Big Photo Hunt

Embracing Sensuality: Boudoir Photography with Christopher P. Baker

• Ken Deckinger

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Travel writer and photographer Christopher P. Baker has authored more than two dozen guidebooks for National Geographic, Lonely Planet, Time-Life and other major publishers. His photographs and articles have appeared in outlets such as BBC Travel, CNN, National Geographic and Condé Nast Traveler. Having led over 150 group tours to Cuba—including photography tours for Jim Cline Photo Tours, National Geographic Expeditions, and Santa Fe Workshops—Christopher is also recognized worldwide for his deep expertise in Cuban travel.

In this episode, we explore how his extensive background in travel and photography has evolved into his latest ventures: boudoir photography tours to Cuba and an art nude photo book called Sensual Havana. We dive into the details of boudoir photography—addressing its misconceptions, uncovering the artistry behind it, and discussing its potential controversies. If you’ve ever been curious about boudoir or the captivating allure of Cuba, this conversation will broaden your perspective on both.


Show Notes:

00:00:00:02 - 00:00:25:02

The bottom line that never changes is you need to learn within whatever genre you're shooting. What are the techniques that lead to strong composition that that the viewer has an emotive and emotional reaction to that photo, be it negative or positive and also the use of light. So it's composition. What's in that photo and the use of light. These are integral. 


00:00:27:28 - 00:00:49:10

Welcome to the Big Photo Hunt podcast, a show where we talk with aspiring and professional photographers to help us all grow and improve our photography together. I'm your host, Ken Deckinger. If you're one of our community members and you'd like to be a guest on the show, please visit Big Photo hunt.com for more information. 


00:01:01:07 - 00:01:37:19

It's 2025, and this is the first episode of the Big Photo Hunt podcast for the New Year. So to start, I want to thank you for listening today and to other episodes before it. I've spoken to some fantastic guests in starting this podcast, from Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist and authors to YouTube influencers. It's been fun and my eyes have been opened. Each episode is like a masterclass in a topic for me. I'm learning as I go, and I hope that joining me on my photography journey has been valuable to you too. 


00:01:38:05 - 00:02:07:06

Or at least entertaining. If it's not valuable, reach out and let me know what you'd like more of or less of. As for me being entertaining, aside from a few bad jokes that nobody laughs at and the same line telling you how handsome I am which to be honest, is highly questionable anyway. I'm working on it. So as we start today's episode Again, thank you for listening and thank you for being with me on this journey to grow our photography together. 


00:02:10:24 - 00:02:46:27

For today, I'm speaking with Christopher Baker. I'll let him introduce himself in a moment, but to give you a few highlights, Christopher is a travel writer and photographer. In addition to eight coffee table books, he's written and photographed more than two dozen guidebooks for National Geographic, Lonely Planet, Time-Life, and other leading publishers. He's won too many awards to mention right now, and he's written and photographed for everything from BBC travel, CNN and National Geographic to Conde Nast Traveler, Elle and Men's Journal. 


00:02:47:08 - 00:03:20:10

He's led more than 150 group tours to Cuba, including photography tours for Jim Klein, photo tours, National Geographic Expeditions and Santa Fe workshops. Shops. He also leads boudoir photography tours to Havana, Cuba, which have led to his latest book, Sensual Havana. Which brings us to today's episode about boudoir photography, particularly in Havana, Cuba. Boudoir and art. Nude photography is not without controversy. 


00:03:20:21 - 00:03:43:02

Yet it's a legitimate and respected art form. And as someone me that has no place passing any judgment on how a photographer or artist expresses themselves. I wanted to chat with Christopher to learn about it, and understand why his connection between boudoir and Cuba is so important to him. Thank you for being here, by the way. 


00:03:43:10 - 00:03:44:12

Thank you for the invite. 


00:03:44:14 - 00:03:57:16

Yeah, I'm really excited to talk. One, I just want to catch up because it's been a while. And also the book is exciting and I think the topic is misunderstood. And so the genre is misunderstood. So I figured we'd just kind of go into all of it. Sure. Hey, I. 


00:03:57:18 - 00:04:06:10

Should have practiced my one liner retorts this. I've got some good ones. I've had a lot of negative feedback from overly PC people. 


00:04:06:21 - 00:04:11:28

I'll talk all about it because I, you know. Sure. But before we start, can you introduce yourself to everybody? 


00:04:12:16 - 00:04:42:29

Sure. Um, I have been fortunate since coming to the States in 1980 from England. I've been full time in travel. That's how I earn my living. It's morphed a little bit. I am. I started out working in the adventure travel business, um, but was wanting to be a travel writer. I launched your travel writing career in 1983, and as a photographer, this is important because I always, as a travel writer, determined I wanted to double my income by shooting my own photography. 


00:04:43:01 - 00:05:21:24

Um, there have been frustrating moments. I did, uh, three National Geographic books where I wrote the books, and they assigned a photographer who had whose itinerary I had to design, and he trailed behind me for, um, a couple of weeks, and there was $30,000 of lost income going into his pocket, so I managed to secure two future books to get both the writing and photography gigs. So that's been what I've I've been doing is, um, travel writer and photographer and then more latterly, since Obama opened up Cuba and having specialized in Cuba for by then already two decades was in demand to begin leading tours. 


00:05:21:26 - 00:05:52:05

So National Geographic, for example, with whom I was already involved, launch tours to Cuba. It became their top selling, um, international tour, and I led 87 trips to Cuba for them, and some of them were for photo tours. And after Trump in 2019, half slammed the door shut, National geographic pulled out of Cuba. After that, I was picked up by a photo tour company, and my leading photo tours for them has expanded into international destinations around the globe. 


00:05:52:07 - 00:06:01:06

But Cuba's been my main focus and one of my main interests has been the sensuality of the country, and we can get into that and talk about my latest project. 


00:06:01:19 - 00:06:07:21

So are you a Nat Geo photographer then? Because I've heard of this. It's like the holy grail of photography. Is that what that means? 


00:06:08:03 - 00:06:14:09

I'm not employed by them. I'm not salaried, but, uh, I'm an underpaid freelancer. But, uh. 


00:06:14:11 - 00:06:25:06

Yeah, I just think it's cool. I'm just curious. I've always wondered what that meant because, like, the whole world, everyone's like, I want to shoot for Nat Geo. And I was like, I mean, yeah, me too, I guess, but I don't know what that means or how you get there. 


00:06:25:10 - 00:07:00:06

Well, unfortunate for me. I mean, it all taps into my actually to my motorcycle journey I did around Cuba in 96 because I used the motorcycle as a vehicle to research a travel guidebook. And when that guidebook came out, before I was involved at all with National Geographic, I happened to be in Washington, DC giving a presentation on my new guidebook, and the head of the travel book division for National Geographic was in the audience listening in. And when I mentioned I just finished writing a literary travelogue about motorcycling through Cuba as well as the guidebook. 


00:07:00:16 - 00:07:27:18

She called me two weeks later, wanted the manuscript. And, um, it's not your typical National Geographic book, but she was born and raised in Cuba, and she understood, and she was just so supportive. And in fact, one of the blurbs review comments on the Central Havana book, which we'll talk about, is actually from her. I'm so delighted that people of her stature support this book and understand it. 


00:07:28:09 - 00:07:42:19

Let's talk about the boudoir as a genre, and then dig into what it is as an art form, and also its connection to Cuba. Booyah! Boo! I can never say the word boudoir. It's French right? I assume so, yeah. 


00:07:44:19 - 00:07:47:10

Usually if I can't say a word, it's because it's French. 


00:07:47:27 - 00:07:55:11

Okay. Well, what I suggest is you switch out your coffee for a glass of wine. Yeah, maybe that it will slip off the tongue more easily. 


00:07:56:05 - 00:08:05:11

I am drinking Cuban coffee right now, so maybe I've got good for you. I've got my Spanish accent going or something. Maybe just tell a little bit about what the genre is. 


00:08:06:03 - 00:08:37:17

Okay, well, hey, you need to know I'm fairly new to what we call boudoir photography. Uh, nude photography or suggestive nude or, uh, implied nude is the term. I see it as a celebration of human beauty and sensuality. It's that simple. We are all sensual beings. Um, it's unfortunate that in North America particularly, I think there's a strong, uh, hesitancy about, um, one's sensuality. 


00:08:37:27 - 00:09:22:18

It's supposed to be suppressed. The expression of it is not embraced by the entire community, let's put it that way. But it's a valid desire to express one's sensuality and to appreciate sensuality in everybody else. We are all sexual beings. We're sensual beings, and I think boudoir is really a celebration of that. I mean, you look at the popularity of, um, photographers who, let's say, move from the wedding photography genre into boudoir photography, and a lot of newlyweds and spouses want to present, you know, gifts of boudoir photography of themselves in expressing their sensuality as a generous expression to their spouses or other partners. 


00:09:23:03 - 00:09:58:03

Boudoir, in the classical sense, as it's understood in the broader realm, does not necessarily need to be nude photography. It's, uh, you know, lingerie, bikini, etc. suggestive photography. And then you get into art, nude photography and more implicit photography that tracks you down towards pornography, which obviously I shun and I the work I've been doing more recently with Havana is really what we call art nude photography. And I was not really aware of International nude photography to us. 


00:09:58:11 - 00:10:39:08

That was way off my radar, and during a couple of the trips that I led to Cuba. Just regular photo tours to the clients and more were talking to themselves about having been on these international nude photography tours where you're photographing art, nude photography of naked models. And so, you know, I, I talked with them about that and oh, well, this is new to me. And as I investigated, you know, online, I saw that there are really fairly prominent photographers leading art nude photography tours because, you know, if you're a creative, you see nothing wrong in the naked human form. 


00:10:40:00 - 00:11:15:06

And lo and behold, I discovered that there are three entities already leading nude photography tours in Cuba. That blew me away. Given my understanding of restrictions within Cuba itself, that that would be allowable. Anyway, so I. Something clicked. I said, this is of interest to me. I'm going to lead a new photography tour in Cuba. I knew enough women, dancers, ballerinas, uh, Tropicana, showgirls and other women in Cuba who I felt would be appropriate as models to him. 


00:11:15:08 - 00:11:46:17

But the key was I knew implicitly how I wanted to approach this. You can shoot people naked anywhere in the world, but I'm a travel photographer, and that's how I came at this. I wanted to combine art, new photography of women in their location. Havana had to be an integral part of this book, or it didn't start out as a book because the tour, I wanted to shoot people in places that were expressive of the location itself. 


00:11:46:19 - 00:12:26:14

And this was important to me, not least because leading so many photo tours, one of the hardest things that I'm having to teach people who, uh, love photography but don't necessarily have a strong eye for composition is how to compose, to add dynamic interests to the story. So many people just go straight into the face, straight into the central subject, and they are totally missing the environment. So anyway, I started shooting, uh, models. Um, so I began to discover how profound is the desire among so many women to do this. 


00:12:26:20 - 00:12:57:08

I ended up with a remarkable cross-section of Cuban society, a classical pianist who had never modeled. And when I sent a sample to the kind of photography I wanted, where I wanted to pose for the grand piano and take elegant photos of her, because I did not imagine she would be nude nor want to be nude. I could envisage a classical ball gown open down her back. I sent her a sample photo and she said, oh, I'm not sure if I could do it that low. I bought her a ball gown. 


00:12:57:27 - 00:13:28:03

We started out with her at the grand piano. With the ball gown down the back. Much higher than the photo of the dyed Jonah. And within five minutes, that dress was off as she discovered and tapped into her own sensuality and love of expressing it. And that was just so endearing. I hold her in such regarding. And she came back to do another session, which was not at all musical themed because she enjoyed the experience and results so much. 


00:13:28:26 - 00:13:35:22

You mentioned you were surprised that the Cuban government allowed this, but also that there were other groups doing these type of tours. What was the surprise there? 


00:13:36:10 - 00:14:09:24

Well, it's from my earliest days in Cuba. So in the early 90s, when Cuba was just gearing up tourism and was in a desperate economic plight post collapse of the Soviet Union. The press began to give a lot of attention to what was called sex tourism, and I wrote about it. And these were days when it was well known that any foreigner who ventured towards the realm of pornography would have been put on the next plane out of Cuba, and there was great restriction, etc. 


00:14:09:26 - 00:14:48:16

and so I still carried that image around with me for many years, and I became out of touch with the degree to which, by the late 90s, things were changing within the art world, because there was a period called the grave, five years in which, um, Fidel had said everything within the revolution, nothing outside the revolution. There was extreme censorship, and that included around nude photography. And that mellowed. You had Roberto Salas in the 90s, who was probably the preeminent photographer in Cuba right now, produced two books on nude photography in Cuba. 


00:14:48:18 - 00:15:06:04

The first books, and then you had the first foreigner, Jack Kenny, a friend of mine who recently told me I had no idea, gave an exhibition in Cuba in 1997. And so it came as a huge surprise when I discovered there were operators already doing nude photography tours. 


00:15:06:13 - 00:15:40:02

I find that a lot in Cuba, where there are certain things that you have an expectation and your expectations are from your experience. But the first time I was in Cuba, there were a lot of expectations that I had, and a lot of them were proven wrong, particularly, you know, you mentioned this sexuality and you mentioned, well, the art community is so alive and so creative, and there's a lot of areas where the country in general is much more liberal in a way than than we are here in the US. Like the LGBTQ space, I mean, it just it's more free feeling than it is here in our Handmaid's Tale country. 


00:15:40:04 - 00:15:45:12

You know, it's like there's just openness and acceptance in ways that I haven't found here. 


00:15:45:20 - 00:16:16:26

Yeah, the acceptance is a big part of this. That's a great word to use because I've got my detractors I've taken incoming flack around this project from people who just simply don't understand and not only don't understand, they get, you know, the proselytizing that you shouldn't be doing this, blah, blah, blah. That's not for you to decide. You actually shouldn't be talking to me. You should be talking to the models themselves who are expressing their desire. So there's incredible acceptance. 


00:16:16:28 - 00:16:52:27

And you and I both know if there's one term that could be used singularly to put Cuba in context, it's surreal in so many aspects, and I can't tell you how often I have been invited into homes with new models, nude models. I have one photograph that's in the book of a model, naked in front of an old lady watching her TV. You know, here we we're so touchy on so many PC topics and certainly regarding sex that it's like, I've got a damn good therapist if you need it, you know, get over this. 


00:16:53:16 - 00:17:12:06

It's so cultural. Because you touched on this. You go anywhere else in the world? Not anywhere but a lot of places in the world. And there is just much more openness. You go to the beaches in Europe. I mean, everyone's, you know, showing everything. And it's like not even an issue, not even a big deal. 


00:17:12:17 - 00:17:39:13

Sure, North America is an uptight society. And, uh, and as you say, Cuba is a live and let live world in so many regards. You know, this country that this public concept that drummed is drummed into us out of Washington and Miami, of the repressive society. Is it repressive? In many ways. Of course, it is a free expression like we have here. No, no there's not. But it is so much more liberal and so much more expressive in so many ways. 


00:17:39:28 - 00:18:10:21

So I want to dig deeper into this idea of boudoir and how people react to it. Because when I first saw it, I didn't know what it was. And now I have a much more nuanced look at photography and creativity and art and really appreciate it for what it is. It's not my genre necessarily that I want to shoot. I'm just not drawn to it. Just like I'm not really drawn to shooting portraits and I'm not drawn to shooting landscape photography. I just love more documentary stuff. I love, you know, getting out in the street and just, like, capturing moments. 


00:18:10:24 - 00:18:35:01

But I do respect it and I understand it and I do support it. And there are people on our site on the big photo hunt that post boudoir photography, and I've had people write into me and say, you know, hey, this is what I want to post. Is this okay? And I'm like, absolutely, go ahead. I obviously draw the line at pornography. Uh, we had one pic and I pulled that down, but that's not what boudoir is. It's an art. And that. That's beautiful. 


00:18:35:09 - 00:18:36:05

Yeah. Yeah. 


00:18:36:13 - 00:19:00:12

Before we go deeper into that, can I just touch on one thing you mentioned? You're a travel photographer. I know that our audience really would love to hear, like, three minutes about that, because everybody wants to be a travel photographer and everyone thinks they are, but I don't know what it is. How do you become one? You know. How do you literally get to say I'm a travel photographer? Which I literally think that's everyone's dream. 


00:19:01:06 - 00:19:11:03

Okay, well, I guess you mean professionally because everybody is a travel photographer for they raise the camera on their vacation and, you know, they're posting about it. 


00:19:15:18 - 00:19:49:15

Hey, it's Ken, and I just wanted to jump in here real quick to let you know that the weekly Big Photo Hunt newsletter has gotten a bit of an extra juice for the new year. Our once a week email that goes to tens of thousands of amateur photographers is now chock full of tips, news and information all designed for us to improve our photography, get more exposure and if you're posting on social media, get more likes on your photos. Of course, we're still celebrating our weekly top ten Big Photo Hunt members as voted by you. 


00:19:49:17 - 00:20:08:17

So if you're not getting our newsletter. Go check out Bigfoot Hunt. A little pop up will come up and you can join there. It's free. And of course you can say bye bye at any time if you don't like it. Although I hope you do. I hope you like it. Now back to the show. 


00:20:13:19 - 00:20:48:13

The world has changed since I got into this, right? I look young, I know, but I'm. There was no internet back then. It was all film, etc.. But one thing that hasn't changed is two key components. The one is you do need to have and it's learnable compositional skills, by which I mean how to use light and how to see what's in front of you. And like an artist Van Gough or whatever, placing their elements very purposefully, you need to learn that, but that's learnable. 


00:20:48:29 - 00:21:25:09

Um, And I just forgot what the second thing was. Oh, yeah. So the key was that you mentor, you mentor success stories. And when I came to the States and said, okay, are you going to be a travel writer? I took a bunch of courses from people who were already established travel writers take classes, read, learn. What are the techniques? I'm an artist. I'm strong on composition. And if you were to take a photography tour with me, you'll learn that I am trying to help you see the world however you want to see it. 


00:21:25:11 - 00:22:01:27

I mean, you said you you're a documentary photographer in in in great regards, so am I. But he also in many, many years of illustrating guidebooks. And then you have magazines. You're working for each of them with their own style, and you had to please editors to their style. So you're learning different styles and techniques. But the bottom line that never changes is you need to learn within whatever genre you're shooting. What are the techniques that lead to strong composition? That that the viewer has an emotive and emotional reaction to that photo, be it negative or positive. 


00:22:02:15 - 00:22:17:27

And also the use of light. So it's composition. What's in that photo and the use of light. These are integral to successful travel photography and how you break into earning an income. Well that's a that's a whole different podcast. 


00:22:18:28 - 00:22:28:03

I want to talk about the book, what the book is about visually, what it shows and would love to touch on. Why Havana. 


00:22:28:18 - 00:23:02:02

So as I mentioned, I was putting the the tour together. I needed to shoot models. And as I began to shoot, I realized, my gosh, you're getting some really awesome photography by any standard. You're really getting some great photos. And as that body of work built up, I realized you've got the potential to produce a really good coffee table book. And that really focused me even more tightly on this marriage of placement of the banner. It is one of the world's most sensual cities, even if there was nobody in it. 


00:23:02:14 - 00:23:36:14

So it's sensual on the cultural level, but it's sensual in its architectural level too, not least because it's a Hollywood stage set, right? It's caught in time. All the old American cars which are used, you know, to great effect for the book, the the old architecture from colonial architecture to Art Deco masterpieces, etc.. These are places that I wanted my models to be. It was an expression of the sensuality of avana and of the women of Havana. 


00:23:36:16 - 00:23:46:09

That was a that really drove everything I knew. With that, exactly how I wanted to approach putting a coffee table book together. 


00:23:46:20 - 00:23:54:07

Do you have any resources that you'd recommend to people that are interested in learning more about boudoir or how to shoot it. 


00:23:55:09 - 00:24:21:17

There there are a lot of customers, um, you know, a lot of women photographers who work in this genre. Lindsay Adler, as, uh, is one of the most famous. Uh, she gives classes, she gives workshops. Uh, and there's plenty of there's plenty of books. I mean, I've got a library at home on, you know, how to shoot nude photography and National Geographic, believe it or not, even did a nude photography technical book. Um, although it only came out in Italy. 


00:24:21:23 - 00:24:24:20

And are you leading tours anymore? 


00:24:25:05 - 00:24:47:08

Oh, sure. So every year, every December, now I have a Central Havana Art nude photography tour, where we're essentially repeating a lot of the shots I've done with a lot of the models, where part of my problem is that, um, the exodus of Cubans is so devastating right now. It's so large that I'm losing my models. You know, hand over fist. 


00:24:48:06 - 00:25:25:08

When we were doing our project, most of the people that we worked with and were doing stories about and interviewing were young people that it felt as if they were at the forefront of the next generation of moving the country forward and being innovative and creative, and it was really special. This is about almost ten years ago now, and I would say that almost every single person that I remember working with or, you know, including in our stories, is now in Miami or Mexico or somewhere. 


00:25:25:13 - 00:25:34:03

And it's heartbreaking because it's a whole generation of people that really could have had an impact that are gone. 


00:25:34:07 - 00:25:47:08

Entrepreneurial. Yep. Um, yeah. They get up and go as, um, there are enough left. But it, it, it is heartbreaking and disturbing to me to look at what Cuba's future looks like with this dream. 


00:25:47:19 - 00:25:50:11

I need to go back. I've been back in a while. When was the last time you were there? 


00:25:50:29 - 00:25:51:24

Uh, August. 


00:25:52:00 - 00:25:52:27

How's the latest? 


00:25:53:08 - 00:26:24:16

Well, um, there are definitely, um, you know, they're struggling with more food shortages and electricity blackouts. That's the reality. Doesn't really affect you and I, but it certainly impacts the average Cuban. But it still amazes me the number of really great bars and restaurants that continue to open, and the old ones that you and I know most of them are still operating. Those people who are, you know, being able to tap into the tourist flow and make a good living. 


00:26:24:24 - 00:26:34:21

So that's heartening. But, um, I don't know. The days these days never used to be the case where I've lost hope for the future. Um. 


00:26:35:00 - 00:26:38:04

Tourists coming from where? Russia. France. Germany. Canada. 


00:26:38:06 - 00:27:08:06

Well, that's that's one of one of the big problems is that before Trump and before Covid, Cuba was just booming with tourists. Insane. I'm very positive because they are the driving force. The income was the driving force to broader entrepreneurial entrepreneurship, and you are seeing change happening daily in Cuba based on touristic revenue flows fueling the economy. And that's gone. They've never recovered from Covid, you know, unlike here. 


00:27:08:08 - 00:27:40:28

Yeah. We all had to wear masks and and you know, be six feet apart, etc.. But we didn't close off America to the world. Cuba closed itself off to the world at huge economic cost and never has recouped its tourist numbers again. So you go to Cuba these days and there isn't the same spirit on the streets. It's still a fascinating place. I love it to death. I wish them the best, my God. And I'm doing my my part as best I can to take people down there in support of the Cuban people, to put money into Cubans hands. 


00:27:41:03 - 00:27:47:10

That's critical. And to see Cuba and to learn about Cuba and open your minds. Um, Yeah. 


00:27:48:21 - 00:28:22:28

I think that the most important part of visiting Cuba is that you can see how warm and friendly and welcoming the people are, and it's not in a cliché way where, you know, you go to Mexico or you go to Jamaica, you travel to these places like, oh, the people were so nice. They're nice. They are nice in these places. Cuba is a different being. It's a people that will, just as you're walking down the street, the the biggest problem you'll have is just getting pulled into someone's house and forced to have a coffee for an hour and a half when you've got somewhere to be. 


00:28:23:13 - 00:28:54:26

For me, Cuba is, if not the certainly one of the most profound places culturally in terms of the strength and depth of its, um, well, it's difficult to explain. It's a bit like your first sex, you know, you're you're you're a virgin. You go, what's the big deal about sex? And, you know, it's like suddenly, oh, I get it. That is pretty damn awesome, right? You know the Cubans that way you have to. You can't explain it to anybody who's never been to Cuba and and experienced the sheer profundity. 


00:28:55:04 - 00:29:10:21

I mean, I've written books on Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, blah, blah, blah. I'm a Caribbean specialist. None of these places come anywhere close to Cuba in terms of the way it engages you on a cultural level. 


00:29:10:23 - 00:29:38:21

I couldn't agree more. Well, if you're listening to this episode and you want to go to Cuba, or you want to learn more about boudoir photography or boudoir photography in Cuba, Christopher is your man. So make sure you get in touch. Christopher. I'm gonna tell everyone where to reach you before we do that, though. I always have three questions that I ask of all my guests. The first question is, what camera system do you use? 


00:29:39:08 - 00:29:54:22

Okay. I'm shooting with canons right now with two R5 bodies. Different lenses. wide zoom 24 to 70 and a 70 to 200. I have the lenses, but those are the two lenses I use all the time. 


00:29:55:06 - 00:29:56:11

How do you like that? R5? 


00:29:57:19 - 00:30:34:23

I love it. It took some getting used to it and it really needed some setup. I've been I've been a canon shooter for a long time. I was having trouble with, you know, color renditions and whatnot. And as I said, I'm not a technical person, but I've got it where I want it to be, and it's a stunning camera. And the great thing about it is, uh, you can be branded and operate that. It's I mean, it's so, so many cameras out there. It's like, oh, shit. It's too complex. You know, how do I do this now? Do I that do that? The R5 is the most user friendly in terms of the essential controls that you need right there in front of you. 


00:30:34:25 - 00:30:38:16

It's great. And the result? I mean, the image quality is astounding. 


00:30:39:09 - 00:30:43:19

Question number two. What's your favorite genre to shoot and why? 


00:30:45:00 - 00:31:15:18

Oh well, there's no doubt about it. Now I've discovered new photography. I'm loving it. Um, but I'm a documentary photographer. I'm a street photographer as much as anything else, and I came to that a little late in the day because, uh, so much of my work, you know, photographic work for so many years was based on guidebooks, and that's a whole different ball game. You know, you're shooting buildings and venues and whatnot. Uh, and you have some lifetime, you know, lifestyle, cultural photos. 


00:31:15:24 - 00:31:20:21

But street photography, that is really I love it, I love that. 


00:31:21:09 - 00:31:30:01

And on a scale of 1 to 10, one being the least, ten being the most, how often do you get that burning itch to get out and shoot photography? 


00:31:30:27 - 00:32:01:29

It's not as great as you know. Most people imagine because I do know photographers who live for photography. I am, um, I'm a bit of a polymath, more in a sense that I come at this as a writer, and I'm still probably foremost a writer, although the vast majority of my income these days comes from photography. Um, I'm a writer at heart. You know, I just put out two new book proposals yesterday. Um, before in. Just in case I don't get a chance. I do want to send people to, um, 


00:32:03:17 - 00:32:42:06

essential havana.com, because that is exclusively dedicated to the book. One of the pages, when you go to that website, you will see many of the images that we're talking about here and how I've dealt with marriage, marrying nudes to Havana, uh, as a place. Um, is a page called reviews, where I have blurbs and reviews from people, from Michael Smerconish of CNN to TJ English of Havana Nocturne, bestselling author, to my former, you know, Elizabeth Newhouse of National Geographic and top Cuban and female photographers. 


00:32:42:27 - 00:32:52:11

The book is called Sensual Havana. You can find it online. Sensual Havana. And where else can people find you on Instagram and anywhere else? 


00:32:52:21 - 00:33:11:21

Yeah. Instagram. Well, I have my personal website, which is Christopher P Baker, and I have my photo tours website, which is Chris Baker Photo Tours, and I lead motorcycle tours and that is Cuba motorcycle tours.com. So pick and choose. 


00:33:11:28 - 00:33:14:28

Thank you so much Christopher. I really appreciate you taking the time. 


00:33:15:05 - 00:33:18:18

Well, thank you very much for this opportunity. It's tremendous. 


00:33:19:16 - 00:33:34:05

Thank you so much for joining me for today's episode. Our next show will feature more valuable stories from our community members. If you'd like to audition to be a guest, please visit Big hunt.com. For more information. Thanks again for listening today.