Lurking Letch

On Saturday, I was invited to a play party hosted by Avatar. It was held at a private dungeon near LAX.

The first scene I did was rather involved. I put my boy in a stratitjacket and hood. Over the top of the SJ went a suspension harness. The dungeon has a 1-ton chain hoist on a sliding I-beam track. My boy was strung up, unable to move, unable to speak, unable to see and completely in my control. I thought it would be fun to spin him around and roll him about while suspended. His hard-on reflected his enjoyment.

Avatar screens their guests to allow only competent and true players. Well, one must have slipped through the cracks. (admitedly, their response to this incident was admirable.)

My scene was ruined by a very aggressive man.

Understand that a Top carries full responsibility for the safety of their bottom. When someone is truly helpless in a scene - some amount of standard protocol and decorum must be followed. I expect assholes to come up and interrupt when I play in public (like Folsom, Dore or IML) - but not a private party.

A bit about this asshole:
-He was older (probably 50)
-He was wearing boots and leather shorts and flagging red (fist fucking).
-We has hairy - including up the back of his neck.
-He had a mound of fat/flesh on the back of his neck - and not much fat elsewhere.

The asshole was lurking and watching the whole thing transpire. I have no problem with this - play around others means others can and will watch. I get off on this. But asshole decided to push his way in and fondle the boy - right in the middle of the scene! It was like he believed this was proper and acceptable. I wedged my back between him and the boy -- and he maneuvered around and did it again! I did not want to yell at him because that would have broken the scene and likely instilled an sense of true panic in the boy.

I stopped the scene because I was too angry to continue. I searched for the asshole but he had moved on to fisting someone in another room. If I had interrupted his scene it would have been just as bad as what he did to me.

I am going to try and channel my frustartion into a how-to guide for dungeon play amongst others. Stay tuned....

-Lthrbound

karma

I believe in karma.

Karma is what keeps me in check.

It is a far more understandable concept than god.

My recent string of bad karma puzzles me, though.

Am I just banking up for good times ahead?

Did I do something so terrible as to upset my balance?

Is this voodoo, and not karma?

Kitty is barfing up a hairball... gotta go....

BDSM Photography - Part 4

CAPTURING THE MOMENT

Pure Magic.

That's what a nicely captured photograph records. It is that fleeting grimmace, a muscle twitch, the landing of the flogger, a kiss or a squirt of cum.

Unfortunately, this is what separates those who are gifted from those who are merely skilled. It is not an easily quantifyable entity - it is all about "feeling" the moment and instinctively knowing when to press the shutter. Add on to this the natural synapse delay of your nervous system - and the aggravating shutter delay of your camera - and you have a challenge.

ANTICIPATION

If you wait for the moment to happen you are too late.

HONING YOUR ABILITY

Shoot! It costs you nothing to shoot hundreds of digital images. Shoot often, shoot anything, and analyze your pictures.

TRANSPARENCY

Don't get in the way of a scene. Don't move anything. Don't talk. Just find the moment and shoot.

CHEATING

Some of you guys with special cameras can cheat. Some digicams (and most D-SLRs) can shoot multiple frames per second (fps). Mine will do 5 fps up to a maximum of 23 in a row. You can simply hold the shutter down and one of the dozens of photos may have the moment. Problem with this is that many D-SLRs make noise -- and you want to be unobtrusive



Enough said here... hopefully you understand.

Alberto Gonzales has ruined my day -or- 2257 thorns in my dick

Conservative puritan values just plain suck.

I used to have a gallery on my personal website. It contained hundreds of photographs chronicling my BDSM sessions. Nothing was ever for sale, no subscriptions or fees were ever required to view the site..and, in fact, it still costs me a lot of money each month in ISP fees. I gain nothing from it except an occasional play request and lots of comments thanking me for being so open and sharing my creativity and skills so openly.

Along comes Gonzales as our Attorney General. Just like the Iraq war, issues and reasons have become intermingled as a smokescreen to trick constituents into believing a lie. "US Code 18 - Section 2257" is an old law that has been given a new twist on life to cover our internet -- thank you for nothing, Senor Gonzales. It claims to protect minors from being in and viewing adult porn. Fact is, though, it does nothing to protect either -- but rather puts thousands of pornography sites out of business (can you just smell the right-wing assholes getting moist at the thought). Fine, like I care. But... it also reaches right out over the heads of artists, non-commercial and educational websites, and holds them to the same test.

I do not consider my activities in any way "pornographic" but our right-wing lawmakers (led by Gonzales) have written laws so intentionally vague and convoluted that they can go after expressions of free speech such as our sexuality. My site is a personal diary and resource. Even though it is non-commercial and generates no revenue, it falls into a rather serious gray area in these litigious times.

I took the pictures down... voluntarily. The penalties are automatic prison time upon conviction.

If you are not aware of the legal mess here in the US regarding adult websites - I would advise you to learn all you can and help protest this ugly situation (the Department of Justice "2257" Regulations). To have a gallery on my personal website site, I would have to provide and file the names, addresses, ID photocopies, and social security numbers of everyone I have had sessions with (to prove they are over 18). For those of you who have seen this gallery in the past I hope you see my point and just how ridiculous this is. I could be considered a "distributor". A distributor has been defined to include someone posting on an internet web site. The scarier part is a "secondary producer" which also seems to be described as anyone who posts a digital image on an internet site. It seems as now distributors are not as liable but secondary content producers are in the crosshairs.

Because the photos are edited and uploaded primarily from my home, I would now have to open up my home to the Dept. of Justice 20 hours per week for unannounced inspections of my "records". I am NOT a business, Mr. Gonzales. I am an avid and passionate amateur photographer. It is often said I have a rope in one hand and a camera in the other! It is sad to learn that displaying one's artwork has to become a commercial entity and a mountain of paperwork.

To learn more and keep up with this conservative morass, please visit and support the Free Speech Coalition or do a Google search of "2257"

So... Mr. Gonzales, yes you can still ruin my day. Thanks for nothing...

-Lthrbound

BDSM PHOTOGRAPHY - Part 3

LIGHT

Light creates magic, it can fool your eyes, it can make ugly beautiful and vice-versa. Lighting conveys information and plays a critical role in the success of your photo.

NO FLASH

I almost always shoot with AVAILABLE LIGHT - meaning ambient light that is already there. Unless you absolutely have to, DON'T USE YOUR FLASH. It's the quickest way to make your photos bland and washed out. If you must use your flash, and your flash is built-in to your camera, tray and BOUNCE it. You can do this by placing the back of a white business card (or small mirror) at a 45-degree vertical angle against the flash and reflecting the light onto the ceiling where it will diffuse and gently light the room. However, a flash can add a sense of "caught-in-the-act" naughtiness to yoru photo.

However, one great application for your flash is actually outdoors in the bright sunlight. Sunlight will cast very deep shadows under people's hats, browline, etc. You can set most any camera to do a FILL FLASH. This is where the flash emits but with the camera at a low ASA speed and it gently fills in foreground shadows.

OPTIMIZING YOUR TECHNIQUE FOR AVAILABLE LIGHT

To shoot pics inside without using a flash you must optimize your camera to do so. If you put your camera in an auto mode with the flash disabled - it will so several things to allow you to shoot in lower light:

1. Automatically raise the ISO speed. Most camera's have variable sesitivity (ISO/ASA) - the higher this number the more sensitive the camera is to light. But there is a tradeoff: higher ISO means higher noise which appears as a grainy texture and often destroys dark colors. But this is no different than "grain" in high speed film.

2. Automatically open the aperture. In this case, a lower number means a bigger opening and more light get's through. A camera with an f4.0 opening is considered bright, f2.0 is phenomenally bright. The tradeoff is depth of field - and in this case everything closer or further from your focus point will become increasingly blurry.

3. Automatically slow the shutter speed. This is the hardest to deal with as it makes it harder to capture a moving subject without blurring and makes it harder to hold the camera steady. If you concentrate, you can hold a camera still down to 1/30 second.

Some settings your camera might allow to assist in low-light conditions:

1. Image stabilization. Corrects for camera movement and can allow for very slow shutter speeds often down to 1/8 second. However, does nothing for a moving subject.

2. Noise reduction. Employs one of several methods to reduce high ISO noise. Some double your processing time between shots.

3. Low light focus assist. Cameras need high contrast edges to focus and autofocus systems often fail under low light. This will allow a focus lamp or a dim flash to fire - temporarily aiding the sensor in achieving focus lock. Do not expect your camera to focus and release the shutter in a fast manner in low light.

Some things you can do:

1. Increase the amount of light in the room.

2. Use a tripod to stabilize the camera.

3. Hold your camera with both hands and preferably prop one of your elbows on something solid.

TYPES OF LIGHT

Key - your key light (or lights) is your primary light source. The sun is a key light source. A key light provides a sense of lighting direction or a perceivable difference of light from one side to another. Key light sources create very perceivable shadows which can conceal detail but also strongly highlight texture and curving shapes.

Fill - this is a second light source which "fills" in all the detail in shadow areas that the key light left out. A room with white walls creates it's own fill light as light is randomly scattered about. Fill lights are often diffuse (like a frosted light bulb) whch softens the character.

Back - backlight points at the backside of your image (facing the camera - but not directly into the lens). It outlines a halo around the edges of your subject. Things like hair and clothing catch backlight nicely. It can help lift your subject away from the background.

LIGHTING STYLES

Low Key - low key lighting is what we typically see in portrait photography. All light is diffuse and light comes from many different angles. Low key lighting helps cover up skin texture and strongly helps in reducing contrast. Shooting images of black leather - where the leather detail is important - against flesh calls for low key light. Low key lighting is soothing and pleasing and very informative.

High Key - this style allows your brain to fill in the blanks. You perceive a definite direction of the light. The light does not wrap around the subject. It creates very high contrast - meaning great differences between lightness and darkness - whereas low key tends to fill in the middle. This type of lighting is emotionally charged and powerful looking.

WHAT YOUR EYE SEES IS DIFFERENT FROM WHAT THE CAMERA REGISTERS

The human vision system is extremely effective and robust. It can handle extremes of color, contrast and detail. But it is not really that sensitive - working in concert with your brain it fills in the missing pieces and allows you to make conscious decisions about what you want to see. Confused? It is far beyond my ability to describe it here but please trust me that in simplest form it is a "sliding scale" in all areas.

Digital imaging has severe limitations. Color gamut (range) and light sensitivity have amazing resolving power - up to a point. At the ends of the spectrums things just fall off the cliff. Your eye starts to lose sensitivity and resolving ability at extremes of brightness and darkness - but it gently rolls off as the range increases. You camera, on the other hand, hits a brick wall. If a bright area on an image hits the maximum sensitivity of your camera, any other areas which might be brighter appear the same brightness. We call this saturation - or "wash out".

I'll have another posting on lenses. This is another huge discrepency bewteen man and machine.

As soon as I get some time, I will create example images of all of these concepts!!!! When that will be is anybody's guess...

Cheers...

BDSM PHOTOGRAPHY - Part 2

DIAGONALS AND THINGS ASKEW

Photographs composed head-on, at eye height, and perfectly centered on a perfect 4x6 rectangle, are almost always BORING! This type of framing works best when there is something "askew" (or wrong) in the picture - like someone eating a cheeseburger with their dick hanging out.

Diagonals in a bondage image create power and interest. They convey a sense of motion which actually seems to freeze and anchor your subject in the moment (I hope this makes sense).

What to look for in your erotic image:

Diagonal Lines in the Background
Search out lines - chains, corners, ropes, posts, windows, etc. Move the camera so these appear at an angle. If you want them to flow with your subject then align them the same direction as your subject and the whole picture will look like it's floating away. If you want to create a sense of permanence or grounding, then have your diagonals go "against the grain" and opposite of your subject.

Capture Your Subject on a Diagonal
You are shooting a photograph of someone splayed out on a bondage table. Move the camera to one of the cornersof the table. This point-of-view is diagonal and creates excitement. Most people naturally would walk right up the one of the sides of the table and seeing a picture like that would be comforting. Moving the point-of-view 45 degrees creates visual stimulation.

Get Higher or Lower Than Your Eye Plane
This means don't always shoot at eye level! Try getting on your knees ,on top of something, or higher than your subject. Shooting someone from below creates dominance in the image - and likewise - shooting from above creates submission. This is the reason so many people take such shitty pictures of their pets - they stand way above them and shoot down, belittling them and making them look up. You can use this to your advantage, however, in making a bondage bottom seem belittled (sometimes that is the point!) -especially if they are looking at the camera. I love looking at pictures taken by children (not bondage pics, of course!) because they have no choice but to shoot from a lower perspective and you truly see the world from their eyes.

Highlight Something Unusual
If there something of beauty or uniqueness in the scene? A body part? Gear? An exquisite knot?
Make that the focal point of your photograph.

--------------------
I might get back to this post later and fill it out more -- it's difficult to quantify and qualify what comes naturally.

A Letch Unnerves My Boy

I am paraphrasing here, but this is close to a post sent to my boy on the service www.worldleathermen.com:

"The only thing I don't see in your profile is tickling. But even boys as "used" as yourself can't stand that thought."

(for now we will call him CaCaDadyBear)

This troubled my boy, so I went and looked at this man's profile. CaCaRoid is a hideous large man with a very obvious blonde dye job on his mop. Here is his profile:

**********************
You be in So Cal, submissive, eager to please, spontaneous, romantic (if things happen to develop), in shape, between 19 and 50 yrs, and NOT A FUCKIN' PUSHY BOTTOM ! OK to have likes/dislikes, and they will be considered but if you're a true sub, you're here to please your DOM, SIR, MASTER, DADDY !! True limits will be respected or expanded by mutual agreement. Roleplay, fantasy, bondage, blindfolds, teasing, edging, milking, c/b play (not severe torture), ass whackin', massage, tickling, any or all of the above as my mood strikes me or I see how you react. Get into fantasies like kidnap, pow interrogation, rape. WHATEVER MAKES YOU SQUIRM AND MOAN AND WRITHE TURNS ME ON !! Small dicks welcome but not necessary, as it will enhance your "position". Big feet a plus. Real big into titplay if they are sensitive, assplay if it's clean and tight, and dig clean crotch and pits when they're ripe with fresh, pungeant boy sweat. NO scat, blood, heavy pain, marking or animals ! GOT IT ???
**********************

It's easy to toot my own horn, but my boy is very in-shape, lean, eager, smart, responsive and respectful. He didn't know how to respond to CaCaWipe so he asked for guidance. He was advised to respectfully call him on it and tell him that "used" is disrespectful. However, this pissed the fuck out of me! Most of the photos in the boy's profile are of sessions he has had with my partner and I. We do not consider him to ever have been "used".

I have never met CaCaBreath but I have become quite good at analyzing profiles. Let's take a fun romp through his masturbatory missive - line by line. This will help me erase the horrors as I write.

LINE ONE - "You be in So Cal, submissive, eager to please, spontaneous, romantic (if things happen to develop), in shape, between 19 and 50 yrs, and NOT A FUCKIN' PUSHY BOTTOM !"

What you're not seeing is CaCa's physical stats which appear on another part of his profile. He is 53 and chose "large" as his body descriptor. We can see here that he likes younger meat and meat that is in better physical condition than himself. I guess this is fair because what frumpy gay man wouldn't? What bothers me about line 1 is the "...NOT A FUCKIN' PUSHY BOTTOM..." part. I see anger in your future said the fortune teller. It mostly the way he delivers this. Most Tops dislike bottoms who are whiny and have a laundry list of things they want done. Also he is referring to wanting a (non-pushy) bottom in this line and then switches to wanting a sub in the next. Wreaks of inexperience.

LINE TWO -"OK to have likes/dislikes, and they will be considered but if you're a true sub, you're here to please your DOM, SIR, MASTER, DADDY !!"

Turn up the scary-meter 2 notches! This man claims to know the meaning of a "true sub". I doubt that very much. There is no standard for being a sub, no Roberd's Rules of Servitude, and for good reason. In general, someone who has indentified themself as being a sub starts by a self-realization that they derive gratitude from being sexually submissive and bringing pleasure to another man. The rest of is between both parties to define. Not only does this man not know what he wants (boy or sub) but he seems to have a multiple personality disorder going on here! Poor thing can't decide if he's a Dom, Sir, Master or Daddy. Perhaps there is a gay male equivalent of Cybil online that will hook up with all four of him.

LINE THREE -"True limits will be respected or expanded by mutual agreement."

Yikes! Danger Will Robinson, Danger Will Robinson. Are "true" limits one and the same as stated limits? Tricky dicky, I say. One must ask if he decides what the true limits are?

LINES FOUR FIVE SIX-"Roleplay, fantasy, bondage, blindfolds, teasing, edging, milking, c/b play (not severe torture), ass whackin', massage, tickling, any or all of the above as my mood strikes me or I see how you react. Get into fantasies like kidnap, pow interrogation, rape. WHATEVER MAKES YOU SQUIRM AND MOAN AND WRITHE TURNS ME ON !!."

No big problems here. Makes you wonder how he acquired such a huge range of skills as a Top (or is he a Daddy... or a Sir... or a Master...nevermind). Nothing in the profile to show his skills and back up the hot air.

LINE SEVEN -"Small dicks welcome but not necessary, as it will enhance your "position"

OMFG! I can't believe this one! (excuse me while I get out the ruler and check my crotch) Since when does penis size have anything to do with dominance? I should write this fuck and tell him to add humiliation to his list in line four. Excuse me Mr. President, but we are at Defcon Two.

LINES EIGHT NINE TEN - "Big feet a plus. Real big into titplay if they are sensitive, assplay if it's clean and tight, and dig clean crotch and pits when they're ripe with fresh, pungeant boy sweat. NO scat, blood, heavy pain, marking or animals !"

Eight and nine are a big whatever. Ten is funny - since he doesn't mention women, puke, snuff, children, and strangulation - I wonder if those are fair game?

LINE ELEVEN -"GOT IT ???"

Ooh, all caps AND three question marks. Big man wanna scare little boy.




People like CaCaPoo anger me. They give the decent and experienced tops a bad rap. If you read this profile lightly and step back and think as a bottom, would you want to play with this guy? Sounds like an act of desperation. I will bet he sends out hundreds of snits like the one he sent my boy - and feeds on the one out a hundred that bites.

BDSM PHOTOGRAPHY - Part 1

I guess I'm not showing a lot of photos here. Thanks to our right-wing fear mongers I have taken down the galleries of my work on the website (just do a google search for "2257" and you'll see why -- even though I am not a pornographer this ridiculous legislation views me as one). But I have a passion for taking pictures - especially pictures of men in bondage. My specialty is capturing images "in the moment" especially pics that are not prepared or staged.

Many people ask me how I do it. Most think it is a fantastic camera that creates good pictures. That notion is crap. A good photographer learns his tools (his cameras) and uses whatever features, and especially limitations, to his advantage.

My medium is digital. I have given up film because I live for instant gratification. I want to see that low resolution image in the LCD to confirm that I was in the ballpark. I want control. I not into the argument of film vs. digital -- I was (I guess still am) a very good photographer in 35MM -- but I would rather have a fight with my inkjet printer than face-to-face with a lab technician as to why "taupe has a green tinge"!

So here's part one (hopefully of many)

1. PHOTOGRAPHS VS. SNAPSHOTS

I take photographs. It may involve whipping out a camera but that shutter button does not get pressed for no reason. It may happen in a fraction of a second but each picture is composed and the subject framed not by moving the subject, but by moving the camera and waiting for the moment.

A well composed image is DYNAMIC. It draws your eyes to the subject matter. It has a character (like soft, vivid, brash, dark, etc.). It is something to be studied, something to dig into, and something to love or hate - but a reaction in a viewer is key.

A snapshot, to me, is what my mother did so very well (and truly lovingly) by arranging all the kids around the birthday cake and announcing "Say cheese!" It's what most of the Japanese tourists do when at museums or monuments. Snapshots have their place -- but, in my opinion, don't work in a dungeon! The days of the Kodak Instamatic were awesome - no focusing, no threading, and instant response to the shutter.

A photograph, on the other hand, is what a photojournalist takes. I know this will fly in the face of many art critics and photo-historians, but a photograph should not take the place of a still-life painting. Paintings are staged. A photographer knows his camera like he knows his own dick! He understands exposure, ISO speed, shutter lag, focus lag, depth-of-field, and all these technical things -- but they become automatic and intuitive and don't get in the way. Fiddling with settings probably means losing your shot. The time is spent finding the moment .

Admittedly, I take snapshots, too :-)

straight acting?

Sorry blogophites...another in my seemingly endless series of rants about online BDSM profiles. (I promise I'll put something cute on soon enough)...

OK..(deep breath)...

Why would someone identify themselves as being straight-acting? In my book, that means you are uptight around gay men, dress like a frump, don't scrub your asshole, don't move your legs when dancing, and can't kiss for shit. (OK, I know this is kind of another unfair reverse stereotype -- but straight men don't seem to mind being called 'straight'). Seriously, 'straight acting' would mean you're pretending to like women.

Is someone who puts this on their profile overcompensating? You tell me...

Just identify yourself as being (not acting like) a man -- specifically one seeking another man -- and one who is into BDSM and wonderful fetishes. Be proud of the fact that you are gay. Hey, put it together and call yourself a gay man (bling!). Break past the stereotype that "gay" means effeminate (yes effiminate, unlike dominate, is an adjective!). Gay means you are sexually attracted to other men - if you are gay, then ACT GAY - and don't act straight and pretend to like women.

OK...leaping off my soapbox and diving into my wondeful pool of depravity.

Remember... It's OK to be Gay...

-Lthrbound

No dick and ass pics, PLEASE!

(I hope my blog doesn't end up being a bitter queen's diary - but here's another rant)

It seems as though I am on a roll bitching about online profiles. Now that the internet has replaced meeting face-to-face in a bar, personal misrepresentation is at a ridiculous high. I am going to try to be constructive here....but...

Why do bottoms and subs feel the need to show pics of their cock and ass in an online profile? I mean, geez, what the hell difference does THAT make to a BDSM top? What am I going to do that would make a difference if a dick is big or small? And we know for a fact that all gay men have assholes, right? If I am a "sizing up" someone online (sorry for the pun) I want to see a nice full body shot, a face, and a smile. Clothing on is just fine.

The number one thing that gets me excited are the EYES. The eyes never lie. In someone's eyes you can see pride or self doubt, happiness or sadness, eagerness or arrogance -- you get the picture by now.

Bonus points go to those willing to show their kink/fetish online. Leather is a transformational fetish. Just like the theatrical mask, it empowers the wearer, makes them feel sexy and look ready for business. A pic of someone in their gear with a nice big smile is THE sexiest thing.

Don't hide. Please! If you are afraid of being "outed" then offer to send someone a vanilla pic upon your first contact. if you try and catch me on Worldleathermen or Gearfetish, and you have no face pic (or no offer of one), then YOU WILL BE IGNORED. If you post pics of your dick and ass - I will be glad to tell you what to do with them ;-)

-Lthrbound

Copycat Grammatical Losers

The latest rage in the online BDSM world just happens to be the gay misspelling of the decade. I'm talking about the difference between DOMINANT and DOMINATE. (If your reading this blog, chances are you're well-educated and need no english primer - so forgive me while I rant...)

"Dominant" is an adjective -- used to describe and qualify a noun. Most bottoms will seek a Dominant Top.

"Dominate" is a verb -- meaning an action. An aggressive Top likes to dominate a bottom.

Now... there are literally thousands of dolts online who see something written in someone else's profile and think to themselves "Gee, that sounds cool. I think I will say that about myself in my profile". I would reason that one highly visible posting starts it - like the regional spread of the flu. In the case of "dominant vs. dominate" it is spreading virulently amongst kinky dumbshits everywhere.

What am I referring to? The classic lines are "Seeking a dominate Top" or "Dominate Top searching for a submissive slave" DOH! It gives me that private itch which you can only speak to your doctor about. Those of you who graduated from high school know exactly what's wrong.

I think perhaps the misguided netizens think domiNATE is pronounced as "domiNIT" which sounds like a colloquialism of domiNANT.

Perhaps what bugs me the most is that I can't figure out why it bugs me so much! Look at my writing style and butchery of english. I can spot at least 20 improper usages above which would burst an MLA guide into flames. Am I being hypocritical? Perhaps... but for now I need to go dominant my boy.

Just a little test...

The first entry. Definitely more to come later...