All* 600+ Galleries Are Now Online!
Almost every Slip Heaven gallery ever posted is now available on the site! *Why "almost"? There are about five galleries that featured a couple of models that have since become school teachers, and I agreed that it'd be best for them not to be running around online in their slips! You may also notice that certain numbers (usually some earlier galleries) are missing. Those galleries' pictures are still there - they've just been combined with another gallery. When I started Slip Heaven, bandwidth was a major problem (and cost). I had to keep the pictures below a certain size, which wasn't a problem because most people had small computer monitors. I also had to limit the number of pictures per gallery. You'll probably notice that, as time went on, the pictures keep getting bigger, and the number of pictures in each gallery increased.
Even with buying more "digital space" to post all the galleries, I had to cut a few things to help make room. There was no need for a "Specials" gallery each month, since all of those pictures are available in their respective galleries. A few of the other sections, such as "TV and Movies" and "History" were very out of date. I did those a long time ago, and the pictures were very small. Now you can find almost any of those shots on the Internet (for free), and maybe even find video of those slip scenes. I decided the main focus should be on the thing that Slip Heaven was known for: the galleries of original photos, featuring the models that you already know and love!
The Lingerie, Bra, and Cardinal pages are all still there, and the Slip Heaven DVDs are all still available.
Setting up over 600 galleries was quite an undertaking. So if you discover that some gallery is missing pictures, or some other problem, please let me know.
Hope you enjoy the new set-up!
What's Happening?
Several years ago, while talking with a friend, I was asked, "What do you want to do when you retire?" Then he paused and said, "Wait . . . why in the world would you ever want to retire?!" I had to agree with him. But things change. While I'm not actually retiring, I have made the decision to switch Slip Heaven over to an Archives Site. The site won't be static - every month there will be a different 50 galleries posted. There just won't be a new gallery posted each week. This could be temporary - maybe I'm just needing a vacation after 11 years of weekly updates. We'll just have to see.
This wasn't an overnight decision, and I've actually been going through a whole range of emotions. After all, this has been my main job for 11 years. I've gotten to know many of my subscribers, not to mention all the great models I've worked with. So while it wasn't overnight, I still kept thinking, "I'll find two or three great new models one of these days." That just didn't happen, and a couple of weeks ago, I decided it was finally time to let go.
So why would I stop doing something that's as much fun as shooting beautiful women in their lingerie? Well, if that was all there was to it, I wouldn't stop. However, several things over the past year and a half have gradually worn me down. When we moved, I lost my studio. Our new place has some great locations, but I always felt kind of lost without a studio to fall back on. In late summer of 2009, two of my three current models (both newlyweds), told me they were pregnant. I quickly shot enough galleries of Beth to cover the next nine months. Unfortunately Ariel was sick during her first trimester, and I wasn't able to stock up on any galleries of her at all. I dug through my old photo files and started using the best unused shots of Ariel. I had to start doing the same thing with Beth once I ran out of her stockpiled galleries. Now that both girls have healthy, happy babies - Beth moved. (It's only about a four hour drive, but still enough to make photo shoots more difficult to arrange.) Ariel is hesitant about modeling now that she's a mother. Kristi, my only "non-pregnant" model, works so many hours that we never seem to be able to match up schedules.
Ask any glamour photographer what the hardest part of his job is, and I guarantee the answer will be, "Finding models." I did some test shooting with a few models over the past year or so, but (to be honest) I never really felt they were up to the standards set by the "regulars" you've seen on here over the years.
I always get asked, "When's the next video coming out?" I have all the footage shot, but I simply haven't had the time to edit it all and put it together. Without the pressure of a weekly update, I feel like I can finally finish the video. (See? A little good news in the middle of this message!)
So basically it came down to this: because it was so hard to get any models (that were of "Slip Heaven" quality) scheduled for photo shoots, I couldn't arrange any of the neat locations or unique ideas that I'd done in the past. Even when a model could show up, we never seemed to have much time and I felt like we were just repeating the same things over and over. I'd rather stop while the quality is still high.
So is it worth it for you, the subscribers, to stick around?
Well, there are several galleries that have never been featured on the Archives page, so you'll be seeing some "new" sets every month. Plus, at 50 galleries a month, you could check out a different gallery every day and still have plenty left over. Even if you only joined for one month (provided you don't join on the 1st day of the month), you'll have access to 50 galleries for the current month, and another 50 when the next month starts. Plus all the Lingerie, Bra & Cardinal page pictures, along with the other usual extras (Magazine Rack, Paper Dolls, Famous Women, etc.)
So How Will This Work?
To have the most variety each month, I decided not to post Galleries 1 through 50 the first month, 51 through 100 the second, and on and on. Instead, I picked about one gallery out of every twelve of the 600+ available, skipping around to try to feature as many models, locations and situations as possible. This way, if you're a fan of one of the newer models, you won't have to wait several months to see her again. All the popular regulars will be seen every month. Updates (a different batch of 50 galleries) will be on the first of each month.
For those of you who are also members of Rene Revisited - that site will continue on, at least until she runs of pictures. With Rene's site, it's not a matter of trying to arrange photo shoots with models. I simply dig through her boxes of photos and find pictures to scan (and dust spot). So this won't affect her site.
And so...
I hope that you'll stick around. I think you'll find a lot of previously buried treasures in the months to come. (I get a lot of emails about the Archives page, saying, "I'd completely forgotten about this gallery!" or "I'd never seen this one before!") And I'll still be around to answer emails and handle the monthly changes and tidying up of the site.
Whether you decide to stay or not, I greatly appreciate your support over the years. When I started Slip Heaven with 75 pictures eleven years ago, I thought, "I wonder if this will work." Well, it did.
Thanks,
Clell
Wow!
I'm not so pretentious as to compare myself or my website to The Beatles, but when they broke up, a lot of people got mad at them. I kind of expected a similar reaction. People have been faithfully looking forward to Wednesdays for over a decade, and I greatly appreciate it. It always made me feel good when I got an email that said I'd made Wednesday into someone's favorite day of the week. But instead of griping, I've gotten a lot of emails from people thanking me for the all the years I kept the site going. (And hey, it's still going! I'm even discovering galleries that I'd forgotten about when I've put these monthly updates together.) So, unless you've been a member since Day One, and you downloaded every picture, you should still find pictures you've never seen, or had forgotten about.
In addition to the appreciative emails, I got another surprise: my membership has gone up! I think a lot of people who hadn't been members before are realizing that 50 galleries a month is a good deal.
I've been asked if there are any other places to see my glamour work. Yes. ReneRevisited, while mainly featuring Rene, also has galleries of Ariel, Beth, Kelly, Melissa and more. Some of the galleries even feature slips. It's a bit more revealing than Slip Heaven, but if you've been a fan of the Cardinal pages, you'll like ReneRevisited. And it's still being updated every Friday.
A lot of the emails have suggested places to find new models. Some have suggested letting models and/or other photographers send their pictures to me. First, this isn't just about needing new models. After eleven years of updating every Wednesday - even when it fell on Christmas, New Year's Eve, my birthday, whatever - I needed a break. And, other than a few "Collections," I've done all the photography for Slip Heaven. I really don't want to start using pictures of various quality from other photographers. Hopefully Slip Heaven has a certain feel to it because of my photography.
And finally, I'm not retired. I've just stopped doing weekly updates for Slip Heaven. And after a good rest, who knows? Maybe I'll run into some new models, and get my second wind.
Thanks,
Clell
As you hopefully noticed, I've been changing the Specials page with every update. It's always fun to see a collection of 50 to 100 shots of a particular idea (wet slips, panty peeks, etc.) So I've added that back into the menu at the top of the Photo Lobby. I'm also featuring new pictures in the Guest Room. I'll keep that going as long as other sites want to be featured. I'm also working on finishing up the Update Logs for members, with each thumbnail being "clickable." I added 2006 in July, and I just added 2007. Thanks again for all the nice emails!
This month's update fell on a Wednesday, just like "old" times. One of the strangest things about not doing weekly updates for Slip Heaven - and one I didn't anticipate - is that I usually don't know what day of the week it is now. When you have projects that you do on the same day every week, it creates a schedule for you. For example, if it was Sunday, I knew I had to have certain parts of the update done. I used to take Wednesdays off, after posting the update at midnight on Tuesday. Then I'd start working on the site again on Thursday. Once I started ReneRevisited, I no longer had Wednesdays off, since it gets updated every Friday. But now that I have a little time (I think it's on Mondays, but I'm not sure) I'm back to finishing up the next video. Really . . . stay tuned!
I just realized last night that I have not picked up my camera since I shot the "last" gallery for Slip Heaven. Obviously I was needing a break more than I thought. I've had shorter spells of not-photographing-anything, and it's always fun when I get back into it. I do plan on shooting glamour - I'm not going to become an architectural photographer or anything like that. We'll just have to see what develops...
I never realized how many Christmas galleries I'd shot until I put this set together with them all in one place. I've always enjoyed shooting by a fireplace - if you get the lighting just right, it makes a very magical picture. Probably the most fun was when I was able to enlist the help of a model's husband or boyfriend. The guys always seem to have a blast - they didn't have to be themselves since they were in a Santa suit, and they usually got a little ornery with their significant others.
In the meantime, people seem to be enjoying the "50 Galleries a Month," set up. I'm still around and happy to answer emails, as some of you know. Have a Merry Christmas!
I'm having a lot of fun re-discovering pictures that I'd forgotten about - especially when I was putting together the Farmer's Daughters gallery for the Specials page. Hope you're doing some re-discovering of your own. Or discovering everything for the first time, if you've just joined.
It's now been 12 years since I started Slip Heaven, with a grand total of 75 pictures when I opened the doors. Thousands of pictures later, it's amazing to me that this idea worked (there were other people that thought slips were sexy!) and that people are still enjoying the site.
I'm trying to go a full year without repeating any galleries, so this month there's an overabundance of galleries of Rene, Ariel and Beth - but I don't think many people will complain...