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Canyonlands Self Portraits
The place where I spent the most time during my cross country road trip (click here for the huge post I made about the whole trip) was southern Utah. I visited for the first time ever in 2016 and absolutely fell in love, so when I was planning my trip I knew I wanted to spend a lot of time there. Most of June 2019 was spent traveling around southern Utah’s National and State Parks. I have never felt the way about any other place than I feel when I’m in Utah. Everything is so vast, colorful, and alive, even if it doesn’t seem like it from the surface. It’s an incredibly spiritual place for me.
After all the hardships of late 2018 and early 2019, I was in an emotionally rough place (though I didn’t fully see it when I was living it), and I spent a whole day in Dead Horse Point State Park and Canyonlands National Park on a day that had a lot of complicated significance to me. I wanted to take back my favorite place as MINE, instead of only having memories of it shared with another.
The day before, I had created 10 self portrait sets in Colorado National Monument and the desert outside of Moab Utah (those sets are coming soon!). I took them in a different way than I usually did, and it opened up a whole new world of possibility. Those self portrait sets that I created shook something up inside of me. It’s as if taking self portraits allows me to come back to myself over and over after self-abandonment, whether abandoning myself is intentional or a subconscious survival mechanism. It is becoming crystal clear to me that being in my body and feeling my emotions, which is exactly what self portraits help me do, is so incredibly healing for my body, mind, and soul.
I’ve been reading an incredible book called The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk (trigger warning for anyone wanting to read it, it’s difficult to read) which has been opening my eyes to the way our brains work differently after trauma, our bodies literally hold onto trauma, and the ways that we can rewire our brains to heal and come back into alignment with ourselves. He describes several different healing modalities and how they assist in healing for trauma survivors such as EMDR (Eye Motion Desensitization and Reprocessing), yoga, psychomotor therapy, IFS (Internal Family Systems therapy), and neurofeedback. A major component in a lot of trauma healing is the ability to be present in your body and acknowledge what you’re feeling without judgment. This is much easier said than done.
At the time, I was still so confused about myself and what I was feeling, but I knew I could let go of my thoughts and just MOVE and FEEL when I took self portraits. I didn’t question what came up, I just allowed my body to move in whatever way felt right. I moved energy in, around, and through myself, and what better way to begin healing than nude in the desert with my feet on the earth.
This is the only self portrait set I took on that emotionally significant day, and it was especially healing for me.
Have you ever done something differently than your normal that shifted something in you?
I’d love to hear about it, feel free to comment below or send me an email at bunnyluna@pm.me <3
Photo members: click here to view the self portrait photoset that I took in Canyonlands during my solo cross country road trip this summer
Video members: click here to view the BTS video
First Look members: click here to view the photoset of Pure Rebel next to a river in a Washington rainforest, click here to view the photoset of me taken by Pure Rebel in the same place & click here to view the BTS video -
FREE ARCHIVED BLOG & PHOTOSET
I originally wrote this for Patreon on October 15th 2016. I no longer use Patreon and have replaced it with my website (here) but thought I would share some of my old blogs with you for FREE to show my appreciation for you visiting my website! <3
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A couple of weeks ago I told y’all all about shooting with Kyotocat & Antisocialdisposition, now we have the film back to share with you! I’m always very excited to get the film back from a roll of double exposures, there are always surprises. I never know what I’m going to get and for me that’s part of the magic. I love seeing the images for the first time and seeing how the background works with the figure(s). Most of the time when I shoot a roll of double exposures there are weeks or even months between shooting the background images and shooting the model so by the time I photograph the model I really don’t remember what all the backgrounds are. Double exposures are serendipitous and that’s why they are my absolute favorite.
We shot 2 rolls, the first one I took of Kyotocat and the other one was a shared roll between the 3 of us. 2 of us would model and the other took the photos, so Kyotocat took the photos of AD & I and AD took the ones of Kyotocat & I. The backgrounds for both rolls are from our time in Utah this summer.
Here’s a bonus silly one of Kyotocat & me being dinosaurs (T-REX!) and not being able to keep a straight face.
All members have access to the complete 31 image photoset I took of Kyotocat by clicking here, and the complete 30 image shared roll here.
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Portraitmami & Rhivnnun on a Stormy Hillside
When Rhivnnun visited Charlotte last year they stayed with Portraitmami and the three of us met up for a creative day of photographing each other! We are all primarily photographers but we all model occasionally so we took turns shooting each other at Portraitmami’s apartment and ventured out to this grassy hillside off of a main road to take these photos. The sky was brilliantly stormy and we even got rained on at the end of the shoot but it was so worth it because of the fantastic light and dramatic sky! We even saw a wild turkey in the field nearby! haha
CURRENTLY: I’ve been taking aerial yoga classes, not to be confused with aerial silks because they’re totally different things, but I LOVE any chance to be in silks! I absolutely live for swinging, being upside down, and playing in silks, and aerial yoga has been a great alternative to aerial silks, which I miss a lot but it’s more expensive and further away from home. Now I REALLY want to convince my dad to let me rig up some silks in our living room or something. He’s not super into the idea but of course I’m super into it… hopefully I can convince him that it’s a worthwhile thing to do and it shouldn’t be in the way because we can just drape them into the upstairs hallway when I’m not using them! I have this somewhat thought out already, if you couldn’t already tell haha =]
I’ve been working really hard on finally going through my self portraits from this past summer. I took over 20 different sets and I didn’t touch them at all for so long because it was more important to me to get photos back to other models first. Plus I was kinda overwhelmed and needed to get to a place where I was mentally and emotionally ready to go through them all instead of just forcing myself to do it when it wasn’t the time yet. Well, I’ve officially organized ALL of them and I’m in the process of editing them! YAY! Most of them I won’t even edit because even though they’re digital (WHAT?! WEIRD, I KNOW RIGHT?!) I’m really happy with how they came out without needing to edit them. Some of them really do need edits though, such as the Cave Entrance set I took at Colorado National Monument because the light kept changing. In case you’re wondering, I shot all digital self portraits this past summer because of time and where I was. In National Parks and other public places, as you could imagine, I needed to be really quick with the amount of time I spent nude (sadly). It takes me about 2 minutes to take 50 digital self portraits. It takes at LEAST a half an hour to shoot a 36 exposure roll of film. This is why I shot digital self portraits this summer: time/speed/ease. I’m really excited to start sharing them with you soon!
Video editing is next on my list of backlogged content to go through. I’m really looking forward to being fully caught up! I’m getting closer all the time!
Photo members: click here to view the full photoset of Portraitmami & Rhivnnun on a grassy hillside before a thunderstorm
Video members: click here to view the BTS videos
First Look members: click here to view the photoset of Quinn Sanguine & Megan Ayn & click here to view the BTS video -
FREE ARCHIVED BLOG & PHOTOSET
I originally wrote this for Patreon on October 8th 2016. I no longer use Patreon and have replaced it with my website (here) but thought I would share some of my old blogs with you for FREE to show my appreciation for you visiting my website! <3
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This new self portrait set was taken with my friend the cow skull that my parents gave me for my birthday a few years back. Poor baby had some kind of trauma either before or after death because on one side of it’s face a good hunk of the bone is gone. That’s why the majority of the photos are only from it’s good side. =]
All members have access to this complete 64 image photoset by clicking here.
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Doubles with Singingsiren44
I met Singingsiren44 through Instagram and met up with them in person in Denver Colorado during the first part of my cross country road trip this past summer. They were so generous and offered for me to stay for a couple of days in their apartment and during one of those days we took a day trip to the Rocky Mountains to spend some time in nature and take some photos. They drove til we found a spot off of the road that seemed like it would be a good place to explore, and it just so happened to be mountainous woods next to a river! We spent the better part of a morning and early afternoon there relaxing, talking, taking photos, and exploring the woods. I shot two rolls of them, this double exposure roll (doubled with the woods we were in!) and a regular roll, and we even made a creator interview video! I’ll be releasing that sometime soon. I shot most of the roll of just them, and then at the end of the roll I took some self portraits with them!
CURRENTLY: After the first of the year I’ve started going back on Instagram VERY sparingly, basically just to check my messages and look at only certain people’s pages to see what new stuff they’ve been sharing. Once I get the notification that I’ve been on there for an hour I shut it off and don’t go back on for at LEAST a day or more. I’m much happier with these stricter boundaries for social media, I want it to work for me, not me working for it. I still have some more figuring out to do in terms of finding out what boundaries work for me so that I can both be productive and share my work but also not spend much time on it. I still haven’t posted anything, and that’s okay.
Recently I’ve been making a few videos that are different from the videos I typically make, and I want to continue making videos of all kinds. Mostly for my website and youtube, even though I can’t share anything nude on youtube… it’s just this massive platform and I want people to be able to find me on there. Youtube is the second most used search engine in the world after Google, so it would be silly if I made videos and didn’t use it. You can subscribe to my channel here! I have 3 videos on there so far but I’ll be adding more, don’t worry. =]
I’m still in hibernation, and probably will be through February at least. I don’t plan on shooting or traveling until March or later. Yes, I have enough content that I’m still working on from 2019 that I don’t need to start shooting again for a while and also keep up with sharing new content with yall every week! It’s been really extremely nice to slow down and not have the stress of feeling like I’m constantly going and doing and accomplishing and and and…
If you have a chance to slow down, I highly recommend it. Especially during the winter when a lot of nature is also hibernating. It’s the natural time of the year to slow down and go within, so why not follow the cycles of nature? You are part of nature, after all. <3
Photo members: click here to view the full double exposure photoset of Singingsiren44 in the Rocky Mountains
Video members: click here to view the BTS video & click here to view the nude yoga video for this month
First Look members: click here to view the photoset with Quinn Sanguine by Megan Ayn in Tacoma Washington & click here to view the BTS video -
FREE ARCHIVED BLOG & PHOTOSET
I originally wrote this for Patreon on October 2nd 2016. I no longer use Patreon and have replaced it with my website (here) but thought I would share some of my old blogs with you for FREE to show my appreciation for you visiting my website! <3
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Kyotocat came to visit last weekend and we made all kinds of art in the short amount of time she was here. I picked her up on Thursday night and took her back to the bus station on Saturday morning. She really wasn’t here very long but I feel like we’ve been friends forever already.
I got off work early on Friday and Kyotocat, Antisocialdisposition and I went to my parent’s house so that she could take photos of me in their back yard. Afterwards we went to our friend Scott‘s studio to shoot the other half of some double exposures that AD and I started in Colorado & Utah. (Stay tuned for those images, coming soon!!! Holy cow you will love them.) I shot a roll of double exposures of her, AD shot a roll, and the three of us jointly shot a roll. You’ll know what I mean once I post the film, I’m still going through it but look for it soon.
After shooting the double exposures we played around and experimented with movement using my Instax. I took a few photos of her by herself and AD took some photos of us together. The resulting images are somewhat abstracted, moody, spooky, and interesting. Kyotocat is open to experimenting and she has so many ideas of her own. She is fantastic at posing and is not only a wonderful model but an exceptional human being. I can’t wait to see her again and have more sleepy late night conversations.
All members have access to this complete 30 image Instax photoset by clicking here, the complete 7 image BTS photoset of AD shooting Kyotocat by clicking here, and the complete 20 image BTS photoset of me & Kyotocat shooting each other here.
To purchase some of these one of a kind Instax, click here here and here!
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Notrlygrace at Natchez Trace
When I was in Nashville in May I had the pleasure of spending a few days with Notrlygrace. You may remember the double exposure photoset I’ve already shared of her. This is the other roll I took of her, taken in the same location! We found this beautiful trail in Natchez Trace and spent a while relaxing and enjoying the view while we hung out naked and took photos. It was a wonderful day!
CURRENTLY: I’m getting this post ready super early again this week! Today is Monday Dec 30th and I’m posting this on Jan 4th. The next few days I’m really busy helping with inventory at the camera store I used to work at full time (I’m not on their schedule anymore, now I just help out occasionally) and then I’m going out of town again to visit family. My mom’s side of the family always gets together for the holidays on January 1st, so I probably won’t be doing a whole lot for new years because I want to get enough sleep! Look for new gallery passwords on the 2nd.
I changed the rewards for the All Access membership, and I’m really excited because I’m now offering a monthly video chat! If you’ve ever wanted to get an energy healing session from me, were curious about mentorship for photography and/or modeling, felt like you’d benefit from a peer support session about non monogamy or LGBTQIA+ topics, or just wanted to ask me a bunch of questions or chat about life, this is the perfect way to do that! Not only will you get a monthly video chat with me, you’ll get ALL of the perks from ALL of my other memberships! Wow! Click here for all the details!
As always, I’m available via email if you have any questions/comments/etc about membership or how to navigate my website or if you just want to say hello! I love hearing from yall and I’m here to help. <3 bunnyluna@pm.me
I appreciate every single one of you SO MUCH! I’ve wanted to be an independent artist for as long as I can remember and I’m literally living my dreams because of you!! =D
There’s a bunch of cute BTS stuff in the video folder!
Photo members: click here to view the full photoset of Notrlygrace at Natchez Trace
Video members: click here to view the BTS video & click here for cell phone BTS
First Look members: click here to view the photoset of Singingsiren44 in the Rocky Mountains & click here to view the BTS video -
FREE ARCHIVED BLOG & PHOTOSET
I originally wrote this for Patreon on September 24th 2016. I no longer use Patreon and have replaced it with my website (here) but thought I would share some of my old blogs with you for FREE to show my appreciation for you visiting my website! <3
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Last weekend we went to the NC mountains with our friend Sean (aka Drake Avenue) to make lots of waterfall/nature nudes. Antisocialdisposition and I got to the campground Saturday night around 9pm (1 hour before closing and quiet hours) and set up our tent and a hammock for Sean. We tried sleeping some until Sean got there (he was shooting a wedding and couldn’t leave until about 10pm which that had him getting to camp around 1:30am) but our fellow campers next to us were drunkenly loud and playing music until the wee hours of the morning. We asked them nicely (twice) to quiet down, and the guy on the other side of us yelled across to them “it’s after quiet hours, BE QUIET, and have some respect” (something along those lines), but they continued to be drunkenly loud until probably about 2am. Grrr.
We got up at 5:30am on Sunday to shoot at a well-known waterfall before anyone else got there. We had several hours with no interruptions, people didn’t start showing up until about 10am! It was great to be able to shoot uninterrupted for that long, I was honestly expecting people to start showing up sooner than they did. The big waterfall was in The Hunger Games and has become more popular than it already was since being in the movie. Remember the scene where Katniss finds Peeta near a waterfall and he had painted his face for camouflage? That was at the bottom of the big waterfall in some of these photos! The photos we took were all around the middle section of the falls and at another waterfall in a different part of the park later in the day.
Sean brought his fancy panoramic pinhole camera to work on a new series he just started. He mentioned he wants to keep those images off the internet and have them only viewable in print or book form so follow him on social media to see when that’s available.
Photos of AD were taken by me, photos of me were taken by AD, and photos of AD & I together were taken by Sean. =]
All members have access to this complete 37 image photoset by clicking here.
You can purchase bundles of instax from this day HERE and HERE! They’re ON SALE!!!
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Nude Beach with Ambivalent Ann
Ambivalent Ann and I went to Rooster Rock State Park outside of Portland Oregon a couple of days after the nude beach gathering (First Look & All Access members already have access to those photos and videos!) and we photographed each other. I absolutely loved this place, they had a huge section of beach there that’s nude friendly! It felt SOOO good to be in a space where we were ALLOWED to be nude instead of having to sneak around to take photos. There were a bunch of other people there hanging out nude with their friends, but we managed to take our photos without getting anyone in the background. Everyone was really nice and respectful. =]
CURRENTLY: I’m getting this post ready super early this week (Monday the 23rd) since I usually get my posts ready on Wednesdays, but I’ll be out of town for the holiday to spend time with family. Next week I plan to get everything ready early (Monday the 30th) because I’ll be out of town again to visit even more family! I’ll probably wait to change the gallery passwords and everything for January until the 2nd instead of the 1st, so if you’re on and checking out the galleries on the 1st, the passwords listed will be the correct ones even if they still say December.
WOW time freaking FLIES! I can’t believe it’s almost 2020! What a year 2019 has been… so much has happened and changed for me! I got separated from my husband (amicably), I became fully self employed, I went on a solo 69 day cross country road trip, I chopped off all of my hair, I realized I’m non binary (and also not straight/hetero), I coordinated and lead 3 creative nude gatherings, I replaced patreon with my website, I took a social media hiatus for a month (I’m still on hiatus and I’m not quite sure when I’m going back to social media to be honest), I moved back in with my parents…
My friend Lior Allay told me that it seems like I’ve been shedding/releasing just about everything this year, and they are completely right. I’ve been letting go of so much, and it’s allowed me to make more room in my life for my true authentic self, to make more room for the things that I actually value instead of just staying stuck in old patterns.
Have you ever heard of Saturn Return? According to Wiki: As Saturn “returns” to the degree in its orbit occupied at the time of birth, a person crosses over a major threshold and enters the next stage of life. With the first Saturn return, a person leaves youth behind and enters adulthood. Here’s a good article about Saturn return if you’re curious about it.
I have been going through my Saturn return for a bit and I’m not quite all the way through it. December 19, 2017, to March 21, 2020 are the official dates Saturn is in Capricorn (where it was when I was born), but it won’t be fully out of Capricorn until late 2020 (because Saturn retrogrades back into Capricorn July 1 to December 17, 2020).
Whew, I know I have even more change coming for me next year… and I am READY FOR IT! I’m looking forward to seeing what else the universe has in store for me. <3
Photo members: click here to view the full photoset of me taken by Ambivalent Ann at a nude beach outside of Portland Oregon
Video members: click here to view the BTS video
First Look members: click here to view the photoset of Tiffany Nacke in her home in southern Illinois & click here to view the BTS video -
FREE ARCHIVED BLOG & PHOTOSET
I originally wrote this for Patreon on September 17th 2016. I no longer use Patreon and have replaced it with my website (here) but thought I would share some of my old blogs with you for FREE to show my appreciation for you visiting my website! <3
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I was fortunate enough to meet and work with Elisa Dandelion in May last year. She is super sweet and fun to hang out with and we got some beautiful photographs together. AD and I had gone to the beach with some friends a couple weeks before Elisa was in town and I had shot a couple rolls of beachy scenery to use as the background of double exposures. The black and white images are from one of those rolls! We also took some medium format color images, this first one below is one of my all time favorite photos I’ve ever taken.
All members have access to this complete 13 image photoset by clicking here.