Portraits for The Sky Is Broken

As seen in my latest post on Instagram and S̶n̶a̶p̶c̶h̶a̶t̶ Instagram Stories on Sunday, I did a fun little shoot with the band The Sky Is Broken. They’re a Jamaican rock band with some great, and unique(!) sounds. I shot portraits of them back in 2014 as a part of my final year project at the University of Technology, Jamaica, and I also did a shoot for their album art for the release of their EP, Tribes. It was a great experience working with them again.

Taffarie, the bassist, contacted me a little while back saying that they had a few ideas in mind for a shoot that involved the wilderness, and smoke bombs; somewhat vague, but still interesting! On Saturday morning we trekked to Portmore to scout a location close to Jam World and I took a few test shots to get a feel of the place. Not exactly what I was expecting, but we decided to make a go of it.

We got there on Sunday morning, got my gear set up, and with the help of fellow photogs Kid Bazzle and Stefan Ramdal, (Unik Fotografi) we got to work. Shoutout to Stefan for the behind the scenes shots!

We originally intended to use a 47” softbox, but quickly realised it wasn’t giving us the look we wanted.

Bazzle (on the left) and I making sure the settings were juuuuust right.

Gotta get the shot, no matter what!

Because I needed to overpower the sun (and I don’t exactly have a powerful strobe), I taped two speedlights together and shot them barebulb, and used circular polarizers to get the look I wanted.

After a few group portraits to get things started, we busted out the smoke bombs! Stefan would pull the pin and run across the frame (they lasted for approximately 1 minute) and I timed the shots to get the moment when the smoke looked most pleasing.

The first smoke bomb sparked and hit Taffarie in his back. Poor guy.

And here we have Stefan (in the green) running across the frame. Do NOT try this at home!

There we go! From left, Akiri Cooper (drummer), Matthew Bailey (rhythm guitar), Jodi Chin (keyboard/vocals), Taffarie Hutchinson (bassist) and Jordan Chin (lead guitarist/producer).

We did more or less the same for the individual portraits sans speedlight-use. All in all, the band was super happy with the final results, and I got some great shots. Click this link here to view the full album of portraits and don’t forget to check out the band’s Soundcloud page!

Rockers with Attitude

Taffarie, serving face!

Mission Accomplished

Using Format