In July, I caught up with the Cancer Bats while they were on tour with As I Lay Dying and Underoath for The Cool Tour 2010. For these shots, I used a simple two-light set against a simple backdrop for a slightly moody shot with a little graphic pop.

Photographer’s Notes:

When doing tour portraits like this, locations are always going to be a little tricky, as you generally have to work with a location that’s nearby to the venue.

While I normally try to avoid shooting straight into a wall, I found this nice red garage door at a warehouse a few minutes from the venue. My approach for this look was more like that of a studio shoot with some true grit thrown in.

First frame to last, I shot with the Cancer Bats for about 8 minutes. Super simple setup on this one – beauty dish above the guys and a light behind them washing over the wall.

Here’s a shot of that two-light setup – just ignore that 46-inch Photek Softlite II behind my assistant Corey, it wasn’t used for these two final shots.

Camera Gear Used:

• Nikon D3
• Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8

Lighting Gear Used:

• Nikon SB-900 Speedlight (3x)
• Nikon SC-28 Remote TTL Sync Cord
• DIY Beauty Dish

The exposure for these images was 1/250 at ISO 200 and f/11. Even just using small flashes like the SB-900, they give plenty of power when working in open shade like we were for this shoot to pretty much kill ambient light if you want.

If you’re wondering about the background, it was just lit by one Nikon SB-900 with the flash head zoomed to 200mm. The zoom, together with the position of the flash relatively close to the red door and the falloff of the flash, creates the “vignette” look you see on the background.

A snap of my assistant Allyssa standing in while testing the look of the background lighting.

As for the light on the band, that’s all DIY Beauty Dish, held up and over the band from camera left. Lights triggered via IR – Nikon’s CLS.

End Notes:

Big thanks to Cancer Bats for being awesome Canadian dudes, especially after the shoot had to be rescheduled after their performance. They were dead tired when we shots this.

Another special thanks to my assistants Allyssa and Corey for helping throughout the long day of portraits.

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Nothing like a weekend day in the park – especially when that day features great live music. Kicking off the first-ever LouFest properly, Saturday’s lineup included bands like Broken Social Scene, Built to Spill, Airborne Toxic Event, Titus Andronicus, Lucero, and more.

Here’s a set of photo highlights from the day.

LouFest – Day 1

Bottle Rockets

Local alt-country heroes the Bottle Rockets kicked things off with a high-energy set, rewarding early comers and some fans who had come from as far away as Washington DC.

See more photos of the Bottle Rockets at LouFest

Stephaniesid

Stephaniesid from Ashville, North Carolina were a surprise for me. I’d never heard them before, but the band put on a very animated show that was a nice treat to photograph, not to mention singer Stephanie Morgan’s great vocals.

See more photos of Stephaniesid at LouFest

So Many Dynamos

Local indie-rock darlings So Many Dynamos put on a great set, pulling out some new material for the crowd in one of the band’s first performances of the summer.

See more photos of So Many Dynamos at LouFest

Adam Reichmann

Local singer-songwriter Adam Reichmann had performed at Offbroadway in town just a few weeks prior, but all that seemed to do was build buzz for his LouFest performance.

See more photos of Adam Reichmann at LouFest

Titus Andronicus

Titus Andronicus were great subjects, and just the mid-afternoon kick I needed at LouFest. Plenty of rocking out, complete with electric violin.

See more photos of Titus Andronicus at LouFest

Lucero

Alt-country band Lucero received some beautiful light at LouFest – bright, but the kind of summery light that works well for festivals like this. And thankfully, the stage lights were up to add the perfect amount of interest at the back of the stage for close-ups like this shot of singer Ben Nichols.

See more photos of Lucero at LouFest

Airborne Toxic Event

I’d heard good things about Airborne Toxic Event, but hadn’t had a chance to see them until LouFest. I thought they brought a really big, rich sound to the a-stage of LouFest, as well as one of the more photogenic performances of the day.

See more photos of Airborne Toxic Event at LouFest

Built To Spill

Indie-rock mainstays Built To Spill put on an epic set at LouFest, capping the show with “Carry The Zero,” which as far as I’m concerned was the perfect way to close out.

See more photos of Built To Spill at LouFest

Broken Social Scene

By the time Broken Social Scene took the stage, it had been a long, hot day of shooting and great music. And when they took the stage, I had my doubts about the lighting at the festival.

As if sensing my disapproval, the lights then came on full blast, and photographers were treated to some most excellent production for a festival of this size, with plenty of searing backlighting.

See more photos of Broken Social Scene at LouFest

Photographer’s Note:

It’s been a long time coming, but it was great to see the production and booking for LouFest. The kick-off on Saturday was a great day of shooting, with lots of highlights – and great weather, too.

Cameras Used:

• Nikon D3
• Nikon D700

Lenses Used:

• Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
• Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
• Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8

Arriving on-site at LouFest, I sized up the stages and was pleased by what I saw. For me, the height of the stages was just about perfect, hitting around four and a half feet or so, such that even with monitors, there were good sight lines.

For this festival, the two stages were basically identical, with a little more room in the photo pit for the b-stage. Still, the photo pits were never super crowded, and there was ample room to move around. I never felt like the pits were overcrowded, and all the shooters were very considerate.

On the first day of LouFest, I relied on the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 and the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 for nearly all the heavy-lifting. The only real time I broke out the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 was when Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene came out onto the barricade on the band’s third song.

Want more LouFest? Check out day 2 of the festival.

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June 18, 2009 – Opening up for Brad Paisley, Dierks Bentley defied the 100º+ heat index to deliver an aerobic set that saw the country singer bounding over the length of the stage and making ample use of the tour’s three ramps.

Photographer’s Notes:

The rules for this set were the second and third songs, which was a good thing, since Dierks spent most of the first song running around every square inch of the stage and the three ramps. Of course, he only turned it down a notch during the second and third songs. This near-constant movement kept the press on our toes, and there were still plenty of opportunities to photograph the country singer from a stationary spot at the front of the stage.

The setup for the evening included two ramps/catwalks out into the crowd from the stage: one center and two on the sides. The middle ramp terminated in a small round satellite stage, which Dierks went out to on occasion, but he mostly rocked the two side ramps.

The 8:10 set time for Dierks Bentley still left a little daylight hanging in the air, which provided a diffuse fill light to the stage. Spotlights with a magenta gel were trained on Dierks for the first three songs, and their intensity kept shutter speeds up and ISO down.

There was no dedicated photo pit for this concert, so photographers simply hung out at the front of the stage near the center catwalk. Dierks moves around so much that I think the left and right sides are pretty equal as far as angles and photo opportunities. For right-handed guitarists, I generally take house-right for my own compositional preferences, so that’s where I choose to shoot from for this performance.

The Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 and Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 easily took care of this gig.

May 22, 2009 – I caught up Nate Collis and Brian McLeod of Attracted to Gods, a rockin’ two-piece band from Minneapolis. Attracted to Gods are just finishing up their US tour with Atmosphere, for which Nate also plays guitar. ATG are on Blue Worm Records.

The lighting for this was a combination of speedlights and monoblocks: 1 Alien Bees AB800, 3 Nikon SB-600s, triggered by a Nikon SB-900 via CLS as well as a PC sync cord into the commander.

Photographer’s Notes:

Nate and Brian were great subjects and made this shoot a lot of fun. I caught up with the guys a little over an hour before the start of the concert, and we knocked out this set in about 20 minutes.

This photo shoot was a little different than my previous sets because it marked the first time doing band promos with Alien Bees thrown into the mix of my Nikon speedlights.

My friend and assistant Dave Mullis just got a B800, 47″ collapsible octobox, and AB Vagabond, so we decided break in the setup properly as the key light for this shoot.

I used to have two Alien Bees B800s, but sold them a few years ago – well before I started doing location work like this – so it was great to use a monolight for this shoot. One thing that struck me immediately was how small the Vagabond power unit was – super portable and with more than power for a quick shoot like this one.

To supplement the monolight, I used three three Nikon SB-600 speedlights – two bare for accents and another fired into a 45″ umbrella for fill. These remote flsahes were fired via Nikon’s wireless flash system, while the AB monolight was triggered using a PC sync cord.

For this promo shoot, I used the Nikon D3, Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8, and Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8.

End Notes:

Big thanks to the guys of Attracted to Gods for being great subjects and super easy to work with. Of course, thanks to Dave for hooking up the Alien Bees B800 on this one.

May 8, 2009 – As previously tweeted, Houston-based rapper Paul Wall gave a little face-time to the camera, more than happy to show off his trademark cosmetic dental apparatuses.This shot was snapped with the Nikon D3 and 14-24mm, with fill from the Nikon SB-900.

I caught Paul Wall just after his half-time performance at a charity basketball put together by two-time Grammy award-winning rapper Nelly as a benefit to raise awareness for bone marrow donation and transplants.

Paul Wall gained notoriety due to his ubiquitous, diamond-studded mouth, as prominently featured in “Grillz” by Nelly, which was nominated for a Grammy under the category “Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group” in 2006: