I just added a new gallery to the VIP Room called “Rock Hard” that features J. W. King and a blond hunk in an outdoor scene in the mountains. I sort of have an idea how the shoot happened, even though there is no actual way of knowing. The magazine it came from had no masthead, no photo credits, no company name and no copyright information. The magazine was titled “Rock Hard” because it mostly takes place on rocks (duh) and it is Volume 1 Issue 1. Were there subsequent issues? Doubtful.
My guess is an aspiring photographer got hired by a cigar-chomping guy with gold chains and shady reputation. The only directions were to “go out and shoot some boys and don’t spend a lot of money”. The photographer was probably just out of school and anxious to impress his new client. He probably heard of J.W. King as the “it” boy of the bar scene in LA or San Francisco and hit him up to do a shoot. With a hot property like the big dicked King locked in, the young photographer got the grandiose idea to do an outdoor shoot in the mountains.
To shoot hardcore porn in an outdoor setting, you really need to go somewhere completely remote so you don’t get families or cops seeing you. That means a long drive and a long hike off the beaten path. No doubt it was just the two models, the photographer and a very rudimentary 35mm camera from the mid-1970’s. No flash, no reflectors, no auto focus, no white balance and no digital playback. He probably left his light meter back at the dorm room, too.
This type of shoot always starts out as all business, but after a long drive and a long hike to get away from onlookers, the “work” part becomes an annoyance compared to having a pleasant day outdoors. As the hours pass and the drugs kick in, the focus turns to the getting the sex over with. Surrounded by numerous trees, logs, rocks and undiscovered sights up ahead, it’s hard to choose one spot to start shooting. The clouds shift, the tree branches move and the lighting changes as soon as you pick a good angle. Without a flash or a reflector, you are at the mercy of natural light. When your subject is half in bright sun and half in shade, the camera doesn’t know how to give a good balance between overly bright light and deep shadows. Some of that can be corrected in photo processing lab, but there’s no guarantee it will look good. After shooting digital for so long with the ability to preview each shot, I can’t imagine going back the the uncertainty of not knowing how the shots will come out. Plus, even if the lab came up with some good photos, the printer could easily screw things up when putting it into magazine format.
Such is the problem with “Rock Hard“. Most of the shots were in black and white, so I was able to do some remarkable corrections to the photos. The color photos still suffer from the dreaded color banding that I’m sure can be corrected somehow, but not known to me. Rather than presenting a series of muddy, washed out images I was able to improve a majority of the shots significantly, even better than they look when holding the magazine in your hand. Some of the close-ups actually look like, dare I say, fine art photos, with more detail than I expected. Some shots admittedly are duds, but given the possible scenario I dreamed up coupled with the antiquated film processing and low-end printing techniques, I think “Rock Hard” will be a delight to view for VIP Members of Vintage Bareback.
And, yes, they suck, rim, and fuck without rubbers on rocks, in trees and in front of a waterfall. J.W. King is gorgeous and works his giant cock like a trouper. Well worth the price of membership.
