Terrenaissance is an ‘earthy’ sort of band. Their performance is an aural and visual experience of naturalness. They achieve this in a couple ways. They use a variety of instruments like the tenor pan, violin, guitar and tabla, all acoustic instruments. Their clothes consists of white shirts and khaki coloured pants. Their vocals are done in a variety of languages. And finally, their name. Terrenaissance is a combination of two french words meaning earth and rebirth. All these elements come together to create the unique experience that is Terrenaisance.
On Monday night I did a photo shoot with them. They had to do an interview with Newsday on Tuesday morning and needed some photos to accompany the interview in the paper. We were cutting it a bit close. We were supposed to originally meet on Sunday afternoon but due to a mix-up, that did not happen. I’ve got two things working against me now. The first is that I do not have strobe lights so locations for night shoots are limited. The other limitation is the idea behind the band. They’re a natural sort of band so I had to get something out there in nature or at least convey that idea. Nature tends not to be too well lit unless it is a night with a full moon or unnatural lighting exists.
We met up at UWI (see previous post for some shots I grabbed while waiting there). We decided to go to UWI’s Centre for Creative and Festival Arts at Gordon Street, St. Augustine. I need to go back there to get some more shoots. They’ve got these interesting art pieces in the green areas within the complex. An evening shoot at this place would produce some interesting shots.
We tried a couple things that night. The first was one with the band standing in front a hug wooden carving. It looks as though it is part of the natural landscape. Unfortunately, the lighting there is from streetlights. There was a reddish hue to all the pictures I took here. The next attempt was next to the sign for the complex. The band sat on the grass in a zig-zag sort of arrangement. Nothing good came from this location. First of all, there was a concrete drain running in the middle of the band and secondly, the road and fence were behind them. Not very good backgrounds.
We moved to the interior of the complex to try some locations there. Again, the fluorescent lighting was wreaking havoc on any shots I attempted. Finally we went to a small area in the back where there are two trees and the floor is made of square concrete slabs with gravel between. Finally, something that gives at least some idea of nature. The floor actually had a nice sort of texture to it. To the left of us were some trees and a street light that actually worked in my favour this time. It gave a bit of colour to an otherwise fairly drab location. I got some good shots here and in the end all my shots that I gave to the band came from this location.
I hope to soon do a day shot with this band in a nice natural location. Things did not turn out bad in the end. I got the shots they needed and I think they are happy with the results. I would have like sharper shots with better backgrounds, but under the circumstances I’m satisfied.
Here’s one from the final set.
