Photographing Rockhouse Hotel for Financial Times
I had the privilege of shooting an editorial piece for The Financial Times’ Luxury Lifestyle magazine “How to Spend it”, for both web and print, within I share a bit of my own personal experience, background on my favourite photos and some that didn’t make it into the article.
I had the privilege of shooting The Rockhouse Hotel in Negril for an editorial piece for The Financial Times’ Luxury Lifestyle magazine “How to Spend it”, for both web and print, within I share a bit of my own personal experience, background on my favourite photos and some that didn’t make it into the article.
My parents were quite elated about this one.
I want to share a bit of my experience and some of my favourite images, but not before imploring you to check out the actual article, written by Enuma Okoro.
I had been to Rockhouse Hotel twice before, but this was my first time overnighting there. It’s a beautiful location on the coast of Negril, with it’s rooms situated on the cliffs - nothing short of breathtaking.
The grounds feature long pathways connecting all parts of the hotel like a road network, I loved the feeling like I was traversing through a mini jungle, and I wanted to bring out that feel of childish wonder and cheekiness whilst exploring the grounds.
Across the road, I went with Enuma to Rockhouse Farms where I learned fresh ingredients for Rockhouse’s two restaurants are supplied. My favourite aspects were the handcrafted candles made for Rockhouse and sister hotel Skylark hotel, being made on the grounds. I loved the scents and boutique design of the packaging.
I love these images, this gentleman is one of the artisans who also woodwork furniture on the farm for both Rockhouse Hotel and Skylark Hotel. I have a personal love for environmental portraits that show people in their work environment, doing what they do.
The Spa is another area I had never seen before, and wish I had the time to make use of! The light and weather was also very kind to me as I love the tonality in these images.
My final share is this gentleman here working on his creative dish at the rockhouse pool bar. Again, I love to catch people in their element, and the pride this gentleman took in his preparation really energised me. I was taken aback by his striking blue eyes, something I had never encountered before - but what I love about these images is the harmonious colour palette coming through. Of course, I enhanced this with editing, but the red gold and green in the background, lifted him from being lost in it. His grey almost.. lilac attire seems to be a less saturated colour of the peas, then again the green in the dish finds family in the green in the background, then the yellows of the background, and a bit in his skin and the corn in the dish work together. I may be tooting my own horn here, but hey, I love what I do.
There’s much more images I’d like to share, but I think it’s professional etiquette to allow my client’s article to lead out in this time as they were kind enough to include me on such a wonderful project. Again, give it a read here, there are more images I didn’t include here in there.
Until next time!
How to Edit ANY Photo from your CAMERA on your Smartphone (Without wifi!)
Today I show you how you can bring your images from your DSLR or Mirrorless camera, and bring them right to your phone and edit them, even if your camera doesn't have wifi!
In the last tutorial, I walked you through how to take better photos with your smartphone and edit them on your smartphone, using the app snapseed.
In this tutorial, we're taking it a step further. This tutorial assumes that you may have a camera at your disposal. A lot of modern cameras these days have some wifi features, but let's assume your camera doesn't have any of those wireless features, like the Canon T3i (as seen in video), a great entry level camera, but lacks any wireless feature.
There's a device that can take the images from the memory card of your camera, straight to your phone, pretty much skipping your computer. It's traditionally called an OTG SD Card Reader (they sometimes go by other names). Thankfully they're very affordable ranging from 5 to 10 dollars, and they're available for both Android, and iOS devices.
OTG Card Reader Options:
MicroUSB (Seen in the video)
USB C Option 1
USB C Option 2
iOS Option 1
iOS Option 2
How it typically works is one end plugs directly into your phone, one into your computer, and there are slots on the side to receive SD and MicroSD cards. In this tutorial we wont be needing the computer, so no need to focus on that.
Take your SD card filled with your images (Jpeg, as Snapseed doesn't support all types of RAW files from other cameras 😓), and plug it in the reader. While the card is still in the reader, plug it into your phone (n.b. for iOS Users, for most cases, there is a companion app for your specific reader that must be used so you can add the files to your camera roll. ). Open up the reader and take the images you want off the card and unto your phone! It's that easy!
From here, it's just a matter of editing the image to your taste in whichever app you prefer, in this tutorial we used the free app Snapseed, In the video tutorial, there's a quick edit of the images, if you're curious (Here's a tutorial on how to use it). Once you're done editing, you can share to the social media platform of your choice!
Here's the results from my shoot in the video!
Snapseed (Totally Free!)
Android (Play store): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.niksoftware.snapseed&hl=en
iOS (App Store): https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/snapseed/id439438619?mt=8
Also, The Canon T3i is a great budget entry level camera, that I would recommend to those interested in getting their first camera and learning photography. It's a few years old, so it's a very affordable price used and refurbished on Amazon.
How To Shoot and Edit Portraits with JUST your Smartphone
I show you how to take better pictures with just your smartphone, Android or iPhone, using some EASY TECHNIQUES and editing using the FREE app, Snapseed!
A lot of folks may believe they have a decent camera in their smartphone, but probably don't really consider the applications in which they can maximize their camera to be creative or actually create pretty decent photos!
In the video below, I carry you through my method of how I can shoot and edit a quick portrait using just my phone.
The app I use in the video is Snapseed, a free photo editor owned by google for both andriod and iOS, that contains some powerful editing tools to make some dope images, it updates regularly and continues to impress me with how much better it gets over time.
Snapseed (Totally Free!)
Android (Play store): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.niksoftware.snapseed&hl=en
iOS (App Store): https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/snapseed/id439438619?mt=8
Before I get into Snapseed and the editing features, I'd like to speak on the actual process of taking the photos first. As I mentioned in the video, most modern day smartphones (from about 2014-2015 ) contain pretty decent cameras inside them that can capture great photos with just a little know how and understanding..
The same principles that make 'a good photo' in a big camera like a decent camera. Principles like understanding lighting - How much light is available, which direction the light is pointing, what's the quality of the light (Harsh - bright with drastic shadows, or soft - gentle, with smooth and light shadows), Composition - How the photo is arranged, where you place the subject, how much negative space there is, the perspective you use (High or low), we cant forget, Subject (Matter) - Meaning your subject (the model) How you pose them, what's their facial expression like etc. And all these principles work together to create what will probably give you a 'good photo'.
Another feature your phone might have access to, is shooting RAW, this can probably be found in your phone's camera settings. A RAW Photo, is a type of photo file, that contains much more digital information than the standard photo your camera takes (what's know as a JPEG), You can't post a RAW file to instagram, it's designed to be edited, and gives you much more room than a Jpeg, to change exposure (image brightness), contrast and colours - and when you're finished, you make a Jpeg that can be posted to instagram. A RAW photo generally will result in a better photo, so if you can shoot RAW on your Portrait shoot, do it!
Back to Snapseed!
This what Snapseed looks like when you open the app, hit Open to begin and it will take you into your gallery to select an image. (this may look different dependent depending on if you're on Android or iOS)
Press the pencil icon in the bottom right corner to open the tools panels. There are a bunch of tools here, but in this tutorial i'll be focusing on Tune image, and the Curves panels today.
All of snapseed's editing interface is very intuitively touch based. To bring up the controls, touch and hold the screen and you will see all these options come up. To tweak them, you slide to the left or right to increase or decrease the effect in intensity. I advise you play around with all these sliders individually to get a feel of how each of them works.
Brightness: Affects how light or dark the photo is
Contrast: Affects the intensity of the whites and the blacks in the photo
Saturation: Affects the intensity of the colours in the photo
Ambiance: Affects a mixture of Brightness, sharpness, and colour to change the "mood" of the photo
Highlights: Hightlights are the brightest part of your photo, this slider can make just that section brighter, or darker
Shadows: Opposite of Highlights as it relates to shadows with one exception. The area of the photo referred to as shadows is the darker points all up until the darkest point (meaning a range of maybe 50% percent darkness to about 90% Darkness, but not 100%)
Warmth: Increasing this adds a yellow hue to the image, while decreasing it adds a blue hue
When your done tweaking here, just click the check mark and you'll be back in the tools panel, from here we're gonna move to the curves panel.
Curves is a powerful way to fine tune the look of your photo. It starts as a line, the top of the line controls the brightest parts of your image, and the end of the line controls the darkest parts. You can touch and drag any part of the line and move it to affect that specific tonal range in your image. A very common curve used is called the S-curve, where close to the top is pushed up (making the brights brighter), and close to the end down (Making the darks Darker).
Within the curves panel, you have RGB (Which affects all the image), Red, Green, Blue (each of those curves affect the respective colour) and Luminance (which is only the brightness, doesnt affect colour). Here I'm gonna mess around with the colours. If you look at the images side by side, you can see what kind of difference stylistically tweaking the colours make.. (the effects are better illustrated in the video), but essentially I added some red to the highlights, and I made the shadows a blue tint.
Hitting the little layer tab up top will show you some useful options while editing, Undo and Redo are pretty useful for maybe when you want to step back, and revert removes all the edits. Apply Last Edits is great for if your editing more than one image that has pretty much the same lighting and setup, as it can apply the same edits you used for your last photo to your new one. I'll get to view edits in a second- but the last 3 are pretty clutch. In sanpseed you can save your edits to something called a Look, it's like your own custom preset, that you can use later. It saves whatever edits you have applied currently when you hit save look, and stores it in My looks, so you can use it later. Very awesome feature if you ask me. QR Look, is a fun way to share your looks via QR code, you can also get looks from others by scanning it.
This is what happens when you open View Edits, it shows you all the edits you did, and what's great is you can select any of these tabs and go back into that specific tool to change anything. So maybe after the curves you wanted to brighten the image more? just go back into tune image and edit it. That simple
Once your done, hit the save button up top, and you'll be presented with 4 options, 3 of which are pretty similar. Share, allows you to post this or share it right to an app, like Instagram or whatsapp, I may use this feature to send my image into VSCOcam for some more editing (Tutorial on that soon!). Save, simply saves a copy of your photo as is, to wherever snapseed saves images on your phone (may differ between iOS and Android). Export, saves a copy as well but you can chose things like size and quality, it's good in case you may want to email the photo, or you dont want the file size being too huge. Then you have Export as, which saves a full resolution file, to a folder on your phone of your choosing (I think this may be android only), I personally like this feature because it helps me stay organized.
And that's it! your done! I really encourage you to play around and stimulate your creativity in Snapseed, we only really just brushed the surface of what it's capable of, and the snapseed team does really good work in making it even more and more powerful. It's totally free, so there's no excused to try! This can also be a great gateway into one day moving into some desktop apps if you're a beginner.
Here's the gallery with the shoot I did with just my phone (ZTE Axon 7)
Shooting with Olivia
Manifesting a portrait session with the lovely Olivia from the Dubeez!
Wanted to shoot Olivia for the longest while! She lives in the Netherlands and is the bassist for Reggae band "The Dubeez". They played a festival that Protoje & The Indiggnation also played. I saw her backstage and told her we need to shoot, she told me sure. I kinda envisioned that it would be my next time in the Netherlands, but luck worked out that she came to Jamaica with her band to work on their album, around the same time I came off tour.
So we got to shooting! Really love how the images came out, better than I had imagined
Thanks to Nickii Kane and Habibi (Travis) for handling lighting for me. Check out the images below!
Also! Check out the Vlog which has some footage from the BTS of this very shoot! (subscribe if you can 👀) | More importantly! Currently accepting bookings for shoots in Jamaica till April 8th 2017! so hit me up!
![Da Outro [Blog & Vlog]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/568a382440667a3869232c61/1488872829079-7WLKPXQUW0M1CXMIXHQ5/DSC08984.jpg)
Da Outro [Blog & Vlog]
Final post from the Tour with Protoje & The Indiggnation on the West Coast US Tour All Vlogs, and a couple extra photos
Finally completed my first vlog series on my youtube channel.
It was certainly fun, it wasn't my first time shooting vlogs per se, but my first time really shooting a vlog for myself (or being the narrator). Walking around holding up a camera definitely does make you feel a bit self conscious (read: stupid) at times, but- you start to get used to it, and you get reminded people don't really care (or really paying you much attention) as long as they don't feel like you're filming them.
Knowing you have to release a vlog, every 2 or so days, motivates you to engage in interesting things that will enrich your videos. which definitely paid off in particularly adventures, like trying the upside down machine in LA, or heading up two mountains in aspen.
Unfortunately, the time I would choose to edit and try have the vlog uploaded, is usually the same time that I would use to update and curate my blog. So this on this trip, my blog kind of fell behind to facilitate my vlog. Personally, i'm not too upset about it, because the engagement and response from the vlogs exceeds the level of engagement from my blogs (the response has been really really crazy by the way), so I feel like it's a better way to connect with people and help share the experience - but I have a personal love for my blog, and writing down extended thoughts and opinions that I can't necessarily stuff in a video (I try to keep it entertaining).
Moving forward I still haven't figured out how the blog will function while on tour and doing the vlogs (Working on a new one now while typing this) but that's a work in progress that seems more entertaining to figure, out as opposed to being stressful.
I made a playlist of the entire west coast US tour vlogs, for your viewing pleasure- maybe you've never seen any, maybe you missed one or two, whatever it may be, they're all here below- enjoy!
N.B. Also after the jump are a couple photos that I never really got to either post on instagram or make a blog post about so I'm putting them here
The Road to Pemberton
Check out Protoje & The Indiggnation at the biggest music festival in canada + the new Vlog!
From Minnesota to British Columbia tok us a two day long drive- through some nowhere points.
Middle of nowhere in billings,montana
This very cool vintage RV i saw at rest stop!
Tour Bus driver; Tiny
Pemberton Music Festival is far up in the hills of British Columbia.. a place called Whistler (sp?), the venue is pretty much a valley situated between mountains, one of the most beautiful venues I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Mountains draping above stages, capped with the whitest of snow. - Magical
Some panoramic images of the venue before gates opened
Views like this made the long drive to the venue more than worth it. I really underestimated Canada. Its cleanliness, calm vibe and the friendliness of its people. The venue had 4 stages (I only went to three of 4). We played main stage
For sure this was the most satisfying screen experience I'd ever have the pleasure of working with. The biggest screen I've ever seen (except the mainstage at Coachella (not where we performed))
Pemberton Main Stage
"So What about my picture!?" ..well sir here ya go!
SZA Performing her cover of "Come See Me"
Anderson .Paak live - sheer excellence. Excuse the angle- had to sneak the shot
This shit right here?
Another Panoramic image of this beautiful venue.
Thoroughly Enjoyed DJ Snake's set- during which a girl touched my dreads and told me I'm a rockstar.
All in all, Cananda's biggest Music Festival did not disappoint, really wish I got the oppurtunity to take in Acts from the days before, but I'm pretty content with the experience I got!
Before you check out the gallery below, Along with this blog we just released the Vlog of the past 5 cities we've been to in the North American Tour! - As you know the comments section is open for criticism, suggestions, comments and feedback! always wanna know what you think!
Email: yannickreid@gmail.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/thetherapistsol
Twitter: www.twitter.com/thetherapistsol
Toronto, Canada: 6 to the 876
Nuh sleepin' in the streets!
A long drive from Quebec had us ending up in Toronto in the early afternoon. The skies seemed just as grey as how Drake's music painted it. the vibe where we were at was pretty decent. People of different ethnicities walking up and down the street. A lot of bike riders. A couple Portuguese flags (as someone explained that we were close to 'Little Portugal').
Chinese store I went to
How'd they... where'd they get that shirt??
Kardinal Offishal even showed up
Thanks Toronto!
MEGA BLOG POST: Belgium, Boston, Philly, NYC & Quebec
6 shows Brussels, NYC, Philly, DC, Boston, Quebec rolled up in blog burrito
you like burritos
Let me first apologize for chocking so many things into one blog post. Not being able to work on blog posts while offline (Flying, driving on the tour bus) really hits my ability to keep the blog up to date. Time passes, new photos come in, I forget what happens the daybefore.. and as you see above, we have 5 Blog posts unposted.. rolled into one. Hopefully this prooves an enjoyable read, versus a Tedious one. I'll try and keep it quick!
BELGIUM
Festival show- Colouer Cafe in Brussels, Belgium. Our last show before heading out to the US. Interesting Venue, Interesting stage (a Vlog exists, its been edited, soon to appear on the Indiggcollective youtube page and my blog), Great show.
BOSTON
The first show in our North American tour was boston. It was a good vibe all around, lot's of jamaicans in the crowd came through and brought a huge vibe.. at one point I thought I went deaf.
She held this iPad up for the entirety of the show
PHILLY
This show went by really quick to be honest.. I don't remember that much (besides drinking a decent amount of Hennessy). Oh! The NoMaddz were in town as well for that night and made a very unexpected appearance on stage with a Wa Dis (Poo Puku) x Kingston Be Wise Mash up.
The "Jah know wifi" pose
NYC
NYC was very interesting, when we started off with a live radio set at Sirius FM. Along with an interview, it was interesting moving our huge buss through the cramped NY streets. After we posted up at Irving plaza and the surrounding area until showtime. There was a #blacklivesmatter protest around the corner at union square which made nearby NYPD frown, but it didn't seem to harm any of the crazy vibes inside Irving plaza as we filled both floors to the brim. was quite the energy
DC
woke up on the festival grounds for the first Merryland Music Festival in DC. A basketball sized arena. Where we played a short and spicy set. Highlight of this show was the suuuper fast wifi, fire catering, and the free back massage from Kat.
Big up Taj Francis three time
QUEBEC
Quebec was pretty memorable and outstanding. Took a while for me to really understand that they spoke french. it's just really weird to know you're in North America, but everything looks and sounds like Europe. Surprisingly enough the crowd was very turnt and knew songs word for word. Pretty memorable show and beautiful city (looks like gotham) and great people.
That's how Protoje x Indiggnation Shell show
(P.s. Quebec looks like Gotham)
Like Living in Brussels
Photo study of a week (kinda) living in Brussels, Belgium
We left the Netherlands via a very comfortable train ride. I love train rides over airplanes, because I really hate things like Immigration checks, security, customs, middle seats, luggage weight restriction, Turbulence, People reclining into your personal space, I could go on forever.. but these are things you usually don't have to deal with on trains. Only hurdle is bringing your luggage all the way to the train, which really isn't an issue for me. Once I get into that comfy spacious seat, I can get so much work done. Anyway!
Arriving in Brussels-Midi Station
After what felt like a too quick 90-minute train ride, we pulled in to the most familiar place in europe for me; Brussels. I was washed with a light wave of nostalgia, it's been almost a year since my last time in Brussels, but arriving there it really felt so much shorter.
Single file off the train the whole Indiggnation was once again in Brussels, for four consecutive days off.
Grabbed a couple Taxi's and took a short drive from Midi central to the legit center of Brussels. We rented a couple apartments instead of staying in some hotels. More space, more const efficient, and defininitely more comfortable.
4 Days Living in Brussels
I decided based on feedback via social media, that people wanted to see a bit more culture and the like, so these photos are just a study of the time spent in Brussels and the things I saw, or thought were worth seeing/sharing.
This is just the living room o:
Getting work done in these spaces, despite the sub-par net (i've seen way worse)
The view from our 3rd floor apartments.
We were listening to Annie Mac on BBC Radio 1 when, she played "Glad You're Home" off Royalty Free (big deal)
Paris and Kongz (DrumKeys) doing the usual late night routine.
Night time views
This one is a special gift to all my fellow sweet-tooths out there... I didn't have any because... too much sugar lol.
My favourite place in Brussels: A camera store called PCH.de, they have a used section which is in a window right beside the actual store, and I'll stand in front scanning for even 30 mins, perusing and contemplating while people walk past me. The staff is very polite and cool and they remember me since I bought my Sony camera here as well.
This is a view from another of my favourite type of place- 90% of wherever you may be in Europe, you're bound to find a Kebab spot, run by middle easterns. They serve various types of portable meals: Durums - which is the wrap..., Kebab... which I believe is more of a sandwich type thing.. and then there's a plate- where you get everything but a starch if that's more your vibe. They serve Pork (Porc), Beef (Boeuf), Chicken (Poulet) and the vegetarian option is a Falafel. The food is good and cheap.. I'm always in a Kebab spot.
Shopping district in Brussels. ALWAYS crowded.
Viet-Thai restaurant we frequented often YAKI. Also, she's NOT giving Diggy the stink eye, I swear
Display inside YAKI... would you believe that this food is plastic?
We spent our last night at home in Brussels watching the Wales versus Belgium match.. the streets were deathly quiet after the loss, humorous and sad at the same time.
At the end of this post you might ask- "Yannick, why is almost everything in black and white?"
I know I usually pride myself on providing colourful and bright images, but for this post I really wanted to give you the reader an impression of the city as well as the time spent there. I felt colour may have served as more of a distraction, than an enhancer in this case. The black and white allows you to see the scene and the story, versus the aesthetics. I included colour in an image only when I thought that the colour worked to enhance your understanding, versus taking from it.
If you enjoy black and white photography, and want to see more, I'd recommend you check out my friend and colleague Jik-Reuben's Website as he specializes in Black and white photography
FULL GALLERY
Groningen & Utrecht - Return to the Netherlands
Lost baggage in the country below sea level
GRONIGEN
Return of the G
Landed in the Netherlands, real quick from Gatwick airport. only to go to the conveyor belt to pick up our bags.. but after waiting 30 mins and only two members had their bags.. we knew something was wrong. Turns out British Airways left like half the flight's luggage back in the UK. Never experienced something like that before. it was literally like HALF the flight... BA said they'd bring the bags on the next flight coming into the Netherlands, so we didn't have much of a choice with our schedule but to go.
As you can see.. the gang looks a bit light.
To just interject (might sound like a bit of a humble brag), I wasn't as bothered as the other members because I had experienced a bag loss before in italy.. and equipment was in that bag- loned equipment might I add. I sweat my skin off the rest off the tour, fortunately I got back the bag, and vowed I'd never put anything I couldn't replace into a check on bag.. ever. So my carry on has three days of clean clothes and my equipment is distributed between my backpack and carry on bag. That plus I had a strong feeling we were gonna get it back.
Not much to worry about with nice hotels like these
drive the venue...
The festival was a two day festival over a period of two days at two different indoor venues in Holland, the first being in Groningen, and the second being Utrecht.
Monty's pedals for the show that night. these arent actually his..... those were in his luggage- in the UK
Check out the gallery below for the show vibes-
UTRECHT
We left Groningen early the next day with less than happy campers, as our bags hadn't reached the hotel as promised. The update was that they hadn't even reached Netherlands allegedly... complaints floated through the air.
We were still promised that the bags would reach our next hotel (kinda skeptic as it was now four hours away from Amsterdam) but I just kept my mind open.
Don't mind me too much but I was just impressed by the composition of these bathroom toiletries (lol)
Luckily, while at the hotel resting before the show, we got the call from the lobby that our luggage reached. I thought I responded to the call pretty quickly, but on my way to the lobby, everyone was already on their way back to their rooms, faces grinning with their bags.
Backstage pre-show views.
Collie Buddz performed at today's festival as well
Show in the Gallery below! Up next is the Euros in Paris, France
The Mud Monster of Glastonbury
Trying not to fall into the mud, but I failed
For more than a year, I've been warned about Glastonbury. The prestige of being the largest festival in the UK seemed to be overshadowed by the monster of a daunting task it has become. Many faces twist, and wince at the mention of the festivals name. I believed what everyone said.. It was just the magnitude I had yet to experience.
NIGHT 1
Landed at Heathrow after a sleep filled flight, grogginess was no where near over though.
Land pon 'ih scene
Indiggnation filled on a bus for a 3 hour drive (after an 8 hour flight) from London to Bristol where would stay that night
Becca D
Packaged a bunch of Royalty free CDs fresh from the pack that we'll be giving away through the whole tour
A Glastonbury artist ticket
No amount of words could have prepared me for the complicated mess that was Glastonbury. The van left out with a small crew of myself, Claire, Protoje, Becca D and Greg. Proto was to perform the "Who Knows" Remix during Shy FX's set at DJ Annie Mac's stage, and Becca was doing a DJ set at the Rum Kitchen stage.
We sat in gridlocked traffic heading into the event for about an hour, seeing the mud take over the landscape with each small drive forward in the van.
M U D .
I was worried.. I thought I was prepared for the mud- I brought an old pair of sneakers specifically for Glastonbury but I would soon learn first hand that it was nowhere near enough for the ankle deep mud we were to face. Looking out the window, everyone I saw was decked in water boots (apparently called 'wellies' in the UK) walking like half balanced toddlers through the mud. It looked so grim.
It really may sound like I'm complaining but it was just the most complicated experience... Glasto is HUGE, I mean huge! I'll link an aerial shot of the grounds here for you to have a look. it's about the size of a city.. 10 miles long. the best way to describe it- is multiple festivals.. within a festival. Our van being stopped about 8 different times to check tickets and bands by annoyed security.. walking from the entrance to the stage we were headed to would surely have taken anywhere over 45mins- so serious.
Just HALF of the camping section alone is as big as some festivals i've been to.
If you look at this photo above.. the little silver coloured specs near the forrest.. is Glastonbury.. just one part. It was bananas.
eventually we reached Annie Mac's BBC radio 1 stage in time. Shy FX was already on playing a variety of Jungle remixes.
I'll let you assume what Becca D has in her magic bottle
After leaving the stage, and a short wait.. having to switch vans at one point.. I fell in the mud. My track shoes didn't have enough grip to hold firm in the mud, and (because I have bad knees) my kneecap slipped out and I fell on my back in the mud. I'd be lying to you if I said it didn't kill my vibe.. considering we had about 5 more hours at the festival. I was mostly grateful I didn't hurt myself OR MY EQUIPMENT. something told me to keep them in my backpack as I traversed the mud, so I was only left with my pride bruised... which would eventually recover quickly.. but the discomfort of being 30% covered in mud was a bit harder to shake.
Having to get out the van and walk another distance to get to Becca's stage was honestly a short ordeal.
before she went on there was a trap/poet artist performing who's name escapes me, but he was good.
Becca's diverse dancehall set had people grooving in the mud (if you look closely at the ground), even me in my clay-face outfit found myself bumping at some points. Dancehall away from home just.. get's you more pumped than usual
after this, was another long muddy drive back to the hotel. got in at about 2 something am.. and spent the rest of my night (morning) washing my hoodie and sweats and kicks to wear the next day. I was feeling far too sorry for myself, to even take a photo of them. I was downed by the unsureness if they would dry in time for the morning because I was certainly NOT about to risk another GOOD set of clothes for tomorrow's longer adventure at Mudfe- I mean Glastonbury.
Full Gallery Below
NIGHT 2
The fall from before really set me off, to be keeping honest. I had an increased waryness that I didn't have the day before. But I was armed with some wallies of my own for 10 euros, so that boosted my confidene probably back to a regular number.
Day 2 was scheduled to have been much more of a task than yesterday. Today's Agenda included two sets with the band at different stages, and after would be three feature sets with Proto at some tents of industry friends of his.
Inception
the same squad we built yesterday came over in the van today. Driving past all the mud a second time was like returning to a lost fight, unsure of how today's tussle will go.
The band arrived at the venue, earlier than our bus to do line check and all the necessary pre-band stuff. Claire bought waterboots for everyone, so once we reached backstage it was... quite a thing.
Vince staples was chilling backstage, scheduled to perform right before us, and after his dope coachella set, I had to steal even a piece of his set the day.
Just believe me when I say its him lol.
One thing about Glasto, in comparison to Coachella, is there was veeeery little aversion to photography. While I was shooting with a smaller camera most of the time, even when I did pull out my clunky DSLR there were no threats to take away my equipment lol
First performance above was at West Holts stage. where we got a very riles up and enthusiastic crowd. While shooting front stage, I had to move quite gingerly through the mud, but my wellies made this a very manageable affair, I was pleased.
Shots of the stage above to give you an idea of what it looks like.
Afterwords I sat and watched Proto sign a long line of autographs, with some very peculiar looking fans
She wanted him to sign her chest...
Image is blurry but I wanted you to see the LEVELS of mud.
After the performance at west holt, we had a few hours before Proto's next performance.I was gathering myself when Becca mentioned that Stormzy (one of my favourite british grime acts) was performing on a stage nearby. I became instantly conflicted, because we had to walk through the actual crowd for a distance to get to the stage where Stormzy was. It looked pretty shaky. the general crew seemed interested in seeing the Stormz so we gathered some morale to head over there.
Even in my boots, it was super deep mud, everyone in the crew almost slipped.. the whole walk was filled with flashbacks, but excitement increased as I could hear Stormzy's actual voice floating through the air.
Got to watch the show from backstage and sidestage and sang along at max volume to his closing song "Shut Up". can't believe how lucky I was to catch it. Just need to see Skepta live now.
Diggy and #Merky
Even got to meet stormzy... #worthit.
Here my glasto story ends on a pretty wack note. While driving from stage to stage, SOMEHOW, my wellies fell out the van... actually one of them. I'm certain I placed them carefully to one side but I think traffic moving in and out of the van accidentally tossed one. So being short one boot, I was unable to go with Proto to the rest of the Glastonbury perfomances.. (which I heard were lit) Bummer.
overall to be honest, I thought Coachella was a bad experience, but for me Glastonbury was much worse. It has its pros and cons. Glastonbury is like three times the size of Coachella (maybe even larger, I've walked around and across the whole grounds Coachella, while it took us 20 mins to even get to one stage to a next via Van). I'm not a big fan of mud or dirt. I really like to be nimble and free in my work, so the mud was a restriction for getting images as well as getting comfortable enough to enjoy the whole experience. Also the grounds seem way too large to even navigate to see the acts you want to. I'd have to admit it's just a different culture. I don't think most Jamaicans would enjoy Glastonbury as the UK patrons do. Most of them were pretty "comfortable" in the mud, and camping on site. That's just not for me. It was certainly cool to be able to say that I experienced it though!
Full Gallery Below
Vlog on the way
A quick gaze into London
A curious angle of photographic storying of my stay in London for a week
Previous visits to the UK were always short. A flying turnover of usually 36 hours (or less), with Protoje thus far, its just been one show and on to the next one.
Leaving Jamaica Friday afternoon, to reach London Heathrow on Saturday, I was looking at just a few hours shy of a week in the UK.Working with Protoje to coordinate a huge feature on "Later...With Jools", and some live radio shows in London.
Despite the quick hustle of events crammed in the short time,
I still found some time to engage my photographic eye to gain an impression of my stay. Not a whole lot of images- but some select images that I felt painted my perspective of curiosity in my first extended stay in the United Kingdom
Record store run by some Jamaicans a few minutes from paddington.. passed through here to do an editorial shoot.
For those who watched the "Later with Jools", it was filmed in the warehouse above. Not in London, but about an Hour and a half away in Kent
Some of the dopest set design I've seen in my short lil' life (real life that is)
I was told I couldn't take photos during the live show, which I kind of understand, but still stole a shot of Jools Holland (the man in suit)
Post show vibe.
London.
Outside one (of the seemingly many) BBC buildings
Top Gear fans, Rejoice!
Peering down from the 8th floor of the 2nd BBC building- There's a main building for the television broadcast, and a building mostly for radio (from my understanding, I could be wrong)
BBC 1xtra live lounge
Loved the lighting in here. It was pretty dope to be in this room after watching so many live lounges on youtube.
To watch the actual video click here
Protoje w/ A.Dot from BBC1xtra
Inside the Maida Vale BBC building, to do another live show with Annie Mac
Strategic ration share.
Found this studio very interesting as it reminds me a whole lot of Tuff Gong's recording studio.
A photo I took inside Tuff gong space as a reference
Last few hours in London
Youthful energy in "Ova" - A portrait study
Portrait study of the faces in the 'OVA' freestyle video.
Recently, Protoje and I released a freestyle video we shot all the way back in February up Skyline (premiered on FADER along with details for the upcoming North American Tour)
This video features a bunch of Young, vibrant, up and coming musicians from Jamaica, all in one place.. I couldn't let something that rare go without some form of Documentation.
So I set up an inpromptu little shoot with Jamaica as the background... pretty fitting. One day probably these faces will be one of your favourite artists (directors, producers, musicians, etc. etc.)
Brookly Bowl, Las Vegas #CoachellaTour2016
Vegas vibes and Yannick almost gets arrested
Another huge hotel/casino rolled into one.. bigger than the last one + it's vegas so it was just a totally different energy and night life vibe. I almost got arrested apparently
The funny story here before the pictures:
we hopped the balcony of our venue to jump on an adjoining roof, to get a shot for a video. We were there for roughly 5 minutes, we were waiting on someone to bring a charger. Then out of the cracks and other roof, a security guard pops up.. smiling like the chesire cat, asking if we have clearance to be up there. (Spoiler: we don't), he continues to smile at us.. he pulls his walkie talkie strapped to his shirt, closer to his mouth without losing eye contact with me. In the back of my field of vision we see some people from our venue appear o the balcony where we came from.. there arms are folded.. they are displeased lol! The guard asks us who we are.. we explain that we playing the brooklyn bowl tonight, I point to Protoje, tell the guard he's the artist. The guard looks over at the guys from our venue- "Do you know these guys?".. They shake their heads from side to side disapprovingly.. I nervously laugh. Once again the security guard fixes his gaze on me and repeats his walkie talkie movement,.. this time saying "The guys from brooklyn bowl don't know these guys", at me he says "Do you guys have ID".. I try to look innocent by saying no. At this point I knew that was code for, I want to stall you and arrest you while more guards come... same time I see another guard popping up from the other roof. I look back at Proto and Paris and they're like "Let's go".. Proto shouts to the guard "hey man, we're gonna get off".. I scurry off without another word, Two guards now looking at my back as I clumsily climb back over to our balcony. The promoter or person who's in charge of brooklyn Bowl.. a guy who looks like Colonel sanders, tells me to get rid of my camera and rig and he doesnt wanna see it again. then they banned me from taking pictures later and a whole lotta extra drama with police that pretty much blew over....
godddamn...
gallery below
Observatory, Santa Ana - #CoachellaTour2016
First show on the #CoachellaTour2016
The pace of this tour doesn't allow me much time to do my illustrious written post, apologies for all who take the time to read. I'm plenty days late but I'll keep it quick and let the photos do the talking
we went to SSUR in LA before heading over to LA. Amazing art inside the store and met the owner Russlan (who made like 90% of the artwork in the photos).
One big up to Club Diamonds Ja! with the dope fit.
show gallery below is a standard.
Ventura, CA - Ventura Theatre
A little street and heat in Ventura, Cali
Yesterday I woke up in Ventura, California. The first stop since Miami i've been able to wear shorts! It's an hour away from Los Angeles, and has a real stereotypical "Cali" feel to it. We're here for four days (Show day yesterday, Show day same venue today, and 2 days off), so don't mind me if some images look a bit.... similar.
Thus far it's mostly been stage shots I've been sharing but I made the effort to walk around the place for a bit and get some shots.
Shot with my Phone
Shot with my phone
I actually managed to take some street shots WITH my ACTUAL camera.
Some highlights from the show of course:
SIDENOTE: Follow me on Instagram and Snapchat (where I post a bunch of real time BTS): @TheTherapistSOL
Shot with my phone... Protoje is in this picture somewhere...
Full Gallery Below!
Bend, Oregon
Salvaging vibes in Bad lighting and Loud Crowds in Bend oregon
So yesterday we made it to the town of Bend in cold, cold, oh so COLD Oregon. We were 30 minutes away from a very snowy mountain top. Despite that fact, at 7:30pm we had a line that extended all the way to the next block! a full house!
Oregon has the award for the loudest, rowdiest crowd thus far! It was a good vibe.
The interesting thing about concert photography for me is the unpredictability, you never know what kind of venue you'll be working with till the day. It really forces you to be creative as well as really understanding your camera, because some scenarios like last night really took some understanding.
The stage was extremely small from what you can see in some of the photos perhaps
Additionally the lighting was straight up AWFUL! Our whole set, Protoje was washed in a dim purple light. It took a lot of post processing to tweak the white balance to get some good shots. But this is part of the job and the fun. Regardless I think I got some good representations of last night's jam!
Full gallery below, or click here - As i'm writing this from a warm hotel lobby, we are performing at Spokane in Washington (which is also cold)
Arcata, California - Humboldt State University
Humboldt State - Arcata California | Winter Greens Tour
It was my first time being at a university outside Jamaica. Humboldt State Uni is up north in California somewhere near San Fransisco, featuring a pretty cold breeze, and tall green redwood trees. We walked around the university to catch some of the dope visual action on campus
Tell Adidas to hit me up
Dope Campus.
Thanks to all the students and residents in the area that came and showed out at Humboldt State!
Up next is Bend, Oregon
Full Gallery Below or Click Here
9 Mile Music Festival
Familiar faces with Protoje at 9 Mile Music Festival
First stop on the Winter Greens Tour, was the 9 Mile Music Festival out in Miami. A pretty full crowd. A lot of familiar faces.
A fairly Unique sight there was Yaadcore on stage with Protoje
I think the patrons were pretty fortunate to see Kabaka, Proto, and Chronixx all one stage. Something not even Jamaicans see all the time.
All in all it was a good vibes, thanks to everyone who came out to 9Mile Music Festival
For the full gallery, check below, or click here
Throwback Feature: Kabaka Pyramid Live
A throwback feature to Kabaka Pyramid's epic live show at Triple Century Sports Bar, back in 2013. Gallery Inside
For this Thursday's throwback feature, I dived once again into the archives of my older hard drives and found a set of images fairly dear to my heart. I found images I took from Kabaka Pyramid's live show at Trippple Century Sports bar, to promote his freshly released "Lead The Way" EP, back in 2013.
Here's the promotional trailer for the show for some TBT feels (not my work btw):
If memory serves, I do believe this was the first Kabaka show I attended (meaning his own show, that he headlined), and as a fan I was eager to be apart of capturing that moment in time.
Unfortunately, Though I had found my bearings where composition in concert/stage photography is concerned.. I was still shooting JPEG (for all who know what that means) on my Nikon d700 (Also might have been my first concert shooting full frame), and the double whammy is that I didn't save the original files (fail!), So I couldn't even apply a refreshed edit to them like my Who Knows Feature. So the images you are seeing are just the same as they were released initially, how I edited them along with my old watermark, haha!
Kabaka and Masicka performing "Choppinz"
Despite the above negatives, I can still say these are some of my favourite images, I remember the joy I had when I reached home after this show and loaded up my memory card. The images (to me) reminded me of the photography I would see of young rappers or afrocentric acts performing in underground clubs in NY. The images felt super authentic to me, while capturing an energy I myself love to see.
The show itself was amazing, one i'll never forget.. an endless session of high octane bars, and Kabaka kept the crowd going with a seemingly endless set of features: Koro Fyah, Keznamdi, Masicka, Jesse Royal, Protoje, Iba Mahr, Chronixx and the Mystical I-Wayne.
Trust me it was exciting. Very glad I still gave these images to share with everyone!
Gallery after the jump! Click Images to enlarge (works on mobile too!)
