Nick Fancher 3/29/24 Nick Fancher 3/29/24

Photo Shoot with Ballerina Dancer

I rarely go into a shoot with a fixed notion of how I want it to go, or how I want the images to look. I often base my techniques, color palette, and post processing on what the moment dictates…

Nick Fancher 1/31/23 Nick Fancher 1/31/23

Images From Latest Creative Portrait Workshop

This past weekend I taught a 2-day Creative Portrait workshop at my Columbus, Ohio studio. Students came in from Utah, Arizona, Texas, and New York. It was an intimate time of learning, experimentation, and creativity…

Nick Fancher 8/29/22 Nick Fancher 8/29/22

Images From My Latest Creative Portrait Workshop

Last week I taught a two-day photography workshop called The Creative Portrait. I taught my students a range of innovative camera and lighting techniques that allow them to capture subjects in creative ways. Here are a few of my favorite images from the weekend.

Nick Fancher 10/5/21 Nick Fancher 10/5/21

Bold Colors and Shapes with Ballet Dancer Kristie Latham

My latest shoot with dancing queen, Kristie Latham. We’ve been shooting together for over a decade now and it’s fun to look back at how our work together has evolved over the years. I started off with a simple color and shape study with the Lindsay Adler Optical Spot (Kristie styled her wardrobe). Then I finished the shoot with some long exposure work (I don’t think I’ll ever tire of this technique).

Nick Fancher 9/29/21 Nick Fancher 9/29/21

Shoot with Ballerina Francesca Jordan Dugarte

My latest attempt at capturing the beauty of movement over time. Been exploring long exposures while rotating my @prismlensfx linear filter and multi-strobing my flash. Excited at the possibilities! Also really loving the hard light and fast falloff I can get with my @lindsayadler_photo @westcottlighting Optical Spot.

Nick Fancher 9/17/21 Nick Fancher 9/17/21

Interplay: Exploring the Relationship Between Light and Movement with Dance Couple Carly and Gabe

Last October I began experimenting with wrapping dancers in LEDs and making long exposures in the dark. In essence this turned the black room into a blank canvas and the lights turned the dancers limbs into (light) paint brushes (check out the old post here). Since that point I had it in the back of my mind to use this technique when photographing a dance duo to see how their light trails interacted. That time has finally come…

Nick Fancher 8/19/21 Nick Fancher 8/19/21

Images From My Creative Portrait Workshop

This past weekend I hosted a 2-day Creative Portrait workshop at my studio. In an effort to keep the atmosphere intimate and allow for a lot of hands-on time for students, I capped the workshop at 5 students. We covered a range of techniques such as using flags to shape light; color theory; making and using snoots; long exposure portraits; and lighting with projectors. We packed a lot in, as you can see below…

Nick Fancher 5/17/21 Nick Fancher 5/17/21

A Fixed Point in Space Over Time: Photo Shoot with Ballet Dancer Kristie Latham Zurmehly

In my art my go-to techniques all center around the passage of time. Take this shoot with Kristie, for example. I made long exposures and multiple exposures in order to observe how she moved through a fixed point in space over time, which I otherwise wouldn’t be able to see with my naked eye…

Nick Fancher 5/3/21 Nick Fancher 5/3/21

The Descent: Capturing Movement with Dancer Sophie Bolton

Whenever I am planning a shoot with a dancer I face the challenge of coming up with fresh ways to capture their movement. Sometimes I put my camera on a tripod and use a long exposure to capture their fluidity. Or I might have the dancer stand still while I move my camera, which creates a similar-yet-different effect. Or I might fire a strobe multiple times during an exposure in order to crisply capture how they move through a space. In this shoot with dancer Sophie Bolton I opted to do it all…

Nick Fancher 4/16/21 Nick Fancher 4/16/21

The Many Ways to Photograph a Dancer: Shoot with Ballerina Caitlin Valentine

I’ve been working with dancers for over a decade and I still struggle to come up with fresh ways of capturing their movement in a way that conveys their power and grace. But this challenge doesn’t keep me from trying…

Nick Fancher 10/5/20 Nick Fancher 10/5/20

Long Exposures with Dancers Wrapped in LEDs

In my last post I mentioned how I’ve struggled for years to capture the essence of a dancer in a single frame. These are more attempts in this ongoing quest…

Nick Fancher 10/2/20 Nick Fancher 10/2/20

A Window to the Soul: Long Exposures of Ballet Dancers

Sometimes all you need is time. I photographed Caitlin and Karen last week, two dancers from Ballet Met. The sessions were deceptively simple. A dancer, a window, and a tripod. For some of the shots I froze their movement, highlighting their pose and their poise. I also explored making long exposures in an effort to capture the grace and fluidity of their movements (for years I’ve struggled to adequately capture a dancer in a single frame). I also used my fungus-filled lens on a few of the long exposures, resulting in especially ghostly images. Here are some of my favorites:

Nick Fancher 12/6/19 Nick Fancher 12/6/19

Rae of Light

Rae is a dancer with Balletmet and a frequent collaborator with me. She’s as willing to experiment as she is talented, which means we always come away with a great range of images. We started off by creating fragmented portraits courtesy of my broken mirror, before moving on to creating golden images with slow shutter speeds and mylar reflections.

Nick Fancher 9/30/19 Nick Fancher 9/30/19

When You Move I Move

I love working with dancers, and Kristie in particular. There is so much power and calculation and precision in her movement (or even just her finger shape). We’ve shot together a dozen times by now, so there is almost no need for communication. She does her thing and I do my best to keep up. The hardest part for me is figuring out new ways to shoot her…