About
Andrew Meli and David Firestone founded PhotoWeb in 1998 in Winter Park, Florida. As the company celebrates its 25th year, it’s exciting to look back on the great friends made along the way, the business relationships nurtured, the millions of images produced and air miles flown, enough to rival an astronaut. PhotoWeb was established six months before Google in the days of the Dot-com boom when Netscape and AOL were household internet service providers and software updates arrived on CD-ROMs in the mail. Hotel websites were still in their first generation and very few people had seen or heard of a 360 virtual tour. PhotoWeb created a niche market by offering 360 tours to the hospitality industry. Radisson, Swissôtel, Oberoi and Taj were quick to realise the opportunity. At the time, camera resolution was grainy in comparison with today but it did not stop the gasp of excitement when hotel General Managers first panned around their new virtual tours. ‘It was an exciting time to be part of the internet revolution’ says Andrew.
With a background in architectural and lifestyle photography, Andrew and David were being asked to shoot more and more still photography which over time replaced the virtual tour business. ‘By 2010 it seemed that every hotel who wanted a virtual tour, had one’ says David. The next decade saw explosive growth with multiple 5,000 + hotel shoot contracts from IHG and Wyndham. In order to manage such global and extensive projects, PhotoWeb opened a new larger office in Pueblo, Colorado and expanded its team to seventy five photographers and twenty office staff. PhotoWeb delivered on time and to the required approval rating. In 2012, Andrew moved back to the UK to open the EMEA office in London and David continues to manage the North America office. Bryson Shearwood manages their technical support office in Melbourne, Australia.