Portraits: Attracted to Gods

Attracted to Gods, Blue Worm Records

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.

Attracted to Gods, Blue Worm Records

Attracted to Gods, Blue Worm Records

Attracted to Gods, Blue Worm Records

Attracted to Gods, Blue Worm Records

Attracted to Gods, Blue Worm Records

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.