Photo Shoot with Shawn at Mokuleia

Third Shawn Photoshoot: Mokuleia

For the first time, I decided to try doing a photo shoot at Mokuleia. (Mokuleia is a fairly secluded beach on the North Shore of Oahu. Although it’s not technically or legally a nude beach, it ends up being one by default because it’s so out-of-the-way and people just do it. I thought it would be a good place to do a nude photo shoot.) One of the reasons I wanted to do it was to get some of the late-afternoon just-before-sunset warm light that’s so beautiful.

So on June 26 in the middle of the afternoon, I picked Shawn up from his workplace downtown and we headed up to Mokuleia. We got there about 4pm, which was about right, light-wise. Carrying towels, a cooler and our backpacks, we hiked from the road over to the beach.The beach was almost completely empty—maybe 3 or 4 other people, some nude, some not. So it felt comfortable. We put our stuff down and as Shawn took off his shorts, I started shooting pictures.

Shawn has a pretty good tan but protection is always good. Besides, having him rub lotion over every part of his body produces some great images. So I had him put on some sunblock. Then, when he’d finished, I had him put on some MORE sunblock. As I’d hoped, some great shots.

We spent the next hour or so doing lots of shots of walking up and down the beach, jumping in and out of the water, stretching, etc. One of my favorite sets of images in this shoot was a series where I had Shawn lie on his stomach on the sand. The light on some of those shots was just incredible. There are some great painting and drawing possibilities in this bunch…

We shot for about an hour, then took a break and ate sandwiches, and I shot some pictures of Shawn talking on the phone. We just drank beer and hung out for awhile, then, talking, because I wanted the sun to get a bit lower in the sky so we could get some of that nice late-afternoon light.

Then it got late enough, and the sun was low enough in the sky, to start shooting again. What followed sounds simple but was really exciting: I just asked Shawn to walk along the shorebreak, moving around in whatever way came to mind, stretching, rubbing his face, swinging his arms, looking around—whatever!—while I walked backwards in front of him, shooting pictures. Shawn is a good model but has always been a bit reserved. This time, because it’s our 3rd time working together, and perhaps because he’d had a couple of beers, he was very relaxed, and it came through. That and the gorgeous late-afternoon light made for some wonderful images. I was shooting pictures so fast I would run out of film every two minutes or so. I got some really nice stuff!

As it neared sunset, it got a little cloudy, which was disappointing. But the light was still pretty nice, and I kept shooting. By the time we left it was nearly dark, and I had shot 23 rolls of film. That’s about 850 images! Lots of raw material, no pun intended. My appreciation to Shawn for being so handsome, hunky, and easy to work with.