Being outside – Page 6

Belfast photographer tells public to ‘wise up’ in wake of naked Cave Hill photo shoot | Irish News | IrishCentral

This is quoted from the Irishcentral.com site. Note that the underlined text is my doing – one of the fine moments of assumption happening again.

Belfast photographer tells public to ‘wise up’ in wake of naked Cave Hill photo shoot | Irish News | IrishCentral.

A glamor photographer has slammed the controversy surrounding the naked photo shoot of woman at a popular Belfast tourist attraction in broad daylight.
Ramblers were shocked when they came across a nude photo shoot at Cave Hill in Belfast a few weeks ago.
“She was posing on a rock and all sorts of poses, glamour sort of stuff,” one onlooker said. “I couldn’t see any detail from where I was but it was obvious it wasn’t anything tasteful.”

The blond model in front of the camera was later named as Hillsborough woman Nadine Poole. It is understood the mother-of-one has left Ireland until the controversy dies down.
Social Development Minister Nelson McCausland said he was “outraged” over the shoot, labelling it “totally inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour.”
The glamour model’s friend and photographer Stephen Duffin, who has snapped her on numerous occasions, told the Belfast Telegraph: “I think everyone needs to get a life.
“Everyone needs to wise up.
“There are very few other countries where this would even be a story.
“As for Nelson McCausland being outraged, I would like to think that he has more to occupy his time when there’s plenty in Northern Ireland that requires his attention.
“As we speak, there is no doubt a Belfast glamour shoot is happening somewhere outdoors — it really isn’t a big deal.”
Duffin has photographed Poole in revealing outfits at city landmarks including Victoria Square and Waterfront Hall.
“Nadine is a lovely girl and so unassuming and modest,” he said.
“When she’s not modeling she dresses really casually in tracksuits, jeans and flat shoes.
“Nadine has an amazing figure and she trains very hard to maintain that. If I was her I’d be very proud.”
He added: “There is a massive difference between a glamour or fine art photoshoot, and public indecency.
“I know what people are saying about Nadine’s Cave Hill shoot but from what I’ve heard it was a fine art shoot and I would love to see the images because I bet they are amazing.”

Sunday Noon Nudist

My vacation, part 3. The power of the nude person.

Power of the nude person? Oh yes, absolutely.

It’s very interesting to see how much dressed people are not used to meeting a self-conscious naked person. I’ve done plenty of walks along the beach at Corralejo (Fuerteventura):

All beaches in Spain (the Canary Islands are part of Spain) are freely accessible to nude as well as clothed people. This is remarkable for a very strict Catholic country, but a blessing for people who like to wear nothing but their skin and a good mood. During each of those walks I saw lots of dressed people (clothed in any degree, from full long pants and shirts to the skimpiest of bathing suits that hide absolutely nothing). Many of those people would of course try to sneak a peek at the nude people sauntering along. Of course they do, they don’t know better.

I found also that, when you walk along and look at these people like you would look at anyone else, they’d quickly avert their eyes and suddenly find the sand in front of them or something in the far distance extremely fascinating. Some will also stare straight ahead and pretend you’re not there. That was very interesting to see.

Most of the nude beaches I’ve been to were shunned by clothed sunbathers, so this was quite a fun experience.

Something of an entirely different order happened when an English speaking family of three came walking towards me, parents and a daughter of about fourteen. The mother, walking in front, suddenly said “Look to the sea, Suzy, look to the sea.” Yes, it was an attempt to make the girl not see me. She however grinned at me quickly. Then her father stopped and said to me: “You have no shame, have you?”
I asked him: “Shame about what?”
“For not wearing any clothes,” was his reply.
My response was: “You have no shame, have you?” It surprised him. “You have no shame, assuming that your way of life is the only proper way,” I told him and walked off.

The nerve some people have…

This morning

Last night we had a lot of rain. When I woke up I heard a strange sound outside, a kind of splashing. That’s odd because the drainpipe that runs outside my apartment has a few openings next to it, Excess water can flow out through that. Splashing means that there is water not flowing away. As it was quite early (around 4:15am, thanks to the switch back to winter time, which for Americans is the end of DST), I went out to have a look.

Hah, Autumn had provided a lot of small leaves that clogged the additional drain holes! I went out in the rain, in the nude, and took care of the leaves and some dirt that clogged the drain holes. After that, the water disappeared quickly. I threw away the leaves and then all I needed was a towel to undo what the rain had done to me. It hadn’t felt cold (13c / 55F) at all. It felt very good to do it like that – getting dressed to get your clothes soaked and icky is such a strange idea. An umbrella was out of the question as the wind was very strong – and I needed my hands to clean out the drainage hols.

At that time the chance of someone being out and about was less than minimal, so I didn’t feel like I would risk offending someone being outside naked. Truly, it was the best thing I could have done. Naked outside on the gallery, feeling the early morning rain on my skin without being cold, and fixing the drainage problem, all in one go.

Mijn vakantie, deel 2. Stranden.

Dit is deel 2. Heb je deel 1 gemist, dan vind je dat hier.

Gedurende mijn vakantie in het naturistenhotel Gran Hotel Natura op Fuerteventura ben ik een keer naar het stadje gewandeld om er een kijkje te nemen. Dat moest dan wel gekleed, maar ja, als je wat wilt moet je soms concessies doen. Na een bezoek aan het voormalige vissers-stadje (het is niet erg groot, en tegenwoordig erg toeristisch) besloot ik langs het strand terug te gaan. Daar waren heel wat zonaanbidders aanwezig. En opeens realiseerde ik me dat heel wat van de badpakken idioot waren:

Iedereen op de stranden probeert zoveel mogelijk huid bloot te stellen aan de zon, voor een mooi kleurtje, maar het merendeel doet dezelfde rare en ook zwakke poging om ‘binnen de grenzen van netheid’ te blijven. Ze dragen zulke kleine bad-frommeltjes dat het niet mogelijk is om te verbergen wat hoe dan ook al duidelijk aanwezig is. En als je dan meemaakt hoeveel geld daarvoor wordt betaald… In mijn idee, als ze waar voor hun geld willen, dan moeten ze terug naar de echt ouderwetse badpakken.

Dan slaat het nog ergens op. Wat ze nu doen (of proberen) druist tegen alle wetten van gezond verstand in, volgens mij.

TimeLapse Torn nudist beach

TimeLapse Torn nudist beach from CLOTXA on Vimeo.

This video courtesy of xabyjordi on Twitter.

A journey at Torn nudist beach, close to Hospitalet de l’Infant, Tarragona (Spain). Just using iPhone with Timelapse app. It’s a simple video, but very funy for summetime. Not abble identify persons, frames goes fast.
TRACK: Righeira – Vamos A La Playa
CLOTXA Produccions Audiovisuals:

Nudism and nature

I think that one of the biggest problems of today is that people are closed-minded “by nature”. By their environment, by the dogmas that are tossed onto them, by interpretations of religion, by the sad but true conviction that nudity is bad. “Sinful” even, as nudism/naturism these days is so often 1 on 1 connected to sex and porn, while it has nothing to do with that.

Being nude for no other reason than to be nude means being in direct and constant touch with your skin, and that again means being in touch with nature itself, something that most people these days seem to be scared of, or have forgotten/repressed. If something is not sterilised and wrapped in 3 layers of plastic, it’s unhealthy. Many kids in schools these days don’t dare to drink milk from a cow, because “real milk comes from the factory”. You don’t get your hands dirty any more, you wear gloves and a ton of protective clothing that needs to be cleaned afterwards.

Getting dirty when you’re nude means you wash yourself afterwards. That’s all there is to it. No attack on nature with the detergents needed for cleaning clothes, no disposable things (unless you need something to stay safe and/or in one piece).

Nude lumberjacks

There should nothing wrong with being naked, as long as others aren’t bothered by it. Let’s start with being nude in nature, in an uninhibited way. Everyone’s seen a naked body, and when you meet someone who’s nude you can see that this person literally has nothing to hide.

Driving in the nude

I hadn’t done that a lot. Driving nude. Actually I was pointed to it after I had joined the Nook.

Why would you drive nude? Well, why wouldn’t you if you’re a nudist? You wouldn’t when it’s too cold, I can see that. But when it’s warm and nice, there would not be a reason to keep your clothes on while you’re in your car, unless you suspect you need to get out of your car at any moment.

A few things I have learnt since that time:

It’s very comfortable. Nothing pulls and yanks, just like being nude in general.
I needed to get used to feeling the seat belt on my skin. That was annoying for a while.
Nobody watches you. I think this is a major thing to realise; people don’t expect you to be in your car naked so they’re not on the lookout for you. If you act naturally (and how else can you when you’re in your natural skin) they will do that too. They’ll also be paying attention to traffic. (Or their phone… 🙁 )
Putting something on again is much easier when you slide the seat back all the way. (But only when you’re standing still, don’t try this on the motorway!)
Keep something of clothing near in case you need to stop for a sign by e.g. a police officer. You can pull it over your lap to avoid compromising situations. (I do understand that this would not be enough for ladies.)
Keep a towel in your car and sit on that. You’ll sweat and the sweat will go into the upholstery of the seat. A towel is much easier to wash.
The air conditioning is much more effective: instead of mostly cooling your clothes it actually cools down you, so you don’t have to crank it up so much to feel comfortable.

Some tips if you want to start carefully

Take back roads that you know to be quiet, or drive around quiet industrial areas in weekends if there are any.
Drive in the evening when it’s (getting) dark. Of course, in the summer this would be difficult unless you’re okay with going for it much later than usual. In the winter it’s dark early, you could drive around a bit until the car’s warm and then take off your clothes.
Drive around dinner time if that’s something in your area which makes most people be inside.

Nude walk Germany Friday 12 July 2013

I went for a check-out of a spot in Germany I had discovered via some browsing. The place turned out easy to reach and most important: as good as deserted!

photo IMG_20130712_191008_zps30e7bfcf.jpg This is the main trail that I followed most of the time. The total walk I did was 9.75km or 6 miles and I didn’t see anyone during that time.
photo IMG_20130712_192232_zps88217b02.jpg This is a stretch along a wider path. I discovered that this trail almost runs parallel to the Dutch border, which made me grin!
photo IMG_20130712_193610_zps70e4b680.jpg In the distance is a lake and that is in the Netherlands!

My walking gear.

photo IMG_20130712_193748_zps184e6cfc.jpg See, there even was a little bit of sun!

Discrimination against the male body?

A little while ago I wrote a blog post about clothes and not wearing any. In that post I inserted a small nudist image of myself that I took on my vacation in England. I stored that image on Photobucket.com, a place that usually is quite good about storing images with undressed people. However, when I looked at the blog post a day later, the image was gone. It was replaced by a placeholder stating that the image was removed as it offended against Photobucket’s regulations and national laws.

The offending image in question is this one (original size too):

(obviously no longer hosted on Photobucket)

As you see, there’s nothing explicit or offending in it (at least, I think so). The interesting bit is that Photobucket doesn’t have any qualms about hosting a picture that shows a woman with full frontal nudity:

Nudist surfer photo nudist001_zps0d7f2986.jpg

(Image linked directly from Photobucket, same image, original size as well.)

Is it really so horrible and offending to look at a nude man that ‘national law’ makes them take down that picture? Or is this more something that Photobucket themselves enforce without being honest about it? I can imagine that there are more men working there than women, and most of them probably aren’t nudist or naturist, nor understanding of that. Am I wrong in assuming that they’d rather see a naked woman than a naked man, just because the emphasis is on ‘naked’? Probably not.

My picture does not show child-porn, it’s not explicit in any sexual way. I’m simply leaning on a wall and look out over the area. And I’m wearing no clothes. In the other picture a woman is walking over a beach and carries a surf board. And she is wearing no clothes.

I dare state that accepted nudity would eliminate this discriminatory problem. After all, nude is nude, regardless if it concerns a man or a woman. As long as nudity is considered something to be secretive about, the general public will never be educated and nudism will never become a normal (accepted) thing.

This is probably better for Photobucket.

It’s too bad that the definition of norms always rests with a majority. After all, a majority can mean that all the fools are on one side…