africa — welcome for the right project.
Travel is very much part of what I love about this work. Happy to be based on-site for the duration of a retreat, or to arrive for a specific window if that suits the schedule better.
Working together — the practicalities
Two ways this typically works, and I want to be honest about both because it saves conversations down the line.
Option 1 — Paid commission The standard route. Photography and film for the retreat, delivered under the same Brand & Editorial Shoot structure as any other commercial commission. Travel and accommodation covered on top. This is the cleanest, clearest arrangement — I arrive as a working photographer, deliver the full content library, and leave you with everything you need.
Option 2 — Partial trade For retreats where a full commission fee isn't feasible, I'm open to a fair-exchange arrangement — but with a caveat worth understanding upfront.
The catch is this: attending a retreat as the photographer isn't the same as attending as a guest. I'm working — seeking the light, the composition, the moment — and that's genuinely hard to switch off, especially during the most photogenic parts of the day. I'll often sit out of the activities I'm photographing, and even during the ones I join, I'm rarely fully in the practice. So a straight "a ticket in exchange for shooting" swap isn't quite a fair trade — because I'm not retreating in the same way a paying guest is.
How I make it fair: I quote the commission at my normal rate, then deduct the actual cost to you of my accommodation, food, and travel from that total. If my place at the retreat costs you £500 to host and my flights are £250, that £750 comes off the invoice. You're only ever paying for the work I'm delivering, not for hospitality you're absorbing anyway.
Happy to discuss either option on a call. What matters most is that both sides feel the arrangement is fair — I've done straight trades in the past that ended up feeling out of balance for both parties, and I'd rather have the honest conversation upfront.
Compendia editorial coverage
For retreat brands and wellness businesses that fit the editorial voice of Compendia — my design-led travel and lifestyle platform — expanded editorial coverage is available alongside the commission. A published feature on Compendia gives the retreat both a working content library and a piece of long-form editorial to point clients toward, delivered as part of the same trip.
Get in touch
If you run a retreat, a wellness brand, a yoga studio, a yoga teacher training programme, a meditation practice, a breathwork course, a Qigong training, a sound bath series, or anything in the wider contemplative space and you're looking for someone to capture it, please get in touch. Fill in the form with the details of your project — dates, location, retreat or practice theme, what you're hoping to come away with — and I'll come back within 48 hours.
For rough pricing, see the pricing page— wellness and retreat commissions typically fall under the Brand & Editorial Shoot structure with adjustments for multi-day retreat coverage.
About the photographer
Sam Harrons is an interdisciplinary creative based in Norwich, working internationally across photography, filmmaking, art direction, and brand-building since 2012. Selected wellness and hospitality clients include Back To Our Roots, Freedom Yoga & Retreats, Yara Retreats, Qigong.love, The Hoxton, 25hours, 1 Hotel, Inhabit, Naturalmat, Aesop, Lavenham, Bellroy, Plumo, Fujifilm UK, ARMEDANGELS, TAKT Copenhagen, TALA and 3daysofdesign. He founded Compendia, a design-led editorial platform and content studio, and runs his interdisciplinary art practice as Samu Studio — including VITALS, his ongoing Qigong practice.