Quarry skinny-dipping

[Paradoxodarap]

Originally Posted by solomans

Paradoxodarap!!!
You wrote that you took those photos with Ektachrome film. These scans are great but with the help of a negative (diapositive) scanner the resolution will be enormous. The pics are so great that a scan from the original Ektachrome diapositives will give us, the audience, an even greater experience!!!

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Solomans, that is precisely what I have done. I got a slide scanner that digitizes at 14 MP, much better resolution than the method I used to digitize the photos the first time around. The quality is improved but don't expect them to look like digital originals; the source is high-speed Ektachrome film, ASA 400. Zoomed in, emulsion grain is discernible.

I will include basic commentary for each repost and a few bonus photos not posted before.

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This is the same as post #1.

Sundown Quarry. A congenial crowd on the eastern slag pile. This hole was the most popular for several reasons: It was one of the largest in the complex, had multiple access points for easily entering/exiting the water and had dozens of prime limestone slabs sunbathing. The aforementioned eastern slag pile and another, smaller, on the west, provided space for bathers to gather in groups. Additionally, on the east end, an 18-foot-tall cliff allowed those inclined to dive into the deep.

Sundown. After diving off the cliff, this young lady's swim brief needed realignment. Had she gone bottomless as well, such bother could have been avoided. But clothing optional means just that: personal choice.

Sundown. At the eastern slag pile, getting ready to climb aboard an air mattress. Her left foot is on a very popular sunbathing rock.

Sundown. This girl attended three times (to my knowledge) before she summoned the gumption to take off her top. After that, never again were her breasts denied sunshine.

Sundown, eastern slag pile. The parking lot was about a quarter-mile from Sundown. Carrying a beach bag and wearing only sandals, this girl always hiked the distance nude. Those in attendance could see her advancing down the trail in all her natural glory and at day's end, her shapely bare buttocks returned up the same trail.

Sundown, eastern slag pile. Backgammon.

Half moon Quarry. Usually, this girl wore only a bikini bottom but on this day, she wore a black one-piece which she rolled down, creating an impromptu thong.

Sundown. The two individuals on the left had just finished swimming and were messing with their hair.

Goldfish Quarry. Climbing out onto her limestone perch. This was the last exposure on my roll of Ektachrome and I forgot to bring a spare. Damn! She and a girlfriend (unseen) settled down to sunbathe and all could do was curse my negligence.

Sundown. The rock this couple is sitting on is an island. The scene reminds me of Adam & Eve after the fall from grace. Downcast eyes tells the story; yes we have sinned.

[Paradoxodarap]

The same as post #5 only better quality.

First pic -Full Moon Quarry on a hazy, lazy August afternoon. Based on my observations, Full Moon was the second most popular quarry. A wide ledge on the right in this photo, and another on the left (unseen) provided lots of sunbathing space and easy access to the water. And lots of stone blocks, on the right, provided additional towel-spreading space.

The guy and the suited girl were boyfriend-girlfriend and usually attended alone. But once in awhile, they brought their female friend. In this series, they're situated on the same promontory as in the first photo, just shot from a different angle with a longer lens. I never witnessed suited girl nude, not even topless. She didn't know what she was missing.

[Paradoxodarap]

The same as post #6.

Pic 1: For those of you geographically inclined: an overview of the Bloomington (Packinghouse) quarry property, ¾ mile north to south and ½ mile and east to west. The red X marks adjacent quarries owned by someone else besides the elderly gent. Packinghouse skinny-dippers sometimes encroached on these holes but were regularly chased away by security patrols.

A) Goldfish Quarry.

B) Triple complex: Full moon, Half moon, Sundown, the epicenter of nude recreation at Packinghouse.

C) Long hole, truncated by new highway. The north-south highway on the right was there in the 70s. The interchange and highway to the left (west) was built in 2002. At Long Hole, Mill Pond and the triple complex, the thin red lines shows the former shorelines before the highway was built.

D) Mill Pond.

E) Buried Rosebud Quarry.

F) Icebox. After skinny-dippers were booted out, Icebox was drained and stone extraction resumed. Thirty years of quarrying has resulted in an Icebox much different, and larger, than back in the 70s. In this Google Earth image, I don't even recognize it.

G) Former parking area.

H) The old mill.

Pic 2: The triple complex as it appeared in 2005. The pink dots delineate earthen fill that wasn't present 'back in the day' and the thin red lines shows the former shoreline. The complex is 200 yards north to south and 150 yards east to west. The red X points to a rock pile about 20 feet tall, topped with a large flat slab. From there I had a splendid vantage point into most areas of the triple complex. Much of my shooting was done from atop that limestone pile.

Pics 3-8. I spent so much time at the Packinghouse quarries that I became acquainted with many of its denizens. Mocha, a townie, spent more time at the quarries than I did. That's saying a lot! During the summers he practically lived there in his Econoline van. Despite his gruff exterior, he was a mild-mannered flower child. He never went nude; always wore a loincloth.

This series was shot at Full Moon Quarry on the wide ledge visible on the upper right in the first photo in post #44. Photo three shows Mocha hanging out with two townie friends: Carla, blonde, lying down, and Leslie, seated, dark hair. Shirley, standing, slim, sandy hair, was an IU student.

[Paradoxodarap]

Two more folks with whom I was acquainted. Tim & Laura, married, were townies but from a different town 80 miles distant. Nevertheless, they made it down every few weeks to hang out. The eastern cliff at Sundown Quarry was cut in a zigzag pattern into the hillside. In the first four photos they're atop the 18 foot cliff on one of the zigs. Or was it zag? The cut stone face displays mature patina: dark weathered graying and stains from overlying organic matter. This hole was cut long before the people featured in these photos were born.

In the last six photos, on a different day, they're in the western slag pile.

[Paradoxodarap]

The eastern slag pile at Sundown Quarry had two distinct zones: the upper, relatively flat area and the huge rock jumble that sloped down toward the water. The first photo shows the flat area where Tim & Laura (from the previous post) are visiting with Pat, seated lower right. In the second photo they are joined by Henry, upper left. In his mid 40s, he was one of the older regular townie attendees.

I've read, and you probably have too, that some nature-loving nudists vehemently deny being exhibitionists. Hogwash! In my opinion, anyone who strips naked in pubic in plain view of others is an exhibitionist to one degree or another. (I include myself in that category) Pat, a once-upon-a-time IU student turned townie, fit my definition of an ardent exhibitionist.

Oftentimes Pat would don shoes and go hiking on the network of trails through the woods connecting the other quarry holes. In photo 4, shoes on her feet, she is departing on such a walk. Forty-five minutes later, in photo 5, she returns having made a grand tour of the grounds. Her motive was nakedly transparent: to exhibit her seamlessly tanned body to as many spectators as possible. On summer weekends that would be several hundred people spread out over the 200 acres of quarry property.

The last four photos where Pat is sitting/standing at Mill Pond is today buried under 25 feet of earthen fill topped with asphalt and freeway traffic. Pity.

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got til it's gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot (Highway)

[brunettesrule]

Paradoxodarap,

Thanks for this amazing thread, but especially thanks for that sequence with the woman in the red bandanna and her husband. Loved it.

[ratbol]

Originally Posted by Paradoxodarap

The eastern slag pile at Sundown Quarry had two distinct zones: the upper, relatively flat area and the huge rock jumble that sloped down toward the water. The first photo shows the flat area where Tim & Laura (from the previous post) are visiting with Pat, seated lower right. In the second photo they are joined by Henry, upper left. In his mid 40s, he was one of the older regular townie attendees.

I've read, and you probably have too, that some nature-loving nudists vehemently deny being exhibitionists. Hogwash! In my opinion, anyone who strips naked in pubic in plain view of others is an exhibitionist to one degree or another. (I include myself in that category) Pat, a once-upon-a-time IU student turned townie, fit my definition of an ardent exhibitionist.

Oftentimes Pat would don shoes and go hiking on the network of trails through the woods connecting the other quarry holes. In photo 4, shoes on her feet, she is departing on such a walk. Forty-five minutes later, in photo 5, she returns having made a grand tour of the grounds. Her motive was nakedly transparent: to exhibit her seamlessly tanned body to as many spectators as possible. On summer weekends that would be several hundred people spread out over the 200 acres of quarry property.

The last four photos where Pat is sitting/standing at Mill Pond is today buried under 25 feet of earthen fill topped with asphalt and freeway traffic. Pity.

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got til it's gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot (Highway)

GREAT STORIES, GREAT PHOTOS.
ONEO F THE BEST POST ON OCC EVER!!
PLEASE, GO ON!
THANHS A LOT

[Paradoxodarap]

brunettesrule, ratbol,

I'm glad y'all are enjoying the repost of these photos. When I first posted them 3 years ago I had digitized them with a low-resolution point-and-shoot camera set on close-up mode. The results were disappointing. Now, digitized with a 14MP slide scanner, they look better than ever, especially this series.

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During college, instead of taking off for the summer like most students, I remained in town to work and help pay for school. For those 3 months I became a townie. Weather permitting, weekdays after work I pedaled my bicycle out to the quarries (10 minute ride) and enjoyed tranquil evenings with my growing circle of friends. It was during those times I came to understand how Sundown Quarry got its name. As the sun sank low in the west, radiance reflecting off the long fetch of water washed the eastern cliffs with shimmering patterns, ebbing, flowing, morphing through deepening shades of rose, mauve and magenta until, at last, when the final glimmer of twilight vanished over the horizon, starlight alone shined down on the ancient stone.

I didn't spend all my time skulking in the woods with my Minolta SLR; most of the time my bare butt was parked on the rocks with my fellow skinny-dippers. Oh sure, in doing so I missed hundreds of photo opportunities* but I didn't care. Capturing candid images of human wildlife in its natural habitat was pleasing but I derived far greater gratification from schmoozing with the ladies up-close-and-personal.

The crowd at Packinghouse was a microcosm of society; all personality types were represented; those who preferred peace and quiet and solitude, pot-smoking party animals and everything in between. Those who sought to put the 'social' in social nudity gathered in the eastern slag pile at Sundown. On sultry summer weekends, scores of nudists spread their towels and shoehorned themselves onto every available semi-flat surface. Because of the helter-skelter arrangement of rocks, people sat and reclined at odd angles and at different elevations. And if you were lucky, you were treated to a view ordinarily reserved for gynecologists.

Acquaintances galore I made during my years at Packinghouse -students, townies, men, women- but true friends I could count on one hand. Kate, an IU student, spent her summers in town, attending summer school and hanging out at the quarries. And by the end of each season she wore a seamless tan of rich dark chocolate. Had she not been romantically involved, very easily I could have fallen for Kate. She was the kind of girl any man would covet: intelligent, witty, sensitive, spontaneous, playful, and, to top it off, very easy on the eyes.

Second semester of my sophomore year I had a class with Kate, journalism 212. Course requirements included writing assignments and photographic projects. Her forte was English composition and mine, black & white photo processing. That first week of class after New Year's we forged a partnership; we agreed to help each other strengthen our weak points. During group study sessions, Kate was brutally honest in critiquing my writing and diligently edited my mistakes. From her, I learned much. And I gave her the benefit of my years of darkroom experience, demonstrating the myriad techniques one could employ to transform marginal negatives into prints worthy of framing. The result of our academic mutual aid: we aced our midterms.

As winter melted into spring and opening day at the quarries drew near, I asked Kate if she would pose for my final photographic project. Over lunch one Friday at the student union building, I outlined my vision: a photo documentary of Packinghouse, featuring her smiling face and lean, toned, tanned body reclining on the rocks, walking through the woods, diving off cliffs and swimming in the deep clear waters, things I had the pleasure of watching her do countless times. I was stoked at the prospect of snapping up-close photos (and lots of them) of this nude nymph with the baddest tan in all of quarryland.

However, she declined my request and her reason was valid; photo projects were always placed on exhibit in Ernie Pyle Hall, the journalism building. She wasn't squeamish about public nudity but she drew the line at having her personal and academic lives intersect; she didn't care to have her classmates and professors see her naked.

And so, I was compelled to photograph from afar. Kate, dark tan, oiled, and her friend Julie at water's edge in the eastern slag pile, Sundown Quarry.

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*All the photos in this entire collection represents a tiny fraction of the people who patronized the Packinghouse quarries during the years I went there.

[Paradoxodarap]

1&2: The west end of Sundown Quarry. This offers a perspective of its size; only ¼ of the quarry is visible. Western slag pile in the background.

3&4: Sundown. This girl was an infrequent visitor. Perhaps she should have attended more often to put some color on her breasts.

5&6: Full moon. This girl's boyfriend had already jumped in the water and was urging her to jump off the ledge and join him. The drop was only 7 feet but she wouldn't jump. Instead, she went the long way and scrambled down a slag pile into the water.

7&8: Mill pond. Baby oil time.

9&10: On a Friday, two women and their male friend spent the noon hour at Long Hole. They arrived, stripped naked, ate lunch, relaxed awhile, then got dressed and returned to their places of employment. The quarries were so close to town (4 minutes by car) many times on weekdays I observed townies spending their lunch hour soaking up sunshine rather than sitting inside some fast food joint.

[wabba1968]

Many thanks for adding to this wonderful thread. Your photos are absolutely beautiful.