Let’s start from the beginning. How did you
end up
doing this ‘carnival business’? What
exactly is your job?
Trini Jungle Juice (also commonly referred to as TJJ) all started
off as a hobby back in college in Connecticut, when it was my
personal website without a proper URL hosted by one of those
make a website in minutes companies. My website was called
“Jungle Juice”, named after a party we did in Trinidad years before. I always loved the name and the logo. The site documented my travels around the world, which of course included the
greatest show in the world... Trinidad & Tobago carnival; a trusty
Canon Powershot point and shoot camera was my best friend.
Fast forward a few years, I’m working full time as an IT Specialist
with IBM in Atlanta, but working part time (seem like another
full time job) on Jungle Juice. Around 2002/2003, when I came
to realization that the world was actually paying attention to
my lil’ project (the beauty of web statistics), it was time to take
things to the next level – register my own domain and get an
official URL.
JungleJuice.com ... TAKEN! Rats!! What next? Then my American
friend Julius said, “Why not Trini Jungle Juice, after all you are a
TRINI!” and in 2003, TriniJungleJuice.com was official. Our mission was simple - to be the 1st Caribbean entertainment website
to take our viewers Global, reaching Caribbean and International communities across the world. Yes there were already established Caribbean websites like Toronto Lime and Trini Scene at
the time, BUT they specifically focused on their local markets.
This is where TJJ broke the mold; an accomplishment we are
quite proud of, especially when others are following our trend.
Beside event photography TJJ focuses heavily on video coverage of carnivals. Between 2004-2006 when I was based in Toronto I found that a lot of people were aware of the popular Soca
and Reggae songs, no context of the artists singing them. That
is when a little JVC camcorder joined my arsenal. It felt great
to promote our local artistes and their music, and to showcase
what transpires behind the scenes and below the surface of
fetes, pretty costumes and carnival.