Hella proud to be invited to participate in this exhibition: Au Naturel 3rd Annual Group Exhibit Celebrating the Nude in Art Opening Reception & Last Fridays Art Walk Friday, April 26th, 6 - 9 PM Artist Reception & Last Fridays Art Walk Friday, May 31st 6 - 9 PM

It’s print day! This lovely action shot of Ivy Sublime is printed on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308 gsm. Fine art paper stock will be my photographic undoing. The texture! The weight! The feel! <swoon>

John Waters looking like he wants you to buy Iggy for $500, but you only offered $350.

Here's a fun exercise: which image was captured with a Sony A7R III with an Olympus Zuiko 85mm f/2 and which was captured on an OM System OM-1 with an M.Zuiko 45mm f1.2? 42mp vs 20 mp. f/2 vs an equivalent of f/2.4. The only changes were to normalize the white balance and exposure.

The hell, BlueSky? I get the need for slapping a label on images that don’t have one, but i added a “nudity” content warning before posting.

In which TWBAANP drops a deuce. Uh…I mean…a pair of images from my first outdoors duos session. This was only about 15 months in the making. Many thanks to Jo (L) and Claire (R) for nudging me out of my Ace comfort zone and challenging me to balance two nudes at once.

Natural light photography that looks like flash! I captured this with Jo in late 2022. It was a partly cloudy day with a solid canopy overhead, but the stars aligned* and spotlit this particular tree in a most delightful manner. *Well, one star, at least.

Ok, I've done gone did it: I bought a (cheap) adapter to allow me to mount my lovely, vintage Olympus Zuiko 85mm f/2 on my Sony A7R III. As you can see, my test subjects are thrilled with this new photographic development. I can't wait until I can point it at some people this weekend.

“Trust” is handing thousands of dollars of camera to a decidedly damp and slippery model so she can review images. Eh, Ivy invited me to her wedding. She can dunk my camera if she likes.

TWO blog posts in a week!? I don’t even know who I am anymore! Enjoy as Jo and I figure out just exactly what kind of lighting you need in a small, reflective space. ubikphotography.com/2024/03/the-...

Hair flip photography with the delightful Ivy Sublime. It’s a goofy thing we do every couple of years and it never fails to produce a dramatic, dynamic capture or two.

Every photographer has an image in their mind’s eye that they’re hoping to one day capture. It is always just out of reach, and yet there is a certainty that with learning, practice, and patience you’ll grasp it. This weekend I realized mine. Many thanks to Ivy Sublime for an amazing session.

I'm doing my best to break my new A7R III's Eye AF, but Sony's reputation for accuracy and stickiness is well deserved. Dirty mirror? Bad lighting? Deep-set eyes? Not looking into the camera? Doesn't matter. Eye AF tracks locks on and does a surprising job at staying locked on.

Hey, I remembered I had a blog! ubikphotography.com/2024/03/oh-b...

A 20” beauty dish and C-stand were cumbersome as heck in my small master bath, but the results speak for themselves. The grid was key to crisp, directional lighting without spill. Those white walls throw light everywhere 😬 With the lovely Claire.

Of course, there is no substitute for my traditional crispy black and white. Fads are fun, but no one ever said, “That Paul Strand would look so much better through 3 inches of dirty glass.”

I hear matte, split toned, cinematic processing is still a thing, so here are two works in that vein with Claire from last Friday. It’s not my usual processing, but it works here. #OMSystem #OM1 #MZuiko

I’m an OM System/Olympus fanboi and the thing that excites me most about the OM-1 MkII is that the OM-1 is about to become an unbelievable value on the used market. If you want a stupidly capable camera that’ll let you take shots like this (1 sec., handheld!), take an OM-1 for a test drive.

This one, maybe not so much 😏 Fujifilm X-T3 XF 33mm f/1.4 1/250 sec | f/5.6 | ISO 200

Look, this is technically Safe For Work, right? From today's session with the lovely Jo Rose. Fujifilm X-T3 XF 33mm f/1.4 1/250 sec | f/5.6 | ISO 200

Zoinks! More media embeds are now available on BlueSky. Time to share the Kenichi Asai love with the masses. music.apple.com/us/station/k...

Another shot of the Queen Mary, taken from the Long Beach Shoreline Marina. This was taken at 17mm, which on full frame is roughly equivalent to 35mm. I will swear until my last breath that 35mm is NOT my favorite focal length and I DON'T need a 35mm lens...until I capture something like this.

This is so stupidly colorful and vibrant I feel compelled to include a screenshot out of Capture One showing that I did not blow out the saturation 🤪 OM System OM-5 + 12-45 f/4 PRO

One of the benefits of your brain being on EST and your body being in California is that you're frequently up hella early and can zip off to the shore for some sunrise photos. Also: the OM System OM-5 + 12-45 f/4 PRO is a hell of a travel combo.

Jo Rose, y’all. From my last session of 2023, aka yesterday.

Another generation discovers the joy of photography! My sister-in-law had an aging Olympus PEN EPL-6 laying around and I had a spare lens. Boom! Instant gift for the nine-year-old.

Airport bar selfie

Ivy Sublime, “All Seeing Eyes.” Ivy and I spent part of a day capturing one of her signature burlesque creations, a performance called ”All Seeing Eyes.” The custom made pasties were nearing end of life and didn’t have many performances left in them. Pour one out for the pasties. 

Some Ivy Sublime burlesque goodness, accidentally channeling a certain pop megastar. ubikphotography.com/2023/12/and-...

Oooohhh, this was such a fun session with Claire. We did it in September in anticipation of Spooky Season, but unfortunately life got in the way and I’m just get g around to posting it. Yay, life. ubikphotography.com/2023/12/a-ve...

Last, but not least, is Claire, a nearly six year veteran of the Ubik Photography Experience. Claire was my second nude subject and we’ve sort of artistically grown up together. Neither of us knew what the hell we were doing at the start, so we just kept trying things to see what worked.

Next up is Ivy Sublime, the Subliminal Seductress herself. Ivy is another Durham-based burlesque performer, producer, and model. Ivy is the consummate professional, creative AF, and never content with the status quo. Ivy and I also have a five year photoversary coming up in September.

Let’s introduce the Dramatis Personae, shall we? Meet Jo Rose. Jo is a Durham, NC-based burlesque performer, producer, figure model, and actress. Jo is one of the most soulful artists I’ve worked with and our collaboration celebrates 5 years next Feb. This capture is from our first session.

Greetings! I'm Chris, the World's Best Asexual Art Nude Photographer. Look, until some other 'tog decides to live their truth: I'm it 😜 This is purely "for the hell of it" posting. Thoughts and deeper dives are all on my blog (yes, blog): ubikphotography.com. Let's reboot the traditional web, y'all