Description
THE OUTDOOR NUDE EXPEDITION
Nude. Light. Landscape. Form. Scale.
Sunday, 11 October 2026 | Full-Day Outdoor Art Nude Photography Experience | Ex-Penrith
Take the art nude out of the studio and into the landscape.
The Outdoor Nude Expedition is a full-day travelling photography experience built around one simple idea: to explore how dramatically the nude human form changes when it is placed against the scale, texture, light and unpredictability of the Australian outdoors.
Over approximately ten hours, we travel from Penrith towards the Lower Blue Mountains and surrounding areas, working across up to 10 different shooting locations throughout the day.
This is not a casual photowalk and it is not a conventional workshop relocated outdoors.
It is a moving creative expedition.
We drive. We scout. We stop. We photograph. We refine the idea. Then we move again.
Each location gives us a new visual problem to solve and a new opportunity to create something completely different.
At one stop, the human figure may appear small and isolated against a vast landscape. At another, we may work intimately with skin, texture, rock, shadow and form. One location may demand hard sunlight and graphic contrast; another may give us soft natural light, muted tones and quiet sculptural images.
The aim is not to repeat the same photograph against ten different backgrounds.
The aim is to create an entire body of work in a single day.
Throughout the expedition, we explore the relationship between nude, light, landscape, form and scale while working with experienced professional art nude model(s).
You will learn how to arrive at a location and begin seeing possibilities quickly: where the light is coming from, how the landscape can frame or overwhelm the human figure, where negative space becomes important, which lens changes the relationship between subject and environment, and how model direction needs to adapt when there is no controlled studio around you.
We work with the conditions we are given.
Bright Australian sunlight. Open shade. Cloud. Deep shadow. Reflected light. Trees, rock, open spaces, natural textures and whatever unexpected opportunities we discover along the way.
Some locations are planned in advance, while others may evolve according to weather, access, privacy, safety and the quality of light on the day. That flexibility is deliberately part of the workshop.
Location photography is partly about preparation, but it is equally about learning to recognise a photograph when an unexpected opportunity appears.
Throughout the day, participants will be guided through composition, exposure, natural-light management, lens selection, model direction and environmental storytelling. We will explore everything from large-scale landscape nudes and minimal fine-art compositions to stronger editorial images, close sculptural studies and more experimental interpretations of the human form.
The workshop is highly hands-on.
You will shoot throughout the day, receive continuous guidance, experiment with different approaches and be encouraged to move beyond the first successful frame. We will look at how a single location can produce multiple completely different images simply by changing position, focal length, direction, light or the relationship between the model and the environment.
The experience is suitable for a wide range of photographers.
If you are relatively new to photographing the nude, you will receive guidance with camera settings, exposure, composition and working respectfully and confidently with a professional model.
If you are an experienced photographer, the day becomes an opportunity to push your visual language further, experiment with more complex compositions and produce distinctive portfolio work in environments that are difficult to recreate independently.
You should be comfortable using your camera in Manual Mode.
A versatile lens combination is ideal. Lenses such as a 24–70mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm or 70–200mm all have a place during the day. Wider lenses allow us to exaggerate scale and integrate the figure into the landscape, while longer lenses are useful for compressed compositions, details and more intimate imagery.
Bring spare batteries, plenty of memory, comfortable footwear, weather-appropriate clothing, water and food for the day. Carry only the photographic equipment you are comfortable moving with over an active full-day experience.
The expedition begins at or near Penrith Station, from where we travel towards the Lower Blue Mountains and surrounding areas.
Participants may use their own vehicles, although we will coordinate carpooling where practical so that we are not travelling as an unnecessarily large convoy. Some vehicles may be left near the meeting point.
Please be aware that this is an active outdoor workshop. Participants should be comfortable walking over occasional uneven ground, carrying their own equipment, getting in and out of vehicles repeatedly and spending extended periods outdoors.
The advertised ten-hour duration includes photography, travel between locations and short breaks. Depending on the light, group energy and creative momentum of the day, the experience may naturally extend slightly beyond the scheduled finish time.
What you leave with
By the end of the expedition, you should have far more than a collection of photographs from a workshop.
You will have spent an entire day learning how to see locations differently, how to work with natural light under changing conditions, how to direct the nude human form outside the controlled environment of a studio, and how to build variety and visual depth into a location-based portfolio.
You will also have the opportunity to create a substantial collection of images across up to 10 distinct environments, along with behind-the-scenes footage documenting the day.
Above all, this is a day about making photographs that would be difficult to create alone.
A day of movement, experimentation, discovery and serious image-making.
One day. Ten locations. An entire portfolio.
Welcome to The Outdoor Nude Expedition by School of Art Nudes.
Some Pics from the previous such workshop >>
