We’ve been so busy getting the back catalog ready, Willingly Helpless site live, and working on our myriad other projects, we almost forgot to mention – it’s our anniversary month! Imago Studios went live 13 years ago this month.
Category Archives: Rants and Ramblings
Beautiful Yosemite
Those of you who read our blog know that backpacking is our other true passion. We’ve been trying to do as much as possible of it this year instead of spending our entire lives in front of a computer screen! We are lucky enough to live near Yosemite National Park and the surrounding wilderness areas of the Sierra Nevada, so we can indulge this passion with some regularity. So, we took a couple of days to get out of the summer heat in Vegas this past week to indulge ourselves in the wildlands of Yosemite. We went up the Illouette Creek drainage, over Red Peak Pass and down through the Merced River drainage. It was great getting up into snow this late in August. Just beautiful!
Kashmir, Rest in Peace
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If you have watched our videos (especially the early ones), you have seen him often. He was always in the background, usually sleeping. If you are a member of the photo site, he appears often in the behind the scenes section, usually trying to flirt with one of our models.
We got him as a kitten when we lived in upstate NY almost 16 years ago. He was a seal point Himalayan. |
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| From the start, he was not a friendly cat in any sense of the word. In truth, he was down right mean. He would attack you without provocation. His behavior was probably the result of bad breeding, but we had no way of knowing that when we got him – he was just a cute kitten we took home. Before he was even a year old, two veterinarians recommended we put him down. We refused – we were already too attached to him. So they suggested giving him depo-provera (a female hormone) to ‘calm’ him down (this was rural NY where they give DP to male reindeer in the petting zoos to keep them from goring the kids). For a few years, it worked to some extent. He was never affectionate, but you could live with him – though none of our friends would go anywhere near him, usually after incurring his wrath over minor infractions. When we moved to Vegas, the veternarians here were not familar with depo-provera, so they suggested valium. The valium did nothing to alter his fiesty mood, it just made him physically lethargic so you could escape when he tried to attack. Desperate for a solution, we consulted a behavioralist. They suggested giving him a “pet”. So after a lot of thought, we got Midas.
From the moment the two first met, Kashmir took to Midas like a big brother. They were inseparable – Frick & Frack we use to call them. Midas followed Kashmir everywhere. When Kashmir would get agitated (which was often), he would wrestle with Midas and then groom him. Kashmir’s mood mellowed noticably. He still wasn’t a friendly cat, but you could live with him – you just had to give him his space. The only person he truly liked was Dianne. Ray, somewhat affectionately, called him demon spawn. His personality quirks were many. For years, Ray could not sneeze anywhere in the house or Kashmir would stalk and attack him. If one of us did something he didn’t like, he would crap on the bed on the side of the person who had offended him. |
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But despite all his bad traits, once you got to know him, on some level you just had to respect him. He had more personality than any animal we have ever known. There was nothing wishy washy about him. He was loud and demanding, and expected us to cater to his whims like a petty tyrant. Strangely enough, many of our models loved him – maybe it was just that classic “bad boy” attraction transferred to a cat. Aurora Parker loved to take pictures of him. And he actually liked several models – Maria LaVey, Salem Williams and Holly Everson in particular. Even models he didn’t particularly “like” he would still find a way to flirt with – sashaying into the room to show off his handsomeness and sidling up to them when they were bound. One of the models commented that she had never seen a cat who knew how to “work it” like Kashmir did – classic cat-walk complete with swooshing tail. |
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With his quirky personality, you may ask why did we keep him? Partly because we are just crazy cat people and true animal lovers. And he was a presence through several major changes in our lives. When we packed all our belongings into a Ryder truck and left upstate New York for Vegas with no money and no plan for the future, he calmly sat on the dashboard watching all the vehicles go by. He was with us as we found success and happiness in Vegas. He moved with us from our apartment and then two houses, and he accepted the larger accommodations with each move as if it was his due. He actually was affectionate with Dianne when he was in a good mood, as she was the one who tended to his needs and whims on a daily basis. For those who never met him, it’s hard to explain, but when you got a purr out of Kashmir, well, then you knew you had “done good” as he wasn’t generous with his favors. | ||
| About 3 years ago he went blind, but he still managed to get around remarkably well. Shortly after that, however, his health began to deteriorate. Eventually he began to lose control of his body functions. We tore out the carpet and replaced it with tile. We got a new sofa, then another. Still he hung on. Still feisty, still ornery. He lived life his way and on his own terms, all the way to the end. Late last week, fragile, weak and unable to eat, that end came. As one of our friends said when we told her the sad news, he couldn’t have hoped to have any better pet humans than us.
Rest in peace, our little fur man. |
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Effective Communication 101
Sometimes we get an email that just makes us laugh – so we like to share them. We woke up this morning to the following literary masterpiece. The email had come in at 6:30am when we were sleeping, so we didn’t respond until 11am (actually, by that time, he had sent a second equally articulate correspondence). The guy had had his username blocked on his only previous membership back in 2005 because it was being used by multiple people in different countries. When he signed up this time, he selected the same username and discovered it was still blocked. Instead of sending a simple request for help, he opted for the more confrontational (and barely comprehensible) approach. Apparently, he has problems with several other sites. Umm, wonder if it could be his approach? Well, at least he will not have to worry about future problems on any of our sites as he became the most recent person to be added to our permanently banned list. Not sure if this type of email is reflective of the level of education in the US or simply the willingness of people to be exceptionally rude in non-personal forms of communication.
The unedited email:
“i just joined your site and when i went to membership it says suspended this is getting to be a joke i use the same computer everyday i dont give out my info and you and others sure take my money but wont respond when i have a issue i would like a refund since service is being rendered to me i sure was charged though . im unsatisfied with your service and how you treat a customer. i have used wifi for several years and alot of sites keep pulling this same crap with me a bunch of crooks if im banned/blocked whatever dont accept acredit card and screw me this is bs.”
Another milestone
We hit another milestone (of sorts) earlier this week. It wasn’t a huge one, but it far more than we ever imagined we would do way back when we first started. With the Aurora Parker behind the scenes gallery we posted in the members’ area last week, we exceeded 75,000 numbered images taken for still photo sets. And that number does not included approximately another 13,000 photos taken during video shoots (we number photos from still sets and video productions differently). We are not sure how many actual photo sets that represents, but our best guess is somewhere between 2500 and 3000 distinct photo series (not including series from video shoots). That number also does not iclude the 20,000 to 30,000 other photos we have taken but not yet published.
Home from vacation
We took a couple of days off to indulge in our favorite activity – well, other than tying up pretty girls! We went up to Yosemite, and luckily the Tioga Pass road opened up just a few days before our trip. It was funny to leave the 100+ degree weather in Las Vegas and arrive a few hours later in snow-covered heaven! The waterfalls were amazing and the fresh snowmelt everwhere made for some fast-moving streams. And our favorite part – early season means minimal crowds!
Back from ShibariCon
Yesterday we got back from our trip to Chicago for ShibariCon and we had an absolute BLAST! In our opinion, this is the best rope bondage conference in the United States. The classes were numerous, quite varied and the instructors were fantastic. The two classes we taught (Chinese Rope Art and Mummification) went pretty well and seemed to be well received (we think! we will have to wait for the reviews …). Although we have attended several times now, we always manage to learn new things every time. We attended many classes, including a few on sadistic rope techniques (heh heh), CBT, needle play, and decorative knots. We also bought several hundred more feet of rope (including 4mm blue hemp and some braided flat hemp). We met several old friends, a few fellow webmasters and had an incredible time meeting new people in the play space at night. ShibariCon’s dungeon playspace is just a fantastic enivronment – very accessible to all, newbies and experienced players alike. Needless to say, over the 4 days of the event, we got very little sleep. Unfortunately, when you have that much fun, you can’t help but have a post event crash. But the experience is well worth it. And, we can start looking forward to next year! 🙂
Follow Up to Comment on Ethnic Models
In the last blog entry for Cody Blue, we mentioned that our black models do not get much feedback. Most of those who commented on our statement seemed surprised, so we thought we would elaborate further. The simple truth is our black models get a small fraction of the feedback that our white or other ethnic models do. We have noticed this for years. While we consider models like Cody Blue, Sabrina Hernandez and Augusta Jones to be among the very best models we have worked with, their popularity seems non-existant when compared to our most popular white models. And this seems to be true among the ‘professional’ fetish/bondage models too. How many big name black bondage models have there been? And we do not think it is due to a lack of availability of black models, because we get almost the same number of white and black models interested in working with us.
The funny thing is, our black-girl theme videos well as well as many of our other themed series, so people obviously like them – it’s just that we get very little feedback. Most of the feedback comes from people thanking us for working with black models in general, as opposed to comments on a particular girl.
None of of this is intended as criticism of anyone’s taste or preferences, people like what they like. It’s just an observation.
New Model Spring Continues …
Link Site
A friend of ours opened a new link site called Bondage Beacon and it is quite thorough! Check it out.
Yours truly, interviewed!
We were flattered when Bondage Motion asked us to do an interview of how we got started and our current thoughts on the state of bondage on the web. You can read the interview here. Bondage Motion is a pretty cool blog; he’s got a combination of articles, photos, and various entertaining bits he finds all over. Check out his site from the beginning when you finish the interview!
A Frustrating Weekend
We mentioned that we had some upcoming shoots scheduled with new models and even a shoot with Lynette Baker, a model from about 2 years ago. Unfortunately the past 5 days we went 3 for 3 with no-shows! The 2 new models were particularly frustrating, as we go through a fairly extensive phone interview process and in the case of one of the girls, actually booked her only 1 day prior to the shoot! She even called 30 minutes prior to her scheduled start time to say she was running a bit late but would be here shortly – and then never showed up!
Lynette actually was scheduled to work last week, but cancelled at the last minute. Rescheduled for today, she overslept and totally forgot about the shoot. Thinking back, we remembered that she had gotten somewhat unreliable in her earlier days and guess we made the right decision at that time to stop working with her for awhile until she grew into a level of maturity. Given 2 years have passed, doesn’t look like we should plan on her attaining it anytime soon!
So, a frustrating weekend, but never fear – we’ve been speaking with some other new models and already have another one scheduled!
Shakespeare may have had the right idea
It is no wonder people hate lawyers! Last Sunday night at 9:30 PM we received this email. We just happened to be at the computer, so we saw it immediately. This person apparently had blocked himself from the site by entering in the wrong username or passowrd too many times and triggering our security system that prevents random guessing at username/passwords. However, instead of sending a note that was the least bit civil, he had to pull this whole big bad lawyer crap.
“I have a membership but you have blocked me. This is no way to treat paying customers. I may have typed in my password incorrectly but this is extremely inconvenient for me. See my evidence of purchase below. If you do not remove this block immediately I will demand a refund, then I will report your breach of contract to the FCC and/or other appropriate agencies.
X. XXXXXX XXXXXXX, P.C.
Attorney at Law
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Dunwoody, GA 30338
(p) XXX-XXX-XXXX”
Normally, when someone accidently gets themselves blocked, we just reset the account and send them a note explaining what happened and why the security system exists. But this guy was just a bit too much. So we banned him from the site permanently (after refunding his membership, of course). So he is now one of about 100 or so people who have been just a little too rude and ended up on our blocked list.
Back from the Mountains!
As you probably have noticed, backpacking is one of our passions (along with bondage!). We just got back from our 3rd backpacking trip of the year, this time to the Ansel Adams Wilderness, just southeast of Yosemite. We got to camp at several beautiful alpine lakes. Although it is late July, there was still a lot of snow and ice, as you can see from the pictures. Nothing like clean, cold mountain air to clear your head!
Vacation – Galapagos & the Amazon
| As we mentioned, we recently returned from vacation in Ecuador. We know no one wants to see all 1100 of our pictures (seriously!) but thought we might show you a few fun ones. We spent a week in the Galapagos Islands, and then a week at a lodge in the Amazon. Great country, great vacation!
In the Galapagos, we swam with sharks (including a hammerhead!), snorkeled with sea lions and green sea turtles, saw blue-footed boobies tend their nests, hiked on recent lava flows, and even were treated to a show of 2 giant tortoises resisting extinction for their species! In the Amazon, we saw pirahna, caiman, spider monkeys, howler monkeys, a WIDE range of birds, and a whole host of other plants and animals that are far, far removed from our desert home. |
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