Friends. Photography. Adventure.
A very good friend of mine died of COVID in February this year. She’d got the all clear from cancer at the end of December having gone through most of her treatment alone during a pandemic so for her to then catch COVID felt especially cruel.
We couldn’t all go to the funeral because of lockdown so we promised ourselves a weekend of walking, wine and memories. This is that weekend and we have a beautiful cottage in the Cotswolds.
It’s not a tunnel, but I liked this title, suggested by Ruth, particular because when I get an idea for a photo in my head I definitely get tunnel vision! Photo taken by Haiku.
This is the third photo I’ve shared from our day out to Ouse Valley Viaduct. There are plenty more to come but we’ll leave it at a trilogy for now and I’ll bring out a few more in February!
If you’re someone who regularly sends me nudes then it is almost inevitable that I have, at some point, sent one back to you slightly edited. I can’t help myself; I can’t bear clutter in photos and if there’s anything in the frame that distracts me from the main attraction, I want it gone!
I’ll also sometimes just see an image that’s itching to get out of the original. That happened last week. I had a series of photos appear from American Chap, shot in the window of the hotel where he was staying. They were glorious and hot in their own right – I love how his legs create a frame within the frame and lead your eye to his cock. But almost immediately I saw the potential of a moodier image, one where the drama of the sky was accentuated.
Luckily he’s a laidback and accommodating sort who doesn’t mind at all when I start tinkering with a shot. And, like most men I am attracted to something of an exhibitionist so more than happy for me to share my efforts here.
As I was editing this I remembered a photo I shared here for him a few years back, one of his wife in a hotel window. I love how the photos echo each other. I’m happy that all these years on I’m still receiving a sequence of ones and zeros from him.
Being photographed fucking is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Not the kind of snaps you take yourself in the moment but a proper shoot where a partner and I are observed and the expressions and angles that we can’t usually see are captured.
I’m lucky enough to have a lovely man in my life at the moment who has a very compatible streak of exhibitionism and voyeurism and who I trust 100% to share an adventure like this. I also have a good friend who I equally trust to be on the other side of the camera. Which is how two weeks ago he and I ended up having the eye and lens of Focused and Filthy trained upon us.
It was honestly the best experience. It was fun and funny, happy and hot. We were both a little bit excited-nervous beforehand and I think Missy was too but it all just worked perfectly. I’m not sure we were always the most helpful subjects for her as we got as into each other’s bodies and the energy we share as we always do and at times forgot she was there. But she coped admirably!
The results are honestly so wonderful. As a set they cover the full gamut of filthy, hot, happy, intimate, energetic and calm. We both look incredible and just as good together as I had always imagined we did. Looking at ourselves has been a glorious voyeuristic treat.
Many of the photos will never be seen here or on her site as there are far too many identifying features but this is the first of a few that might make it into the outside world. A tangle of legs for the letter L prompt.
Last month a few of us headed off to Ouse Valley Viaduct with the main intention of capturing Kateroo’s 40th birthday photos. Of course, when you’ve got a group of exhibitionists together on a sunny day in an incredible location, they’re not going to stay clothed. But that was a good thing because I had many idea for how to use those arches.
Featuring, Livvy, Katteroo, Honey, Haiku, and Exhibit A.
It’s been a while since I tagged a post ‘travel’. Two years, in fact. After a far longer gap between trips than I could ever have imagined and the longest since I took my first parent-free holiday after my A levels, this weekend I’ve finally got on a plane again.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about it to be honest. Very early in all of this I made peace with the fact that I probably wouldn’t get overseas again before 2022. But this weekend ended up being the latest our hotel would let us extend a booking that had been made way back in January 2020.
I’m in Gibraltar. The trip isn’t quite what we originally planned. We had been set to travel by train from London through France and Spain and also had a day trip to Morocco planned. None of that is possible (or at least not without a lot of paperwork!) at the moment so EasyJet in and out it was.
From my balcony I enjoy the golden hour and look out over the Strait of Gibraltar to the coastlines of Spain and Morocco. Europe and Africa – two places that have my heart.
At the end of my summer holidays I had a flurry of activity photographing friends who had turned 40 during the last year who for obvious reasons I had not been able to photograph at the time. One of those was LoveLustLondon who turned 40 last October.
One again I headed off to Epping Forest, which is fast becoming one of my favourite places for a photography adventure. As we wandered we found this perfect spot of dappled sunlight.
“Is it any wonder?
Is there any hope?
100 miles per hour
Yet the race just still runs slow
The race just still feels slow.”
Stereophonics, 100MPH
I had a bit of stage fright on this prompt. I have done so many music posts it has its own tag on my site. I even did a whole week of lyrics-inspired photos for February Photofest this year. It’s funny how it’s often the prompt that seem to be made for you that trip you up.
Anyway, this photo wasn’t actually shot for the blog, it was shot for a friend’s birthday. Tailor-made birthday nudes are a thing if you’re close to me. But then I wondered whether I could use it this weekend and googled ‘100mph songs’ and bingo! There are actually two songs called 100mph, one by Stereophonics and one by Prince. I’m not against Prince appearing on my blog but the Welsh boys’ lyrics were more appropriate to the story.
This is the grave of a racing driver called Percy Lambert. He was the first driver to race 100 miles in an hour. He set the record in February 1913 but it was taken from him in the April. On 31st October 1913 he tried to regain his record but a tyre burst and he was killed. His grave reads “A modest friend, a fine gentleman and a thorough sportsman.” A broken column on a gravestone indicates a life cut short. He was 32 and due to be married two weeks later.
I originally had plans to photograph my friend here but this is right on the main path of the very well kept Brompton Cemetery, right next to the chapel and not an easy spot for a man to drop his trousers so I had to rethink and got him a birthday shot with the help of a quick cheeky lift of a summer dress.
Way back on the 1st October 2020 I tweeted that I wanted Ouse Valley Viaduct to be the location of Kateroo’s 40th birthday shoot. Clearly the small matter of a pandemic got in the way of that happening in time for her actual birthday in December 2020 but this week we finally caught up with it. What an incredible day we had. Seven of us decamped to the Sussex countryside for a few hours of photography, picnicking and dodging of frisky cows in a field.
We knew if the sun was on our side the fiery tones of Ruth’s hair and the viaduct’s bricks would be a match made in heaven. This turned out exactly how I wanted it to, but there are many more to show from this day, including more of Ruth, some group shots, some of The Other Livvy and Exhibit A and some of me. So expect to see a lot of these arches over the coming months!
I’ve written before about now much I like the downtime in long lazy afternoons of fucking. This photo was taken during one of those moments. Not this week; this week there was some filthy filming which will remain private and a very silly photo that may one day be used here for no reason other than it fully showcases my fat belly and I like it anyway. Progress.
This photo was actually taken back in June but I look at it often. I like the comfortable intimacy of it and it reminds me of how calm and content I feel in those moments. Calmness very much feels like the defining hallmark of this friendship. Well, that and the fantastic not-at-all-calm sex!
This hasn’t been the easiest of periods to live through, even for those of us lucky enough to not find the lockdowns traumatic. Aside from just coping with the pandemic and keeping a business alive through it, there’s been stuff in my personal life that I’ve needed to work through and make peace with. My monthly hangouts with this man are such a source of joy and happiness. Occasionally the ghosts of past relationships will rise up and fire a dose of insecurity into our conversations but again, that word calm springs to mind. No yawning silences or recriminations, just quiet reassurance or kind deflection of whatever is unsettling me.
Nurturing casual commitment-free partnerships isn’t always an easy thing to do well. When neither of you have any interest in the relationship escalator but you also know you like hanging out and making plans it can feel like a fine line to tread. At least it does to me, sometimes. But I think he and I are doing very well at it. Healthy communication and a good balance of time just the two of us mixed up with planning for future filthy fun adventures. It’s a part of my life and a dynamic that I value so much and, as I’ve mentioned, makes me feel so very calm.
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