Au natural

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” ~ John Lubbock

It was not a summer’s day but a sunny spring afternoon and also my birthday. Usually when I go for a walk I go alone, I mainly prefer it that way to be honest but as it was my birthday he agreed to come with me when I said I wanted to go and find bluebells. After taking some self portraits I turned to him and suggested he take off his clothes. He was initially fairly reluctant saying something about no one wanting to see that but I told him that I thought he was wrong about that, did my best pleading eyes and muttered something about a birthday treat for me and he relented.

This is the first time I have ever worked with a nude male model in the outdoors and it is, I think, oddly more challenging to place them in the environment in a way that looks natural and sympathetic to both the subject and the surroundings. After trying a couple of different things neither if which I was happy with it was him who jokingly suggested that maybe he should lay down and wave his legs in the air like I had. The legs in the air bit was not the look I was going for but as soon as he laid down I knew he was onto something.

I shot a variety of images from various angles and with differing depths of field. Some of those will definitely appear here in the future but this week I decided to post one pretty much straight out of the camera. I am really rather proud of this shot.  The only editing I have done to this shot is increase the clarity and contrast ever so slightly. Apart from that, it is perfectly au natural just like him. I love the way he looks so peaceful and relaxed and how his nudity does not feel jarring in the surrounds but quite the opposite, he seems to blend into the setting. I know that he is not that keen on photos of his body but I really adore this image. I think he looks fabulous and sexy and  I keep wishing that once I had finished taking pictures, I had put the camera to one side and sucked him off right there in the midst of all those beautiful bluebells. If I ever get the chance again I shall definitely make sure to rectify that oversight.