SAN­DRA L BLOOD

Ter­ence Pieters was an ar­dent surfer and pro­fes­sion­al boo­gie board­er be­fore a shoul­der in­jury halt­ed his com­pet­i­tive ca­reer.

“I al­ways loved the ocean be­cause I grew up along the coast, and the sea was al­ways a cen­tral part of my life,” he said.

To main­tain his con­nec­tion to the ocean, Pieters fo­cused his pas­sion in a new di­rec­tion. In­stead of rid­ing the waves, he now cap­tures im­ages of them.

“The process re­quires care­ful plan­ning, from mon­i­tor­ing tides and weath­er con­di­tions to spend­ing hours in the wa­ter, nav­i­gat­ing pow­er­ful waves to get the per­fect shot,” the South African na­tive ex­plained.

“It’s a phys­i­cal­ly de­mand­ing but deeply re­ward­ing ex­pe­ri­ence. Every pho­to I take is an op­por­tu­ni­ty to share the ocean’s sto­ry and in­vite oth­ers to feel the peace and con­nec­tion it of­fers.

“Pho­tog­ra­phy is more than just art; it’s a way to ad­vo­cate for ocean con­ser­va­tion. I be­lieve when peo­ple see the ocean’s beau­ty, they’re in­spired to pro­tect it.”

Pieters, al­ways ea­ger to share his love for the waves, us­es his skills as a pro­fes­sion­al pho­tog­ra­ph­er to show­case the waves and sun­light in a way that fos­ters a deep­er ap­pre­ci­a­tion for the nat­ur­al world.

He ex­plained: “I cur­rent­ly spe­cial­ize in cap­tur­ing waves il­lu­mi­nat­ed by sun­light, of­ten dur­ing the mag­i­cal mo­ments of sun­rise. My work is a re­flec­tion of my deep love and re­spect for the ocean – a liv­ing breath­ing force of na­ture.”

Some of those im­ages are con­tained in a cof­fee ta­ble book, the re­sult of two years of metic­u­lous work.

“I’ve ded­i­cat­ed my­self to show­ing the ocean’s beau­ty through my pho­to­book Liq­uid Mo­ments which fea­tures 24 of my best pho­tos, and oth­er projects in­clud­ing prints and cal­en­dars,” Pieters said.

The pub­li­ca­tion has been well re­ceived.

One re­view­er wrote: “The book is an­oth­er work of art, from its clean glossy tex­ture to every leaf that eas­i­ly lays flat from the spine, to the flow­ing im­ages; each im­age page trans­formed to a wave.”

For Pieters cap­tur­ing the per­fect wave hap­pens in that mo­ment when it aligns with oth­er nat­ur­al el­e­ments.

“It’s ab­solute­ly mes­mer­iz­ing,” he said.

His favourite time of year to be in the wa­ter is be­tween May to Ju­ly be­cause “dur­ing those months the winds are off­shore, the waves are amaz­ing, and the wa­ter is usu­al­ly crys­tal clear.”

How­ev­er, dur­ing the sum­mer, which starts in De­cem­ber and ends in Feb­ru­ary in the south­ern hemi­sphere, Pieters wakes up as ear­ly as 3.30 am to catch the first light. In those months, he spends up to three hours in the wa­ter.

Com­ment­ing on the ocean life he en­coun­ters, he said: “I see sharks oc­ca­sion­al­ly, but we both try to avoid each oth­er. If I no­tice any ac­tiv­i­ty near me, I’d rather get out of the way to stay on the safe side.”

Pieters said he gets mixed re­spons­es from his fam­i­ly to his ocean pho­tog­ra­phy. His moth­er is ter­ri­fied of him go­ing in­to the ocean but­gets a lot of sup­port from his sis­ter, who surfs when­ev­er she gets a chance, and his fa­ther, who did a lot of div­ing and spearfish­ing when he was younger.

He said he hopes to hopes to vis­it T&T one day to learn and share this coun­try’s cul­ture and bask in wa­ters that sur­round these is­lands.

To find out more about his pho­tog­ra­phy, vis­it www.or­ange­rocks.com.