Miranda & Natasha Model at Burntcoat Head

Part of the magic of a successful nude photograph in a natural setting comes from the model, and part comes from the setting - when both the model and the setting are stellar, the images are even the more successful.

Digital original

In the case of Burntcoat Head, however, the entire day was planned as a photo session, though I didn't realize when I planned the day exactly how rich a space Burntcoat Head would be (truth be told, if I had know how magical a space it was, I would have left several hours earlier in the morning!). When we arrived and walked down to the shoreline, all of us were struck almost speechless for the sheer beauty of the shoreline that stretched out around us- vibrant red rocks were carved and shaped by the world-record tides that rolled in from the Bay of Fundy twice a day.

8"x10" film

After perhaps ten minutes spent walking around the various spaces and being quite overwhelmed by all the possibilities, I quite suddenly noticed which way the tide was flowing, and realized that as beautiful as the setting was, it was vanishing before my eyes at an alarmingly rapid pace! We'd arrived on the wrong end of the tide! I called out to both Miranda and Natasha, suggesting that we start working before the tide took all the shore away from us.

From then, until the tide finally rose faster then we could work, we made images non-stop. Not since I worked with Victoria in Writing-on-Stone, in 1999 had I felt so inspired and in awe of a location. We literally worked until we could work no more - at the end of the session, after packing up my cameras, I had to walk out of the site through knee-deep water - another fifteen minutes and I wouldn't have been able to keep the cameras dry!

8"x10" film

As Natasha's introduction to modeling outdoor, the space was fabulous, being so full of inspiration.

The only real problem with the session was the tide; several times models or I had to scramble to keep clothes or gear from being washed away, and countless images had to be put off for other sessions simply because of lack of time. Any future sessions at Burntcoat Head will certainly be better planned in regards to the tide table (I had tried to plan around the tides for this session, but obviously didn't make the right adjustments for location).