I love this post, particularly because I'm in it! In the 10th (4th-to-last) picture, I'm the shorter of the 2 guys, partially obscured by my taller friend. There's an incredible story behind this picture. My friend was visiting me in Fire Island during a quiet weekday in 2013. It was an emotional and physically exhausting visit because he had just completed chemo and radiation for anal cancer. He also knew he would have to wait several months to learn if he would also need surgery, which would result in a permanent shit bag attached to his leg, which would effectively end any prospects for a meaningful sex life and take all joy out of nudity. Knowing that might be his fate the next summer, when we were walking on the beach, he said "Let's go for a skinny dip, it might be my last".
On the way out, my friend spotted someone with a huge zoom lens photographing us. He went over and confronted him and asked him to delete all of the pictures. I honestly didn't care (I had already had other naked pictures of myself fairly widely distributed), but I respected my friend's request and backed him up in the confrontation. He showed us as he deleted the pictures and it looked like he got all of them.
Fast-forward ~5 years or so. My friend had remained cancer-free and did not need surgery...yay! He called me one night and said he had just come from a friend of a friend's cocktail party. In the background, the host ran a montage of male skinny dipping photos on his TV and suddenly saw this photo. He asked the host where he got it from, but he couldn't recall; he had just downloaded various pictures from the internet. He eventually found it one of the sites it was posted on and got back to my friend, who showed it to me. I wasn't actually sure it was us. He asked how I couldn't recognize my own butt. Fair point. We had another friend re-create it for us, and now I know for certain it was us. We also stumbled across another rear shot from that photo shoot from a slightly different angle. It's us. Apparently, the photographer did not delete all of the photos, and apparently, he posted them online. In any case, it's an incredible story of male bonding. I can still feel the intensity of that moment whenever I see that picture and am very happy that it was NOT our last skinny dip together.
I'm glad you're happy about seeing yourself and your friend on my blog, and I thank you for sharing your personal story. It makes the picture so much more meaningful. Sorry it took a few days for me to check in and post it.
Great post! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteGreat bonding experience!
ReplyDeleteI love this post, particularly because I'm in it! In the 10th (4th-to-last) picture, I'm the shorter of the 2 guys, partially obscured by my taller friend. There's an incredible story behind this picture. My friend was visiting me in Fire Island during a quiet weekday in 2013. It was an emotional and physically exhausting visit because he had just completed chemo and radiation for anal cancer. He also knew he would have to wait several months to learn if he would also need surgery, which would result in a permanent shit bag attached to his leg, which would effectively end any prospects for a meaningful sex life and take all joy out of nudity. Knowing that might be his fate the next summer, when we were walking on the beach, he said "Let's go for a skinny dip, it might be my last".
ReplyDeleteOn the way out, my friend spotted someone with a huge zoom lens photographing us. He went over and confronted him and asked him to delete all of the pictures. I honestly didn't care (I had already had other naked pictures of myself fairly widely distributed), but I respected my friend's request and backed him up in the confrontation. He showed us as he deleted the pictures and it looked like he got all of them.
Fast-forward ~5 years or so. My friend had remained cancer-free and did not need surgery...yay! He called me one night and said he had just come from a friend of a friend's cocktail party. In the background, the host ran a montage of male skinny dipping photos on his TV and suddenly saw this photo. He asked the host where he got it from, but he couldn't recall; he had just downloaded various pictures from the internet. He eventually found it one of the sites it was posted on and got back to my friend, who showed it to me. I wasn't actually sure it was us. He asked how I couldn't recognize my own butt. Fair point. We had another friend re-create it for us, and now I know for certain it was us. We also stumbled across another rear shot from that photo shoot from a slightly different angle. It's us. Apparently, the photographer did not delete all of the photos, and apparently, he posted them online. In any case, it's an incredible story of male bonding. I can still feel the intensity of that moment whenever I see that picture and am very happy that it was NOT our last skinny dip together.
I'm glad you're happy about seeing yourself and your friend on my blog, and I thank you for sharing your personal story. It makes the picture so much more meaningful. Sorry it took a few days for me to check in and post it.
Delete