‘It’s an image of how summer holidays should be’: Antonio Heredia’s best phone picture

Antonio Heredia arrived at Hotel de la Naturaleza in south-east Spain while it was shrouded in darkness. It was past midnight, and Heredia and a colleague had spent the day filming a story about one of the last remaining lighthouse keepers in the country.

“Mario Sanz is based in Mesa Roldán lighthouse, in the national park Cabo de Gata-Níjar, but he’s one of just 15 still on duty in Spain. The other lighthouses are operated remotely with computers now. We finished the assignment and drove to this hotel. The roads were narrow and without lights, and we almost got lost.”

It wasn’t until Heredia went down to breakfast the next morning that he was able to see his surroundings in all their glory.

Related: ‘It looked like a stage set’: Gideon Mendel’s best phone shot

“I was instantly amazed by this patio, the blues and siennas. Two palm trees surface in the background, echoed by a pair of plants in the foreground and the two shadow lines. The stairs suggest a new place to discover – the pool, in fact. And the light was perfect,” he says.

The image needed little editing, only a little adjustment to the contrast. “The most important thing here is the composition: the geometry of lines and shapes, the colours and the atmosphere they create,” he adds. “The photo makes me feel relaxed, comfortable. I want to be in the picture, letting the time go by. It’s an image of how summer holidays should be: quiet, appealing and luminous.”