Nature\skin with Cailee Oliver
Written by Peter Weilnböck
Published on: 2025-08-19
My second (or third) foray into the world of double exposures. This time with Cailee Oliver
As I mentioned in my last post, the images of “Ben F.” or “@Sammael99@imaginair.es” had me hooked. Exploring it however did pose a small challenge. My favourite motives were the various structured overlaid on the back, but this would mean that I would need to find a model that would be comfortable posing topless, possibly nude (although the final images would be more modest).
Because Cailee Oliver suggested the lingerie in the last shoot herself, I hoped that she might be comfortable with this proposal as well. And, as can be deducted by me writing this blog entry, she agreed.
I still was worried about her feeling comfortable with it and about making sure that it was a safe environment for her. She did not take me up on the proposal to bring a chaperone of her own, but was happy with just my wife being there as well (for photographing a second part of the shoot with images proposed by Cailee).
I prepared two rolls of Ilford HP5+, one 35mm and one 120. For each of the images that I shot, I also took a picture of the same frame and the image counter on the camera with my phone. I hoped to be able to better match the poses with the structures/backgrounds because of this.
First part with Pentax ME:
At first we went through the 36 images of the 35mm film. Before each of the pictures we shortly discussed which pose would match that structure best. Same as with my first shoot with her, Cailee did bring ideas of her own in this regard, but quickly followed my lead if I had a specific request. So once again she was a joy to work with.
So without further ado, here is the not so small selection of images that I like from that roll:
Since the following pose worked so well with Katharina, we tried it as well:
I really liked the criss-cross texture of this bark, and so we tried to create similar angles with the arms to match it. I think it worked reasonably well:
In this next one I really like how the structure and shape of the tree follows the shape of Cailee’s spine as well as how the bark and the hair melt together:
In this next image I once again particularly like how the tree comes through in the hair, and that it so much more subtle on the skin:
I only took a single treetop picture, and cutting out the head worked well enough with it:
Second part with the Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex IIa:
Since the 36 pictures of the first part had taken a lot longer to shoot than expected, we did the 12 images of the Ikoflex in much quicker succession. This might be one reason why I have fewer keepers here. Or that some of the backgrounds simply did not work as I had hoped.
In the first one I however do quite like how subtle it turned out. How you almost do not notice the mossy bark, with the exception of in the hair, were the larger leaf-pairs almost seem like a planned adornment.
As the shoot went on, we also started to try out more experimental poses. Which turned out to give some of the most interesting results:
Lastly I want to present some images from the final part of the shoot. Cailee had brought some ideas with her, that she wanted to shoot with my wife, but they kindly let me join again as well.
I had planned to shoot this part in colour, with Kodak Gold to be specific, even though I can not develop it myself, but have to send it to a lab. But then I spontaneously grabbed Harman Phoenix instead. Shot at box speed, which squashes the dynamic range a bit. So the results are a bit more funky, but I still like them. Maybe even more because of it.
