The Nude Calendar Shoot

One summer, when I was 18, I went to stay for a few weeks with my aunt Claire in New York. She was a freelance photographer who usually did photo-shoots and portraits for small magazines or newspapers. Nothing great or fancy really, but it was all very exciting to me at the time. My aunt was quite an interesting person. She wasn't what you might term the typical "adult". Even then, at the age of 43, she was still very open minded and free thinking, always willing to experiment and try new things. In fact, a lot of the time she made me feel rather conservative. I loved spending time with her though. She was the type of aunt that every young girl should have, the type who was your friend more than anything else.

My aunt Claire had never been married, and in truth, I could never really picture her settling down in a little house with a husband and kids. It just wasn't her. She was far too independent for that. Instead she lived alone in a large loft-apartment which served both as her home as well as her studio. It wasn't the most luxurious of places to live in, but I didn't mind that. I was lost in the fervent excitement of it all. The chance to be on my own, away from my parents, exerting a small sense of freedom that everybody at that age is so desperately trying to gain.

The first week went great. I stood in on all my aunt's shoots helping her with this and that. I loved watching her work, watching her set up the lighting and then finally take the shots she wanted or those the customer had asked for.

I marvelled at the photographs. They looked so different from the mere scene itself, like they had managed capture a sense of lustre that, perhaps, was always there but yet could never be seen by the naked eye. This of course was a grotesque exaggeration of what they were actually like, but to the naive and impressionable mind of an 18 year old, even graffiti can manage to shine.

So the days passed quickly like this and before I knew it, a whole week had already gone by. Then, one evening, while we were sitting down to dinner my aunt casually told me that in a few days she was going to be doing a nude calendar shoot. I initially thought that she was joking, but she went on to explain that a nearby university was taking part in a state wide nude calendar project for charity. The calendar was aimed at creating awareness for misguided youths and the funds from it were to go towards setting up a community centre in Brooklyn.

I was shocked; I had no idea that my aunt did those kinds of photographs. She told to me that the photographs themselves weren't to be explicit or graphic. The subject's privates were always covered up by their hands or the strategic placement of objects, there was only the illusion and implication of nudity. Still the subjects would have to be nude during the shoot, and to me, who had at the time never even seen another fully naked body other than my own, it was a complete shock.

We talked a little more on the subject after that and she told me that she had done two other shoots like this over the years and that it was a fun change from the regular stuff. I then, rather plaintively, asked who the people coming in for the shoot were, imagining that it would just be a small mixed group of rebellious volunteers, but instead was told that it was the entire university football team.

At that point I just dropped my fork and stared at her disbelievingly. It took a few moments for it to register fully. I simply could not comprehend that my aunt was going to be photographing a whole group of naked boys. It just seemed so unreal.

I think my aunt found my reactions rather amusing. I remember her smiling throughout most of this conversation. I suppose now that I think back on it, a lot of my reactions were perhaps silly and over the top, but what can I say, I was young and sexually inexperienced, still trying to discover what everything looked like and how it worked.

The next couple days were slightly more exciting than previous ones had been, I couldn't get the idea of the nude shoot out of my head. The whole concept was just so weird to me and at the same time, so titillatingly exciting. As with all the shoots, my aunt planed ahead and outlined what possible shots she could take along with what backgrounds, lens and props she could use. The props here of course would be things that the boys could use to cover up their privates. I had butterflies in my stomach.....and elsewhere too if I recall correctly, as I looked through some of the stuff and imagined what it was going to be used for.

Friday came quickly, the shoot was now just a few hours away and everything was already set up. Up until now I had never really considered where I would be during the shoot. I had doubted that I would be allowed to stay so it wasn't really a surprise to me when my aunt said that I couldn't assist her on this shoot. The boys were all close to my age (in their early 20s) and would obviously be uncomfortable with having me around while they were nude.

Though I had expected this, I guess I was somewhat visibly disappointed when my aunt actually looking at me smilingly, and said "Cheer up honey, just because you can't be here, it doesn't mean you can't watch".

I don't think I quite knew how to respond to that then. As a young person you are just so used to having adults close doors on you that it's just so startling when you find yourself being allowed to do something. My aunt told me that I could stay hidden in the bedroom as long as I didn't make any noise. From there I could easily watch the whole shoot for the bedroom space was on a higher level and looked down on the rest of the apartment. Plus the entire upper space could be closed off by a thick curtain. My aunt had had this installed to give her some privacy so I had little chance of being spotted.

I was confused. On one hand, I did very desperately want to stay and watch this, but at the same time I couldn't help but feel guilty about it, like I was doing something wrong. What would the boys think if they knew a girl, a couple of years younger than them, was looking in while they were all naked. I imagined how I'd feel if a boy was looking in on me while I was naked and the thought was utterly mortifying.

Yet, in the end, temptation won over and I told my aunt that I would stay. She asked a few times if I was sure but by then I really was. I had given in and now really wanted this. Today, looking back on it, I am glad that I stayed. It was one of the most exciting experiences of my life.

By the time afternoon came I was ready. I had closed off the curtains to the upstairs room and made a comfortable spot for myself at the further edge from where I could peek out. The boys arrived on time. There were 11 of them and they were all dressed in plain everyday clothes. It was an odd and exciting feeling as I watched them all coming in, thinking that in a few minutes I would be seeing them naked. I had that butterfly feeling inside me again.

My aunt welcomed them all in and after a few exchanges of pleasantries she got to work. She had the boy's line up against the back wall before a green background sheet that we had picked out and arranged earlier. The thought behind it was that the green would resemble the grass on a football field. We had used the back wall since it was the largest and would most easily accommodate so many people. This was incredibly lucky for me as it gave me a full frontal view of everything that was happening.

I watched as the boys took their places in front of the sheet, they were still clothed at this point as my aunt had to adjust a few more things. I remember being annoyed by that. I just wanted her to get on with it and have them strip. I think I had quite forgotten that my aunt was actually working and that this was a professional shoot. For me it had become just about seeing the boys. I feel rather ashamed to admit that now, but it's the truth.

After some agonizing minutes of equipment adjusting, my aunt clapped her hands and said "Okay, time to get those clothes off". I remember feeling totally in awe of her then. I knew that this was all mutually agreed upon and prearranged, but there was something so enticing in the way that she could just clap her hands and have members of the opposite sex undress for her. The voice she used was her standard professional voice, which was both pleasant and subtly commanding, it told people that she was nice and friendly, while at the same time letting them know that this was her scene and she was in charge here. I had heard that voice of hers so many times before and yet it had never been so awe inspiring to me as it was at that moment.

Since the private changing area my aunt had in her studio was barely enough to accommodate one person, the boys were forced to simply undress right there in the open. They didn't seem to have a problem with that, and they soon began to undress with little hesitation. I guess they were all used to changing in front of each other and so it wasn't really something new for them. I still could help but imagine that if it was me undressing in front of a man, I would probably die of embarrassment, I had trouble enough changing in front of other girls.

I watched keenly as they removed their clothes. First the shirts came off and then their pants, a couple of them just pulled their underwear and pants down in one motion, a few weren't ever wearing underwear!!! I had always thought that guys had to wear underpants to keep their "things" in place, but it seems that wasn't the case.

There was suddenly just so much to look at that I didn't know what to do. My eyes darted back and forth, from chests to stomachs to legs to crotches. As they were sports players they were all fairly fit and muscular, a true pleasure to look at. My insides were doing somersaults just looking at their abs. Had I been more sexually aware of myself I would have known that fully turned on by that point.

To my annoyance some of them covered up their privates with their hands. I suppose they thought that they should be modest in front of a woman, but it was nothing but annoying for me. The rest however let it all hang out, and I do mean that literally. It looked like each of them had something hanging down between his legs, like fruit hanging from a tree, which shook and swayed each time they moved. One especially had these huge balls that must have at least hung down 3-4 inches; they were even longer than his penis. I recall having stared at those for quite a while, they just seemed so sexual to me, so full and manly.

The others all varied in size, some were small, some were thick, some were thin, and some were long. I had never realized that penises came in so many sizes! Some had a lot of public hair while others didn't have much at all, and personally, I preferred the latter as it gave me a better look at their penises and balls. Some had big round heads on the ends of theirs while others tiny little pink ones which kind of reminded me of turtles poking their heads out of their shells. I don't know why so many girls think penises look "yucky", to me they were just so cute and sexy. Sadly it didn't last long, and soon they all started covering themselves up with their hands as my aunt began the shoot.

First she had them all standing in a row facing the camera, with their hands over their privates. Next they stood much the same way to the side, and then with their backs to the camera looking over their shoulders. I loved that pose because it gave me a full access view of their behinds, which I hadn't seen before. They were all firm and tight but there were a couple of which were almost irresistible. I remember having a rather embarrassing desire to grab and squeeze them.

After that was over, my aunt went to get the first props, which were just ordinary footballs that the boys would use to cover themselves. I watched my aunt as she walked about handing out the balls. She was pretty much surrounded by naked men and I couldn't help but be jealous of her. She however was as normal as could be, talking too and positioning the boys the way she wanted them. She even stood directly behind a few and put her hands on their naked shoulders to angle them properly.

Once that was done she brought out her photometer and began measuring how much light was falling on the boy's bodies, and in doing so she invariably had to kneel down a few times in front of them. I was so engrossed in thinking how lucky she was to be that close to the boy's crotches that I almost didn't notice two of the boys slyly looking down at her. At first I thought they were just trying to read the numbers on the photometer, but it was soon more than obvious to me what they were looking at my aunt's chest!

On that day she was wearing this sleeveless white top and as she bent down the neckline of it had opened out a bit. I absolutely could not believe it, here were these 20 something year olds' trying to peek at my 43 year old aunt's chest! She was old enough to be their mother!!

I was really quite outraged by this, how dare these guys stare at my aunt like that. Yes it was true that her top had a rather loose neckline but since her breasts were on the small side (about a B cup) it wasn't at all provocative under normal circumstances. Though I knew that my aunt was an attractive woman, I had ever thought that somebody that young would be interested in looking at her like that. I found it horribly crude and perverse.

It was some time later however that I realized the irony of my anger. There I was getting angry that some guy had looked at my aunt's cleavage while both she and I had seen all these boys completely naked. I wondered then if my aunt was having a similar kind of pleasure looking at them, they were after all standing butt naked in front of her, and though she was so much older, she was still a woman. I wondered if she too was enjoying the view like I was, if she too was excited and invigorated by having so many naked male bodies around her. Then it almost seemed funny that those boys might have gotten a slight look at her cleavage, it was all they would really ever see of her, while we got to see so much more.

The shoot continued and after the scene with the footballs, a mock bleacher bench came which the boys had to stand behind, the backrest of which hid their privates from view. Then the sheets of paper came which they had to stick with duct tape over their crotches. As they needed both hands to stick the paper on properly this gave me another chance to look at their penises.

My first eyes darted towards the ones I hadn't seen before but I was quickly just scanning up and down the whole row of them. I was once again spoiled for choice and before I had had my fill they managed to get the pieces of paper firmly stuck onto themselves.

They looked quite funny standing there with the bits of paper stuck to their crotches, each paper had a letter on it and together they spelled out the university's name. I remember wondering what kind of university would want their name advertised on boys penises but I guess since they weren't wearing any clothes there was really no other place to put it.

My aunt was then adjusting the focus of her camera when suddenly she looked up and with that same friendly yet authoritative voice said "Jake honey, you need to adjust your sheet, your testicles are showing". I nearly burst out laughing, and had to pinch my arm to make myself stop. I didn't know at first who Jake was, but it was easy to figure it out since just about everybody was looking at him now. He was the boy I had seen earlier with the really big (or long) balls, and sure enough, his sheet was a little too high and past the edge of the paper you could see the fleshy curve of his ball sack.

All the boys were laughing out loudly at this point and I even saw my aunt turn away and hide a smile. It was just looked so silly, and poor Jake was either just slow or so utterly confused, that instead of rearranging it he just stood there trying to bend forward and see the situation for himself. That made everybody, including myself, want to laugh even more not only because of how comical he looked but also because we could still see his balls dangling beneath the sheet.

By the end of it, Jake had turned a bright red. He was totally embarrassed and the other boys were still laughing about it. I felt sorry for him then, though I was still smiling, it must have been awkward enough for him to have such big balls without having had it pointed out and made the centre of attention.

That was the last shot of that shoot, and though it took a few minutes to get the boys calm again after the Jake incident, my aunt soon got the picture she wanted and sadly began to warp up.

I watched then as the boys got dressed, most turned away and faced the wall thinking probably that that afforded them more privacy but it only gave me a better look at their bums, which I very much enjoyed. Then on went the pants and shirts and shoes, I realized then that it was just as interesting and exciting watching somebody get dressed as watching them get undressed. Once clothed the boys looked so boring compared to what they had looked like just a few minutes ago. I couldn't tell anymore who had the best abs or the biggest penis or the hairiest body, now they all just looked ordinary and dull. I suppose that's the beauty of seeing somebody naked, you see all the interesting things and parts of them that you'd never otherwise get to see.

After they all left I went down to talk with my aunt. She asked me what I had thought of the whole thing and I told her I loved it, although I did not in any specific terms tell her why, but I think she knew, after all why else would she have asked me to stay. We laughed again about the Jake incident and I told her about those two boys that had peeked down her top. To my surprise she was flattered by it, she said she must be doing something right if somebody half her age wanted to look down her top. Today, being somewhat older myself, I can understand that completely, although, at the time, it was rather odd to me.

On the whole it undoubtedly was one of the most memorable experiences of the life. It was a mini sexual revolution for me, it opened my eyes to so many things that I had never seen or felt before and opened a door to for me into the world of men and their bodies. A door that has stayed open ever since.