the arkanes ~ house in the sand

Showing posts with label the arkanes. Show all posts

Tour Video: The Arkanes

Hey guys!

I guess today's post is going to be bittersweet.
This post shows a video back from when I went on tour with The Arkanes, but it's also a little farewell to the band.

The Arkanes, a rock band from Liverpool, have just split up as a band.
Nonetheless the guys have been incredibly supportive with everything on house in the sand and what's even more lovely, they've been wonderful friends.

I remember dreaming about going on tour with a band one day, documenting everything, traveling, meeting new people, seeing new places - oh, I couldn't wait to make that dream come true.

It was January this year when I received a message from the band, asking if I wanted to join the tour.
Well... Hell yes did I want to join!

Early in March the craziness behind the scenes started - I started drawing camera setups, planned different shots, collected details of our route, gathered inspiration.
On March 23rd I flew to Berlin to start my week on the road and the rest is documented.
(Here are previous tour posts: part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4)

Tour was only one of many times I got to work and hang out with this band, so there are a few thank you to be said.

I have written many thank you posts before, but this final one to The Arkanes needs to be big.
Thank you guys for adopting me as your "fifth member", I've had some of the biggest laughs with you.
Thanks for always letting me boss you around when we filmed, thanks for treating me with so much respect, thanks for helping me make my crazy ideas come true, thank you for involving me in so many band things - I can't even list all of them.
(Seriously, I can't.)

I've met many people through this band, yet the six members - Chris, Dylan, Longy, Jake, Lee & Brophy are the ones these thank yous go to.
I felt like one of you (especially during tour. (must've been the smell)) and I'm sure I'll always look back to this time and smile. Even remembering the nights in the hotels where I couldn't make out who snored the loudest.

I know I'm repeating myself, but thank you for the respect you have for my work, it means a lot!
It was a blast from the first gig until the last gig.
I would do it all again within the blink of an eye!

Now, dear house in the sand readers and The Arkanes fans - here's a video from tour. I know it's long, but being on tour for a week just leaves you with a lot of material.

The video includes a demo of a new song "Light Up The Becon" plus lots of outtakes, so stay tuned until the end.

I hope you'll enjoy watching this as much as I do.

Thank you for reading!

Credits // Text, Image, Video (camera, editing): Vanessa Jertschewske

Hey guys!

I am in love with photography.

Nowadays it's normal to take pictures with digital cameras or phones. You end up with tons of pictures which you are most likely to store electronically.

What I love about that is being able to take as many pictures as you want/need to end up with the perfect result.

But I grew up with analog cameras which do the same job but are completely different. You only have a limited amount of pictures on your film, so you end up being more careful when it comes to taking the pictures.
I love that because it challenges me to think about the picture I want to take even more than I already would - how do I compose it? What shall be in the focus? Which is the right angle? Etc.

My favourite way of photographing analog is using instant cameras, also known as polaroid cameras.
You take the picture, it comes out of the camera, you let it develop for a certain amount of time, et voilà - you've got the finished product.

The instant camera I use is the FujiFilm Instax Mini 8.
(I've done a whole post about it before, read it here.)

Now, before I dig a bit too deep into the photography talk, let's get to the actual point of this post.

At the end of March I went on tour with The Arkanes, a four piece rock band from Liverpool, England. I have already shared "a day on tour" with you, tons and tons of behind the scenes impressions and photos of the gigs. (Read the previous posts to learn more about the band.)

Besides all of that, I also managed to take a lot of polaroids. They were actually just for fun, for private use, simply just for myself to have even more memories from tour.

But they all turned out so lovely so I really want to share them with you. I think the instax posts are slowly but surely becoming a signature thing for HITS.

The pictures don't really document the whole tour but I think they give you an extra insight of what it was like.

24th March 2015, Berlin: Day off in Berlin, oh what tourist-y photo that is!
I feel very at home in Berlin and absolutely enjoyed having an entire day there to just walk around and relax. That day it was just Jake, Chris, Brophy and me hanging out together.

25th March 2015, Berlin: Introduced the tour crew to macarons, everyone loved them!
If you're in Berlin, I suggest visiting "Macarons De Stéphane", a super lovely place with the nicest staff and most delicious macarons in town!

26th March 2015, Wilhelmshaven: That's what rock'n'roll on the road looks like: Christmas themed blankets and loads of sleep.

26th March 2015, sea side: This is what some time off at the beach looks like with The Arkanes.

Exactly, there's no such thing as time off.

26th March 2015, sea side: During the little band photo shooting.

26th March 2015, sea side: Lads...

27th March 2015, between Oldenburg and Burgrieden: A typical day in the van.

28th March 2015, Burgrieden: They call us legends. Because we are.

28th March 2015, Burgrieden: Breakfast at Riffelhof, one of the greatest venues I've ever been to.

28th March 2015, Burgrieden: This is what you look like after one week of touring together.

28th March 2015, between Burgrieden and Olten: A not so typical van memory...

28th March 2015, between Burgrieden and Olten: Everyone fell in love with the view on our way to Switzerland. This fella stole my camera.

28th March 2015, Swiss border: Ironically red and white are the colours of the Swiss flag.

Dress to impress.

28th March 2015, Olten: Spot on decor at Coq d'Or in Olten, Switzerland.

28th March 2015, Olten: 99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer.
Take one down and pass it around, 98 bottles of beer on the wall.

(I won't continue, don't worry!)

28th March 2015, Olten: Drums.

28th March 2015, Olten: Guitars.

28th March 2015, Olten: Bass pedals.

28th March 2015, Olten: Drummers of rock bands play the triangle. Just saying.

28th March 2015, Olten: And then I took over.

28th March 2015, Olten: Dylan and Einstein. Casual.

29th March 2015, home: It doesn't get more rock'n'roll than that.

29th March 2015, home: Tired faces and a horsie.

And that's it with the polaroid fun!
I really hope you enjoyed!

The Arkanes online: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Thank you for reading!

Credits // Text: Vanessa Jertschewske | Photography: pictures were taken by Vanessa Jertschewske & all members of The Arkanes

Hey guys!

And it's time for part 3 of my little tour documentary series.
Quick explanation for those of you who don't know: I went on tour with The Arkanes, a very fantastic rock band from Liverpool, England.

--- click here for PART 1 and PART 2 ---

The band consisting of Chris Pate (lead vocals, guitar), Dylan Cassin (lead guitar, backing vocals), Jake Hallam (bass, backing vocals) and Andy Long (drums) is one of the hottest rock bands the industry is blessed to have at the minute.

Today's post is all about the gig pics!

I'll show you some of my favourite shots and chat a bit about the photography & editing process as gig photography has become one of my favourite bits of being in the creative online media community.

I thoroughly hope you enjoy.

Note: Before you dive into the photography part - please keep in mind that I'm a self-taught photographer. I've never had any training and am by far no professional.
But I bloody love photographing gigs. ;)

I got to shoot four gigs - Berlin, Oldenburg, Burgrieden and Olten.

As you can probably imagine, all venues had different stages, different lighting and different ways of using smoke machines.

And I absolutely enjoyed it.

I think every photographer who shot multiple types of gigs (club gigs, arena shows, etc) has their own favourite kind of gig to shoot.
I love the smaller gigs because they offer an amazing atmosphere and it's easy to focus on the music. But I also really love arena shows where you usually get A+ lighting and a photo pit.

During my week on tour I found myself in lots of different situations and I loved adjusting to and working with each of them.
Playing around with the camera settings was a lot of fun and I think I learned a few more tricks.

What I've noticed is that my editing styles have changed a lot but I now think I've found my signature style.

The way I approached the editing process has changed after this tour.

Usually I would edit all photographs the day after I took them.
But being on tour with very limited time, where you can sit down to concentrate on work, has made it impossible for me to work in my usual pattern.
And to be honest, it felt great! I think it's the constant desire of learning paired with being pushed into another work schedule which really helped me evolve.

Besides the change of editing, also my way of composing pictures has changed a lot within the last two years.
I now find a lot of my old photographs a bit too crowded, there's just too much going on.
On this tour I've focused on a lot of negative space on certain shots, as well as capturing all the movement. (Hell, there was a lot of movement on stage each night!)

I think as a gig photographer the main thing to focus on is capturing emotions.
I used to prefer absolutely sharp images over anything and would get upset if I didn't manage to take said images.

As a creator working on your own it can be easy to get stuck with your own thoughts and expectations.
Earlier I told about how good it is to break up certain routines. I also find it important to speak to other creatives who might have a completely different opinion about things.

Being on the road with The Arkanes was instructive in so many ways. Whenever we went through the pictures I took the previous nights, at least one of the lads liked a picture I was about to delete.

I can only speak for myself but in my opinion being too focused on taking pictures the right way when it comes to all the technical settings can absolutely ruin your shots.
To me, and apparantely to many other people, photographs are there to capture certain moments and emotions.

Realising that has helped me to start liking blurry photographs. They may not be perfect when it comes to all settings, but they surely represent and capture certain moments.

I've never had any photography lessons which might explain my views on things.
Photography is a passion for me and I'm happy I get to learn more each day by simply wanting to learn.

I'm blessed to have a few friends who are into photography as much as I am so it's easy to exchange tips which is lovely.
Getting inspiration by observing fantastic photographers is also always helpful, so if you're an aspiring photographer I can suggest you find some creators whose work you enjoy and maybe analyze their ways of approaching things.
Just please don't ever copy anyone, that's a no-go.

Here are some of my favourite photographers:
Jim Kroft

Ashley Osborn

the AMBY staff