Recently I reconnected with my friend L.A., I mentioned wanting to shoot with her and she jumped at

Recently I reconnected with my friend L.A., I mentioned wanting to shoot with her and she jumped at the chance. She said she had long seen my images of friends here on my tumblr and instagram and admired how free they looked and wished she had that same confidence in her body, rather than always being critical of it and hiding it.  She said she wasn’t getting any younger and thought no time like the present.  I agreed with her and suggested a place i knew to hike to that is really nice this time of year and we would have it all to ourself, and that we could just give it a try - see how it felt for her to disrobe in the great outdoors, and maybe if she was comfortable with that, build up to taking some photos sometime in the future.  When the day finally came to go on the hike, it was a bit cooler than i was hoping. I figured this would be a good excuse for her to not feel bad if she wanted to throw her clothes back on again right away if she wasn’t feeling it.  We got to my secluded spot after almost 3 miles hiking, the weather was warming up more than we thought, and I told her it was time to take a break, and that it was TIME. She sucked it up and stripped down to a bikini and asked if she could wear this loose knit top to start. As i started taking my clothes off (i wasn’t gonna pass on a chance to run around naked along a secluded stream on such a nice day), I told her she could take her time, and whatever she wanted to keep on was fine. She then she said “Fuck it!” and took it all off.  We ended up keeping our clothes off for over two and a half hours. Sitting and talking about big questions in life, wandering the canyon looking at newts and frogs, playing in the shallow stream and shooting a bunch of photos. She was thrilled and kind of shocked at how easy, casual, natural, and amazing it felt and when we realized it was getting late she was loathe to put her clothes back on.  I don’t think that experience was just a matter of learning that it was ok to be naked around someone in a nonsexual context (though that was certainly a nice discovery for her), or that she could be naked and have someone totally accept and appreciate her body even with all the things she had perceived as imperfections (I think that kind of validation really causes a paradigm shift in the mind of someone who has grown up in a conservative culture that teaches so much body shame. Its quite empowering.), but also raises questions about all sorts of other things that are drilled into us as fact by society about human nature.  This simple act of walking around in a natural place in your natural state can make you think about how disconnected we have become from that universe and make us start to question the single script we are all given for what is supposed to make us happy, and instead try things out to see where and how happiness is achieved. And from my point of view (as evidenced by this photo of her), I don’t know what my friend was thinking - she looks HOT naked!L.A. in Bear Canyon.  Angeles National Forest, CA. March 2016 -- source link

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