PhotoNaturals is your nude adventure into the great outdoors!

Your Creative Role

You are probably wondering what the day will be like, what you are expected to do and how you should relate to the photography and videography. The photos you see on this website should give you a pretty good idea of the results we are striving for. The points on this page will give you some idea of how to behave, how to present your body and how to express yourself. I do want you to come feeling relaxed, happy and free, and of course, have a really good time.

❂ EXPECTATIONS
Much of what happens on any PhotoNaturals excursion is free-flow, free-form and I encourage you to bring your personal creativity and contribute to each moment in your own way. I am mainly looking for an expression of energy and fun and a love for the free body experience. Special moments and inventive images will be found spontaniously throughout the day. You are not really "modeling" or "posing" too much. I will have a number of ideas for group activities and will also allow for the a flow of ideas from Participants. I will provide some direction throughout the day but you are also free to do what you like when no direction is given. In a way you are a performer who's job it is to present a happy, energetic naked body interacting with nature.

❂ PHOTOGRAPHIC PROCESS
We will begin photographing at any time once the group starts to come together, including travel, at the restaurant, on the trail, etc. The photos and videography will provide the material to allow a viewer to experience the whole trip. So a lot of the photos are candid and almost like snapshots. As things progress, more "arty" compositions can be created. The usual arrangement is 3 photographers, plus I will shoot some video. Having a few photographers allows for multiple angles on an interesting sequence, or we can splinter into smaller groups that each do their own thing. The material from all this shooting comes back to me and then, at a later time, I edit through everything to create a gallery representing the chronology of the trip. Sometimes video is the main objective of the outing, sometimes I am just getting some video footage to include in a collage of many outings later.

❂ ACTIVITIES - A FLOW OF ENERGY!
I would like to make each outing unique in some way, perhaps with a central theme or activity. Often the location itself will suggest this. You may find yourself not knowing quite what to do exactly when you get there. Don't worry, you can't go wrong! You'll either get direction, or someone will start something you can join in with. There will always be things like rocks to explore, water to swin in, trees to climb, and games on the beach. Try unusual body positions, wrestle with someone, spray each other with water, play frisbee, make sand sculptures... At some point I will ask people to rest. Images of just lying, sleeping, sunbathing can be nice as well. There are lots of possibilities. And if you have any ideas please share them!

Try to remember, that if you are about to do something cool like dive off a rock into the lake, let the Photographers know - they may not be totally on the ball.

❂ PHOTOGRAPHIC EXPLORATIONS
Most of what we are doing is about the depiction of a naturalistic reality. But there can be some room for the visual abstraction of the body. At times we may want to go in for closeups of parts of your body, to explored details like hair, folds of skin, curvatures, water droplets, light and shade, etc. There will be no close-ups of the gential area unless there is something you want to show off, like a tattoo or piercings.

❂ NUDITY
Of course our main theme concerns the depiction of the free naked body and specifically the sensual enjoyment of physical activity through encounters with natural elements - air, water, sunlight, sand. Being nude, being seen nude by others, and further, having images of our nude state presented, brings up sensitivies caused by a long history of social and psychological conditioning. Even if you have chosen to participate in this project, having perhaps overcome many of those inhibitions, you may still feel some uncertainty about your involvement. Perhaps it is because you feel the physical shape of your body will not be accepted or may be judged negatively. I would like to clearly state that PhotoNaturals is NOT about an adoration of a physical ideal of body shape as is the case of most nude photography. Perhaps you are worried that you will be subject to inappropriate sexual attention. I safeguard against this by explaining the rules to everyone and carefully screening applicants to ensure everyone will bring the right attitude to these nude get-togethers.

❂ SEXUALITY
I do feel that sexuality is as natural as nudity and does not have to be obscene. However, the physical aspects of sexual activity are not part of this project. It is an important collective understanding in the group that there is to be no sexual touching of yourself or another person and no deliberate positioning of the body in an overtly sexually suggestive way. We are not making porn. However you might consider what we are doing to be a form of "erotica" because of the sensual aspect and the promotion of pleasure and ecstatic experience. Participants can be physical with each other (if comfortable) and even affectionate; just don't cross that line please.

You can, of course, "make love" to the environment - the water, sand sticking to your body, tree limbs... that's largely what this is all about!

❂ NUDITY AND THE GENITAL AREA
The only reason I address this at all is that we had one person some time ago, who objected to some images. The objections were expressed to a third party and to this day I don't even know which images were so objectionable. So I am going to clearly state here what my policy is about seeing the genital area in photos and if it is not acceptable to you, you may of course decline participating. I know that most of you understand what we are trying to do with this project and are not really concerned. It should be clear by now that it is not part of our mandate to ask women to position themselves spreading their legs in a sexually provocative way. But some activities can be somewhat revealing... headstands, rock climbing, cart-wheeling. It is my feeling that this part of the female body should not be deliberately hidden or avoided and that it should be allowed to be as normally visible as male genitals. There was a time when nudist photography was not even allowed to show pubic hair and people had to be positioned in an artificial way. Ridiculous, right? When I am editing the photo sets in 9 out of 10 cases I will not censor such an image. But I will remove an image that seems to deliberately go in for a close-up without the subject knowing, which usually happens by accident. There are exceptions that are okay... an interesting piercing may invite an extreme close-up, which the subject usually is proud to display. The genital area is just another body part and you should not feel guarded about how you position your body. Be comfortable and natural.

Please continue to read about LOCATION ISSUES