Manny Pacquiao for ESPN
Nick Fancher Nick Fancher

Manny Pacquiao for ESPN

This shoot with the legendary boxer / former senator of Philippines / genuine man of the people @mannypacquiao for @ESPN was a new record for me in terms of speed of shooting (which seems appropriate given the speed at which Manny fights). Only four minutes elapsed from the time I took my first portrait of Manny to the last portrait…

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Recent Work
Nick Fancher Nick Fancher

Recent Work

I have fallen behind when it comes to blogging, but still wanted to update it periodically. Here’s some of my favorite work from the last six weeks…

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New Work: Nov. '24 to Feb '25
Nick Fancher Nick Fancher

New Work: Nov. '24 to Feb '25

I used to be better about blogging regularly, but life happens, and the more I fall behind, the more daunting the task is of catching up. In an effort to at least loosely keep my blog followers informed (few as they may be), here’s a batch of new work that I’ve made over the past two months…

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My 2024 Photographic Recap
Nick Fancher Nick Fancher

My 2024 Photographic Recap

I continued in my exploration of photographing different liquids, and soon ventured into working with epoxy resin…

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Images From the November Creative Portrait Workshop
Nick Fancher Nick Fancher

Images From the November Creative Portrait Workshop

Last week I hosted another one of my Creative Portrait workshops, in Columbus, Ohio. Students came in from Toronto, Portland, Asheville, and San Francisco to learn some of my lighting and camera techniques. Big thanks to @westcottlighting for providing the strobes, transmitters, and light modifiers, and to @nanliteusa for providing the LEDs.

My next workshop is January 25-26 and is at a discounted rate until December 15. There are only five spots FYI. More info, here.

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Processing Trauma: Photo Shoot with Covid Nurse
Nick Fancher Nick Fancher

Processing Trauma: Photo Shoot with Covid Nurse

Meris is a nurse that witnessed profound trauma during Covid. She kept a journal as a way of processing all that she experienced, which included journal entries and collage art. When she asked me to take her portrait and mentioned the journals, I suggested that I could photograph some of the pages and use them to make in-camera multiple exposures (seen below)…

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Identity: A Commission by Unsplash+
Nick Fancher Nick Fancher

Identity: A Commission by Unsplash+

The team at Unsplash reached out to me to commission a body of work around the theme of identity. Identity is such a broad, subjective concept that I ultimately used several different technical approaches to create the portraits…

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Photo Shoot with Ballerina Dancer
Nick Fancher Nick Fancher

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…

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We Are More Than the Sum of Our Parts: A Photographic Pushback Against Artificial Intelligence
Nick Fancher Nick Fancher

We Are More Than the Sum of Our Parts: A Photographic Pushback Against Artificial Intelligence

Many AI images look are impressive at first, in a too-good-to-be-true kind of way. Interiors brag gravity-defying architecture, or scenic terrains depict features that have never before been seen on this planet. However, there is inevitably an element that seems off when viewing these images. They are too perfect, and lack the tactility and weight that feels believable, a phenomenon referred to as the uncanny valley. This begs the question, are AI images a success or a failure? Are they successfully creating visions of an ideal human or world according to some programming and an amalgamation of stock imagery, or are they a failure in coding, with the author lacking the awareness to include nuance and imperfection in their vision? Its these details that, I’d argue, that inform us that a person or a place is real…

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Images From January's Creative Portrait Workshop
Nick Fancher Nick Fancher

Images From January's Creative Portrait Workshop

Here are a handful of my favorite images from January’s Creative Portrait workshop. I’ve been teaching workshops since 2011 and have been slightly modifying the format each time until I found the current iteration. I now cap the two-day class at five students, which allows for more hands-on time and exploration of each technique. Since there are endless variations that can be created from any one of the techniques that I teach, I start by showing the class three iterations, and then I guide them, one at a time, in helping them fold it into their own visual style. This allows students to really retain the knowledge, as well as work it into their personal style.

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Astral Projection: Psychedelic Fashion Shoot with Foxx Smoulder
Nick Fancher Nick Fancher

Astral Projection: Psychedelic Fashion Shoot with Foxx Smoulder

In an effort to keep things interesting as well as continue to evolve as an image maker, I’ve learned to embrace an element of chaos in my portrait sessions. In the case of this shoot I set up a series of controls, such as a strobe and a projector, and then I added the unpredictable element of video…

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Photo Shoot with a Projector and Prisms
Nick Fancher Nick Fancher

Photo Shoot with a Projector and Prisms

New work with @fulltime_babe. Been continuing my trip down the prism rabbit hole. I’ve learned the importance of waiting to edit a shoot until I’m in the proper headspace to really explore where the images want to go. The smallest tweak to my color grade can completely change the vibe of an image.

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Glowing Halo Photo Shoot (In Camera Effect)
Nick Fancher Nick Fancher

Glowing Halo Photo Shoot (In Camera Effect)

This glowing halo effect is latest technique that I’ve been exploring. The possibilities are as exciting to me as they are overwhelming. I want to dive in and try everything at once, but I’ve learned to let the process dictate the pace…

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Tutorial and Preset For Sale!
Nick Fancher Nick Fancher

Tutorial and Preset For Sale!

If you’re interested in learning how to create these in-camera effects, I have three video tutorials that detail my entire process. Each episode covers a wide range of techniques and includes everything from coming up with a concept and subject direction to camera settings and how I color grade the files in Lightroom. More info here

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