Scottish Highland cattle meet nude models

In the Horsterwold forest, groups of Scottish Highlander cattle and wild horses roam. Sometimes accompanied by nude models

In the Horsterwold forest, groups of Scottish Highlander cattle and wild horses roam. Sometimes accompanied by nude models. The Horsterwold is the largest deciduous forest in the Netherlands. Surprisingly, it is also one of the least popular nature areas in the Netherlands. The reason for that may be its location (Flevoland province), or its distance from major cities. Or that it is designed around the same year as Lelystad. The forest has bike paths and foot paths, but large areas cannot be visited, unless you dive into the forest by following the trails of the wild horses. In this forest, you are allowed to go off-trail, and just wander through the forest.

I used my drone to scout for interesting areas within the dense parts of the forest and by following the paths made by animals. As a result I discovered several interesting parts of the Horsterwold. Some part are small open fields where horses keep the grass short but no humans come. At other parts, trees that have fallen create a Mikado like maze of tree trunks.

Three models that posed for me at my atelier in Utrecht before, told me they were interested in posing for a droneshoot. On an autumn day I took them to the Horsterwold. At the forest, we walked to a spot where fallen trees were grown over with moss. The models enjoyed posing, and tried some gymnastic poses together.

After a successful shoot, I proposed to visit the hidden lake in the Horsterwold. This hidden lake is situated away from all walking paths, so regular visitors will miss it. Perhaps for that reason, the lake is often visited by groups of wild horses and cattle. After arriving at the lake, we saw a group of Scottish Highlander cattle. To my surprise, the models proposed modelling with them, nude. I felt like natural, they told me. Of course, the young calf seemed most photogenetic, but I warned that approaching young calf may worry the mother or father of the young offspring. So we kept a distance. However, the models did dare to approach an older bull, and even touch him. A beautiful sight, but I was relieved that after the posing, we returned for a lunch at the lakeside without angry Higlander bulls storming behind us. The final surprise came when we had lunch. The cattle were apparently not disturbed by the models, they even became curious, and therefore visited our lunch site and approached us really close. I can imagine that being visited by three nude models had left an impression.

On our way back to the car at the parking place, we met a group of bird watchers. Perhaps birds are interesting as well :)

Lessons learned: Scottish Higlander cows are, despite their size and the size of their horns, friendly animals. But care is needed.

To do: watch out for bird watchers

Ideas for future shoots: perhaps the three models would like to pose for an underwater shoot as well