PhotoNaturals is your nude adventure into the great outdoors!

Participation Process Overview

This page gives you an overview of what happens after you have applied to participate in PhotoNaturals and what your continuing options are. Photographers are Participants too, so please read everything carefully.

❂ TIMING OF EVENTS / OUTINGS / SHOOTS
I have been putting together these nude phototrips in batches where I will take 3 groups out per week over a 2 or 3 week period. These intense outing periods have usually happened late May to mid June and late September through mid October for the last couple of years. I also do some random shoots at other times. Eventually I would like to have an ongoing program of some kind but I have not yet worked out a proven economic basis that will pay for this. I hope to remedy this over the next year. The time between completing your application and actually going on a trip could be a couple of weeks or several months, depending on the timing of things. There are a few steps that need to be completed before I can suggest a booking date for you.

❂ COMPLETE YOUR APPLICATION
The fact that you are reading this page means you have probably already completed your application. I may still be awaiting a couple of photos from you, at least one where I clearly can see your face and one where I get a sense of your whole body. Having this info allows me to put together a diverse group of physical types. Having your face shot means I will not be looking at a bunch of total strangers on the day you come out.

❂ GETTING PAST THE APPLICATION
Statistically I get 5 times more males than females applying. I usually book at least half of a group with females. So I can only accommodate a small percentage of the single males applying. Most of the single women applying are in their 20s and 30s. But most of the single men applying are in their 50s and 60s. This is also not a good social match. The bottom line is that single women are pretty much always accepted, and I pick very carefully from the single guys. I try to loosely match age ranges on these trips. Male/Female couples are also easy to place. Regardless of all this, if PhotoNaturals interests you, you should apply because in the future I will find a way to have more egalitarian outings. And there is also the yearly beach festival which will be more open.

❂ COMPLETE THE REGISTRATION AGREEMENT
once you are past the Application and I am convinced that you are right for this project, I will invite you to complete the Registration form. This is different from the Application form in that it is an actual agreement specifying the terms and conditions of how we do things, photo use, etc. There are a lot of important points you need to know. If you complete this on-line agreement, I can then try and establish a date for you to participate. If you are under the age of 30 I will need you to scan or photograph your PhotoID which clearly shows your birth date and send this image to me to put on file. This is an important legal requirement. Having completed the registration is not a guarantee of anything. Most likely you WILL be offered a date, but it depends on how many shoots I can actually do and how many people I have to choose from at that point in time.

❂ PLANNING PERIOD
Knowing your city/town location and some idea about when you are free (eg. weekends/weekdays?) will make it possible for me to match you with the trip that is right for you. I also consider age, so if you are 22 you won't be "stuck" with several middle age couples. Sometimes, when I have a bunch of people, let's say in Sacramento for example, I will plan something just for them that is geographically close.

❂ PROPOSED DATE
At some point you will get an email from me proposing a date with some details about a trip and what the main activity will be, etc. I may give you a choice of dates. You need to let me know ASAP whether that day is likely to be OK. If the date is a month away I will not need a firm commitment. If it is a week away I really need to know right away.

❂ SHOOT DAY DETAILS
Once you have accepted a date I send you a document that gives you all the details of location, schedule, transportation, things you should bring, etc. You must reconfirm that everything still looks OK with you. Normally you would get this about a week or two before.

❂ LAST MINUTE CONFIRMATION
The day before an outing I will likely phone you to make sure everything is still on and to make sure you know when you are being picked up or how you will transport yourself. if you are unsure about anything in the days before, please contact me by email or by cell (I will make a number available to you).

❂ MEETING ON THE DAY
Go to THIS PAGE to get detailed information about how to prepare for the day. But in a nutshell: We usually meet at about 11 AM for brunch at a restaurant not too far from our final destination. It could be up to a 2-hour drive from San Francisco to this restaurant so expect to get up early. Often it is much closer. I pay for the lunch. It is an opportunity for people to get to know each other. I will also want to review a few points with the group. There will be a paper form of the same agreement you completed on-line for you to sign. I will be reviewing some technical details with photographers.

❂ GETTING TO THE LOCATION
The final destination is usually no more 15 minutes drive from the restaurant and normally we would get there by about 1 PM. Typically there is a parking area and then a trail to the final area we are going to spend the day at. We try to travel light but you may be asked to help by carrying a bag or tripod. We start shooting stills and video at the restaurant and continue at the parking lot and shoot the walk as well.

❂ AT THE LOCATION
We want to pick a single spot where we dump all our stuff and hopefully keep it out of the background of photos. More details about what is expected from the actual afternoon of activities and photography is found on another page. Later in the afternoon we will reach a point of low energy and know it is time pack up and head out back to the cars.

❂ DENOUEMENT
While we are at or near the location there needs to be another meeting in which I download all the photos from the CF cards of other photographers onto my laptop. At this point you would be paid if there is a fee payable that day. Often we will go back to the restaurant to do this and you will be treated to another meal or snack. You may even get to see some of the photos on a laptop while we are there. After that everyone goes home. It is best that you do not have something important planned for the evening since your return for a particular time cannot be guaranteed.

❂ IMAGE PROCESSING
Some weeks later, after that round of shooting is complete and I am back home, the first thing I have to do is archive all the raw images and put everything on back-up disks. Before I can give people access to images from the trip they attended, I have to edit each set of images, convert them from raw files to high quality jpegs, and do some cropping and color-correcting as I go along. This is actually quite time consuming. It can take a few months before the images from your trip are ready because I will have thousands of images from multiple shoots to deal with. In the future I hope to be able to afford to have a small staff that will streamline this process.

❂ IMAGE ACCESS
I have set up a special secure website for the purpose of sharing images with participants. You will have your own log in and the permissions for your login will be set up so that you can access full resolution versions of all images shot on any trip you attended. If you attended a shoot in the past and do not have a login, just let me know and I'll set you up. The sets of "master" images are presented by photographer, and I include photos that may be of interest to you but will not necessarily be used for the website. A lot of repeat frames are included to give you the widest possible choice. Many shots will not be used publicly; they are there for your own use.

❂ MEMBERSHIP SITE
The sets of master photos are further edited down and once again cropped and sized for web presentation. There will soon be a new website, www.naked-club.org, which will be a pay-membership site and will present each outing we do as a large photo gallery and video clips gallery. This will be a source of revenue to support PhotoNaturals as an ongoing project.

❂ MORE TRIPS!
I know you'd love to come out again and I'd love to have you come out again, but here is the paradox I face: In order to be able to afford to pay for this program I have had to think commercially. That means I need a continuous flow of new people in the image sets, not the same people over and over. This goes against my original concept of building a culture and opportunity for nude outings and have these open for everyone. I will find a solution in time. For now I am working on the guideline that if you really are into this and want to come as much as possible the best I can do is give you an outing once a year. In practice there are many exceptions to this; if someone suddenly drops out of a shoot I may look for a quick replacement with someone who recently came on a shoot and made a good impression. Some individuals come more often because they provide some kind of vital service. Hint: the squeaky wheel gets the oil. And BTW the once-a-year rule does not apply to Photographers, though I also have to rotate through the list. Also, EVERYONE is invited to the yearly events I want to create, two of which are listed below:

❂ YEARLY PARTY/REUNION
Every Spring I want to have an event in some venue where we project the thousands of images from the past year. All Participants are invited and you may bring a guest that you think might want to participate in the future (but ask me first). I have set the evening of Sunday June 7, 2009 in a performance space in the SOMA district of San Francisco. Email me for details.

❂ YEARLY FESTIVAL
Every fall I want to have a large and more open nude beach event with contests, games and sports and activities. We have already held a few prototype gatherings to see how this could work. The first Body Freedom Festival happened Sunday October 4, 2009 near San Francisco.

Please continue to read about TRIP PREPARATION