About
A web studio that turns up with a camera.
We build direct booking websites for hotels and villas in Sri Lanka, and we take the photographs that go on them. We are in Colombo, and we come to you.
The people you will meet.
Founder, Lead engineer
Lakindu Pahesara
Leads the engineering behind every site: the booking engine, the payments, and how fast it all loads on a phone.
Cofounder, Media lead
Hiruka Ninduwara
Leads the photography, film and aerial work, from planning the shoot to the final edit.
Senior developer
Pasan Wijekoon
Builds the sites and the hotel systems behind them, and keeps them running after launch.
Behind them is a wider media and development team. Nothing is subcontracted and nothing is offshored: the people who photograph your property are the people who build the site it goes on.
Six things you can hold us to.
One team, start to finish
The people who photograph your property are the people who build the site it goes on. Nothing is subcontracted, nothing is offshored, and there is no account manager standing between you and whoever is holding the camera.
Engineering from a software company
Northlight is the hospitality studio of CEYLAI Labs, a Colombo software company that has built AI, cloud and enterprise systems since 2019. Your booking site is written to the same standard as their commercial work, by the same engineers.
Photographed at the right hour, not the convenient one
We shoot in the hour after sunrise and again in the hour before sunset, because that is when a property looks like the reason somebody booked it. Agencies shoot between eleven and three because that is the window they are on site for. It is the worst light of the day, and it is why most hotel websites look like listings.
We travel, and the travelling is ours to pay for
Colombo, Negombo, Galle, Kandy, Ella, Trincomalee, Arugam Bay. We come to you. If the weather is wrong on the day, we come back, and that second visit is not on your invoice.
Built for Sri Lankan mobile data
Most of your guests are on a phone on 4G, not a laptop on fibre. Every site we ship is measured on a midrange Android over mobile data before it goes live, because a beautiful site nobody waits for is not a beautiful site.
A free call before anything is built
Every project starts with a free consultation call. We look at your property, your listings and what the agents take from each booking, and tell you plainly which package makes sense, or whether none does yet. No cost, and no obligation.
Anywhere on the island.
Camera, lights and drone come to you, at our cost, from Colombo to the coast, the hills and the east.
Galle Fort
About 2 h from Colombo
Ahangama
About 2 h 30
Mirissa
About 2 h 30
Tea country
About 5 h
Ella
About 6 h
Kandy
About 3 h
Sigiriya
About 4 h
We shoot in two hours of the day.
The hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset are when a property looks like the reason somebody booked it. Most photographers are on site between eleven and three, the worst light of the day, because that is when they can get there. We stay for the light.
Today in Colombo: sunrise 05:57, sunset 17:53. We shoot the hour after one and the hour before the other.
Part of CEYLAI Labs.
Northlight is the hospitality studio of CEYLAI Labs, a Colombo software company building AI, web and cloud systems since 2019.
Your booking site is written to the same standard as their commercial work, by the same engineers, and the company behind it will still be here when your site needs its next season.
Wherever the property is, we come to you.
Send a photograph of your property and a line about it. We are in Colombo, we answer the same day, and if we are not the right people for the job we will say so.