Rising indie-folk stars Union Tree Review recently hired me to shoot some new portraits of them, one of which appears in this month’s edition of Eleven Magazine. This quintet is as much fun to listen to as they are to hang out with, which certainly made the shoot entertaining.
Lighting Nerds, Rejoice!
Before the shoot, I cruised the neighborhood around our meeting place for some possible locations and spotted three: an alley, the wall of an old drugstore, and another alley next to a parking lot filled with parking meters; all within a block of each other. Since we’d be on foot, I loaded up my ThinkTankPhoto Airport Takeoff (it’s got wheels!) and grabbed a light stand and 60″ umbrella before setting off toward the alley.
All of these photos were made with Nikon Speedlights, due to their portability and ability to be used with battery power. I could have schlepped a bunch of big studio lights around but the Nikons are plenty powerful, especially when shooting at dusk as we were. Both alley shots were lit only with the 60″ umbrella, placed directly above the camera position. The drugstore shots were lit with the same Speedlight but in a Honl 1/4″ grid spot instead of the umbrella.
The band then suggested shooting on the roof of a nearby building which I, of course, jumped at the opportunity to do. The result is the photo that ran with their article, and it features two lights; a flash behind them aimed directly at the camera, and another in the 60″ umbrella to the right of the camera.
Thanks to Matt, Jordan, Tawaine, Jenn and Tyler for being so fun to work with. Now go check out their music.
Union Tree Review Portraits / Promo Photos – Images by Corey Woodruff














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