
It was an accident.
Since I didn’t know there was a kink community, I wasn’t looking for one.
I’d always loved to look at porn photos, and because I’m somewhat of a photographer myself, I started collecting porn shots. Over a period of a couple of years, I suppose I’d collected a thousand or so. By then, I was able to pick out those that were professionally shot (by photographers that clearly knew what they were doing) or were “happy accidents,” or were just sort-of blah.
I noticed that those copyrighted by Suze Randall stood out. I looked at her website. It turned out she had been a porn star when a bit younger, but had changed sides of the lens a few years back and now had the nicest set of models and studio set-up of anyone taking shots like these. Clearly, these were extremely sophisticated and well-designed shots that made liberal use of cosmetologists. The make-up was stunning.
Anyway, I ended up subscribing to her site. This was the first porn site I’d ever paid for.
In the early years of her site (SuzeRandall.net) she had a “resources” page. It listed some of her sources for the latex the models wore: WhipLash in Los Angeles. It also listed the owner’s name: Connie. It also had a calendar for kinky events.
One of the events was in Houston: The Texas Latex Party. I called Connie and asked about it. She explained that Klaus ran it, was very friendly, and to call him up and say she sent me.
I called Klaus. As it happened, the huge TLP was only two weeks away–second weekend in March. I asked a bit about it and he encouraged us to come. On a whim, I asked him, “About how many outfit changes to the ladies make per day?” “Oh,” he said, “I suppose 4-6.”
Ah.
I told him that we were not prepared this year to come, but would attend in 2001. He understood, but invited us to Houston to a formal dinner he was giving in a few months that included most of the TLP board of directors. “But, we don’t have that level of latex, yet.” I protested. “No matter, just wear a tuxedo.”
Tuxedos were not a problem. Gowns for Renee were not a problem. We had a fantastic time.
But, to get back…
When we attended that dinner in early May, Klaus asked how I’d heard of TLP. I said “Through Connie, why?” He replied that most people find him through Ambrosio’s website, as he keeps the Texas kink calendar.
Ambrosio? Kink calendar?
After we got back to Austin, I looked up Ambrosio’s (extremely interesting) site, found the calendar and quite a bit more. Ambrosio keeps a kind of wiki of extremely good BDSM orientation, safety, and techniques articles. This was all great news to me. I was 52 years old. Totally new concept, BDSM. Never crossed my mind. Not the kind of porn images I’d been seeing.
On the calendar, I discovered that in about a week there would be a meeting of something called: “NLA-Austin.” Seemed as good as anything, and the timing was off for going to the GWNN munch. As I didn’t know anything about either group, the decision to go to NLA-Austin was purely coincidental.
(The photo is of Elorin and me. Renee and I entered the kink world through high-end latex. I'm in my Captain's jacket and Elorin is wearing my Tails. You can see more of Elorin as we release more of my erotic and fetish art images.)