I had a slight moment of shock a couple days ago when I logged onto the Trannies In Trouble Yahoo Group and nothing came up, just some generic Yahoo graphics. I thought, “Hmm, that’s strange,” rebooted my computer, tried a different browser, but I just couldn’t bring up the Group. At first I was thinking that maybe it got deleted by Yahoo, something I’ve always been prepared for in the back of my mind, since, well, it is an adult group and adult content often gets axed. But then I saw a bunch of comments on Twitter about Yahoo Groups being offline. So it was down for about two days and then finally came back yesterday.

Yahoo has certainly seen better times, but I remember the early days when it was one of the main places to see CD Bondage pics and talk to other people who were into them. I started the Group back in 2003, and well, I’m a stubborn sort and a bit sentimental so I plan to keep the Group going for as long as Yahoo is online and doesn’t delete us. If it ever did get deleted, I’d post something on my website and over in the Fetlife Group and on Twitter. In the meantime it was kind of a nice lesson for me not to take it for granted. See ya over there!

My friend Jessica made up some cute artwork for the next TEASE Party, coming up in a few weeks on the Saturday after Thanksgiving here in North Hollywood, California. After all that turkey and gravy it’ll be a nice change to dress up and break out the ropes. The turnout for the last couple years has actually been great for these post-holiday parties. If you’re in the L.A. area I hope we’ll see you there!

As I mentioned before, my good friend Delilah Knotty took a step back from modeling for a few years but we still shot a lot of pictures of her during that time. She’s at a place where now it’s good for her to be out front again, and it’s great to get to post some of these photos that I’ve had backed up for a few years now. This recent set we shot a few years ago, and Delilah looked amazing. It was a fun shoot and I’m really glad to have these up on the site, along with a sexy video where she grinds against the floor in frustration, frogtied, panel gagged, blindfolded, and drifting off into her own special place…

Kera and I shot these pictures a few weeks ago and they’ve been a big hit over on the site. That fantasy of getting into trouble in a cheap motel never gets old and Kera played it like a pro. Her reaction to the Hitachi in the accompanying video was especially hot, where she was barely able to control herself and there was no acting involved. It was a fun and sexy evening and I hope we’ll be able to do it again!

(I started this discussion over on the T’s in Trouble Fetlife Group. Check it out if you’d like to add your own experiences or comments, or add them here…Thanks!)

Hi Everyone…I know we’ve all had our best and worst bondage scenes that we’ve both enjoyed and endured. What are yours? Mine are a bit long but I’ll go first…

My best one, or one of the best, was the sofa sleeper bondage scene that I did with “Ringgag” a long time ago. I’ve written about this one many times before and there are some pics at the link below, but basically I was tied up, ballgagged, blindfolded and then folded up inside a sofa sleeper with the mattress removed. This scene blew my mind and I was actually shivering from the anticipation when Ringgag lifted up the sofa bed and began to fold me up inside it. Then he replaced the cushions and sat down on top of me and watched TV for a while. It was obviously very tight and there was no escape. The thing is, though, I didn’t have a lot of experience so what really did a “mindfuck” on me was that once I was inside I realized we hadn’t really talked about safety signals and hadn’t discussed how long I’d be inside the sofa! So there I was…stuck! I didn’t panic but the questions kept running through my mind and I was on this edge of not-knowing what I’d gotten into. After two hours I was really uncomfortable and started to make some noise and Ringgag let me out. Looking back I wish I’d lasted all night. But in retrospect it was one of the hottest bondage scenes I’ve ever done.

Sofa Sleeper pics over on my Tumblr blog

The worst scene happened several years ago when I was out of town in another city. I found the scene so embarrassing that I haven’t written about it till now. I had had a photoshoot that was cancelled that day so I had the evening free. I’ve always been kind of turned on by the idea of paying money to see a pro domme and getting tied up and teased a little. So I found a pro domme house that was well reviewed and I decided to try it out. Boy was that a bad idea! The domme was a very attractive young lady but we had no chemistry at all. Her bondage skills were only fair and what I had hoped would be some playful teasing turned into this heavy verbal humiliation, basically tearing me down and degrading me. It wasn’t much fun at all and after a while I finally just used my safeword and said, “I need to stop.” To her credit she immediately backed off and made sure I was okay. But I left feeling really stupid and regretting the decent amount of money I’d just spent for a really unsatisfying scene. Oh well, I got to try out my fantasy and it was a dud. It just goes to show that meeting a pro domme can be a really mixed affair unless you really click with the person you’re seeing and very carefully communicate just what you’re looking for. I haven’t tried anything like that since.

Okay, those are mine. Let us know your best and worst…

I was out of town for the weekend seeing family and when I got back I was shocked to hear the news of Nicci Tristan’s passing. At first I couldn’t really believe it and a part of me thought it must be some kind of crazy rumor. She was apparently just facing her 50th birthday, still relatively young and looking fantastic. But then I saw an announcement over on Fetlife for an upcoming memorial service for her in Australia. So I have to assume sadly that it must be true.

As a model she truly was amazing and took dressing to a whole other level that very few could ever reach. There was something unattainable about her look and presence, the way she was so polished and perfect. To be honest, I didn’t know Nicci well. We met only briefly a couple times and I found her a little intimidating. I was lucky enough, though, to have the chance to tie her up once, about eight years ago when we took some pictures at the tail end of a shoot she was doing for Transformation Magazine. But the time was really limited, so we had to crank it out and I never felt we were able to really take advantage of the opportunity. But she was a nice person, rather quiet she seemed to me, although that hurried shoot was the first time we’d ever met. I suspect of course with those who knew her well that she was much more open and unguarded. She truly will leave a void in the scene, as she was insanely talented and one of a kind. I just wish the best for her friends and family and hope that they may eventually find some peace with their loss.

(The photo below is of course the cover shot from Marquis magazine, photographed by Peter Czernich, and the other two pictures I’m fairly sure are a couple of her numerous self portraits, of which she has many on her site, RubberNicci.com)

It’s hard to believe that it’s actually been ten years since my friend Delilah Knotty was on Trannies In Trouble! She stepped back behind the scenes, although she was still doing a lot of rigging and helping me take pictures for most of those years. So I’m really thrilled that she’s in front of the camera again and back on the site. This set of pics was a lot of fun to do, with her wearing a really tight cleave and OTM gag, which I think we pulled off pretty well. We both love this style of gag, as it’s very effective and muffling. So it’s great to have Delilah back again after all this time. I’m looking forward to posting more in the months ahead!

There have been some fun and sexy video shoots this year but this one with Monique has gotten some nice responses. Monique is a lot of fun and always a good sport about trying out crazy ideas. In this one she invited me over to her house to relax and get a massage after a stressful week. Of course I had other ideas in mind and with a little prodding she found herself agreeing to have her wrists strapped up behind her back, just as an “edgy” way to help her relax. Of course, once she passed that point of no return things just continued…poor gurl!

By the way, I also have a new Sony video camera on order and I’m pretty excited about it. If it works out it should help improve the video quality. I hear that the camera has really good low-light capabilities and even a night vision shooting mode which might be fun to play with. So we shall see. It should arrive next week and I’ll be able to do some camera tests and see if it’s a keeper. My current videocam is fine but it’s a little old so I’m looking forward to upgrading. Hopefully more good news to come…and some fun new videos :-)

Well, it’s another anniversary here at Trannies In Trouble – fourteen years since we started back in 2003 and still going!

Like I mentioned in a recent newsletter, the website business has certainly changed over the years, especially with all the social media nowadays and the arrival of those tube sites several years ago. Normally I don’t lose much sleep over seeing my pics and videos reposted – it just goes with the territory. But I’ll admit even I was a little dismayed when someone recently wrote and said, “Hey, have you seen this?” and sent me a link with fifty of my videos reposted on one of those sites. I just hope to keep shooting as long as I can and to be back here again to mark the fifteen year anniversary twelve months from now. As always thank you so much to everyone who’s joined and supported the site over the years, and an extra big thank you to the repeat members. Some of you have been subscribing and supporting the site for years – you know who you are! I truly could not do it without you.

I have some fun and sexy shoots coming up soon, including a really nice one later tonight with a cute new t-girl named Miki Lee who naively goes to an L.A. photo studio to take some glamour pictures. She makes some great damsel expressions and is also a really talented actress in the upcoming video.

I’m also posting the downloadable PDF version of my book, “Caught!” in the Members Area today. It’s a selection of my “best of” Sandra pics over the years and also has five new pages of text about the early days starting the site back when I lived in Hollywood. So check it out over there if you’re curious. Also, Denis from Ireland who won the book giveaway posted a nice review over on Fetlife – Thanks, Denis!

I also have been posting some things over on Fetlife in my Group and have heard from a lot of gurls over there about modeling. I appreciate all the feedback and interest. Although I can’t always shoot with everyone who writes I am always looking for good models who’d be a good fit on the site, and there have been some real good responses that I look forward to working with.

Thanks, everyone, for following the site and this blog here, which I admit I don’t update nearly as much as I should! Here’s hoping for a good year ahead with lots more cute and sexy t-girls in various binds…Hope to see you here again next year! Hugs, Sandra

This week’s gallery with Monica Belle was one of those really fun sets to shoot, and Monica looked super sexy that day, as she always does. This time she was a sexy lady cop who gets into some serious trouble on her first day on the job, surprising a drifter in an abandoned house and ending up wearing her own handcuffs, then bound and gagged on the floor.

When you’re doing a photoshoot sometimes there are challenges behind the scenes that you have to deal with. For this one it was hot in the house where we were shooting, although Monica handled it like a trooper, and we didn’t have much space to shoot in, basically the bathroom and just a corner in one of the bedrooms, so the angles were pretty tight. I don’t think any of that shows in the photos, but as the photographer I really had to pay attention to the framing. Of course with Monica looking so fantastic it all worked out great, and in retrospect it was probably one of my favorite shoots from last year. In just a couple days I’ll be posting the video, which was also a lot of fun to shoot, with Monica facing a rattled Otto Devoid who never expected to come face to face with a sexy lady cop who just happens to have a Hitachi in among her gear.

I posted this magazine cover a few years ago when I wrote about Mr. K., who took the photos in it, and today I’m sad to report that he passed away yesterday, Friday, January 13th, in the hospital back east in New York state near where he lived. He’d had some health problems the last few years and the last time I spoke with him he sounded weak but I still hoped he might get to go home. He even talked about going to FetishCon later this year.
(continued below)

He was a huge fan of damsels in distress and especially loved crossdressers in bondage. I know he met quite a few of us for bondage and photos, including Audrey Miller, Babs, Babette Jones, Jenny Page and others. And he was an active photographer in his own right and shot pictures for several years in the 80s, especially for Friendship Studio, who published the magazine above. He never talked much about those days and I always had the feeling that there were maybe some regrets or disappointments from those times. And I always found it a little sad too that he wasn’t better known, as though his moment had passed – isn’t that life? But he was a great guy and had a huge heart, a truly sweet man who loved what we do in the kink world.

To be honest, I really only got to hang out with Mr. K. a few times, I think three total. But we stayed in touch over the years and I always recognized his New York accent immediately when we’d talk on the phone – and I’m not a big phone person but with him I always tried to make an exception, not always as well as I wish I had. He’d call me by my boy name on the phone and always seemed to see my Sandra side as a distinct personality, almost another person, which was kind of cute. He admitted he wanted to do naughty thing to me as Sandra but coming from him it never seemed weird or creepy and he was always a total gentleman the few times we did shoot.

My memory is a little foggy now but I believe we shot two separate days with SweetTies back in 2001 (see pic below). One memory that really tickled me was getting ready Sunday morning for the shoot and Sara from SweetTies telling me that Mr. K. was away at mass but we’d start shooting when he got back. We never talked much about his religious beliefs but I’m pretty sure he had no guilt about being into bondage and CDs. I just thought that was really cool, since for some people it’s a struggle. Then a few years later I saw him in Newark, I believe, for a couple evenings of shooting at the Hilton by the airport. And that was in 2006, the last time we were ever in the same room together.

I always figured this day would come, for he’d been in the hospital a few times and put on and then rapidly dropped a lot of weight in the years following the picture below, which he sent me with his face obviously obscured just a wee bit. I don’t think he’d mind that I’m posting it here :-) I do wish though that I had more of his magazines. I just looked around and dug through my closets but this old dog-eared copy of Bondage World is all that I can find. If you have any more of his pictures or scans of his magazines online, especially the “Bondage Babe” issue or the “Tanya in Bondage” issues, feel free to email me and maybe I can do another blog post later.

Rest in Peace, Mr. K. You will be missed, my friend.

Hi Everyone,
I just finished up my first photobook, which is a 97-page look back at some of my “best of” Sandra photos from ’03 till ’13, plus five pages of text on the early years of the website. If you’re a member of the paysite you’ve probably seen most of these pics already but there’s something really special about seeing them on a printed page instead of a computer screen.

So now I’m doing a little contest to give away a signed copy of the new book, and I’m trying to get a hundred comments here on this post. Scroll down below for more details.

Here are the rules:

One of my goals for the new years is to make a 30-page Trannies In Trouble magazine, including some material submitted by fans of the website and members of my Fetlife and Yahoo Groups. So I’m asking you to write an exciting caption for your favorite bondage photo (mine or anyone’s), or a few lines, or even a mini-story (a few paragraphs at most), and post it in the comments section below. Or you can even add a link to your own artwork. (If I use your art you’ll have to sign a release form and supply a copy of your photo ID.)

You can write or post whatever you’d like, dealing of course with bondage. It can be sexy, dark, playful, intense, femdom or sissy themed, humiliating, involving robbery or kidnapping – basically whatever turns you on. Basically anything that gets written up here or posted I’ll consider for re-use in a magazine, so by posting here you’re implicitly stating that you’re okay with your words being used in print. Don’t worry, no one’s real name will ever be mentioned.

So once I get a hundred comments here (that’s the goal!), I’ll select my favorites and then randomly choose a winner, whom I’ll email to get your address. So to get those hundred comments I’m going to need your help or else this blog post will just sit here empty ;-)

I can only send the book to the United States, Canada, and some parts of Europe. Maybe someone in the UK can let me know what the laws are like for mailing racey stuff, as I don’t want you to get busted if you live there (although the book itself is all non-explicit).

And if you’d prefer to just buy the PDF version (only $4.95) or contact me about the print version there’s a page here with more details.

I look forward to seeing what everyone comes up with…Thanks and have fun! ~Sandra

And here’s a few more pics from the book:

Last year 2015 was pretty good for me, and I even wrote a melancholy-free blog post last December when I was really on a high. I wish I could say the same for this year, so if you want to skip this one I won’t be offended. But what a weird year it’s been. I don’t like to get overly political here, as it doesn’t seem the place, but well, there was this election here in the States that was hard not to have an opinion about. Let’s just say the news will certainly be interesting in the new year.

One area that many will be curious about, including me, is whether the new Trump administration will push for changes in laws on porn and adult websites. No one really knows and there really hasn’t been that much talk on the issue. Mr. Trump’s hotels still carry adult movies, which is a good sign, but some in his cabinet including of course the incoming vice president are extremely anti-porn. Personally I’m not too worried, as my own site is so small and so utterly tame compared to much of what’s out there (and I’m not even sure my site rises to the level of porn, pun intended, although technically I’d say that’s what is, with adjectives like “fetish” and “kink” also applying.) But with the new political climate it will be interesting to see if anything changes or not in the coming years.

Back in August I also wrote a longer blog post about depression and my own struggles with it off and on over the years, and for the most part I received a lot of really supportive responses, especially from people who struggle with the condition themselves or who have family members or friends who do. There were also a few responses along the lines of, “Oh, just snap out of it. You’re Sandra Gibbons, you have nothing to be depressed about, you’re awesome!” Which is both a compliment, sort of, and also a little annoying. Of course it’s true in the scheme of things I have nothing at all to be depressed about, which just shows how persistent and free from rational thinking it can be when the dark moods do hit. It is kind of like telling an alcoholic to just stop drinking. Well, yes, of course…

I was also impressed and moved by the stories of some celebrities who “came out” about their own struggles with depression, such as Selena Gomez recently. And the one that really blew me away was Bruce Springsteen, who as one writer put it is so macho that you can’t imagine him ever struggling with low moods, which stereotypically seem like an affliction of awkward introverts. And yet apparently it’s been a weight he’s carried off and on for decades, compounded by the shadow of his father who was deeply troubled in his later years. His case is both inspiring and a little worrisome in that respect.

On the plus side I’m probably in the best physical shape I’ve ever been in my life, as I continue to chase that endorphin high in the gym. Of course I wish I were twenty years younger, but hey, you take what you can get.

Also, one of the biggest losses this year was of course seeing so many amazing musicians pass away – first Bowie, then Prince, and then two days after the election Leonard Cohen dies. That one really hit me hard and seemed a commentary on the end of this year, leaving the world a little colder. I’ll admit I didn’t know of Juan Gabriel, Mexico’s LGBT icon, but since his passing I’ve heard about him quite a bit and have seen his face on newsstands. Although never truly “out,” he still lived his own flamboyant life for decades in a culture where being gay is still a big deal.

I also have a couple friends who have had a terrible time financially this year, just barely getting by. And I’m aware of others working in the adult website business who have seen big downturns. Thankfully Trannies in Trouble is a very specialized niche, which is a good thing for me, but still I admit I’ve even seen changes in traffic in the last year or so, and I really get a sense that free sites like Pornhub and Tumblr have become a big challenge. There are just an endless amount of free images and videos out there now, and the online business does seem to be tighter nowadays, probably just an inevitable development. In any case, I plan to keep it all going for as long as I can, and I have some new ideas for the new year. And as always I’m once again looking forward to the anniversary of the site coming up in late March. It’ll be here in no time!

So it’s been that kind of year. We’re all getting through it – well, most of us, but yes, like many I’ve had better ones. Let’s just hope that 2017 is an improvement for all of us and brings some positive changes, or that at least New Year’s Eve is fun and reflective in a good way. And if 2016 has been good for you, then I hope you have an even better one next year. And as always I have to thank all the paying customers who keep my website running. I always say it, but it’s true that without you I simply could not do this. So thank you all!

I hope everyone has family or friends they can be with during the holidays, whichever ones you celebrate this season, or at least have a decent place to stay and a nice comfortable bed to sleep in where you can face the morning light. Keep the faith, whatever it may be for you. We’re all in this together. Hugs…Sandra

My friend Jessica just made some cute artwork for the next TEASE party, the first one of the new year, on Saturday, January 28th. If you’re in the L.A. area, come on out! It’s always a fun time with plenty of bondage going on. Here are some links with more info. and the RSVP page over on Fetlife…Hope to see you there!

I’ve shot a couple fun scenes this year with Delilah tying me up and dousing me with water. We just shot a new one in the bathtub that will be posted tomorrow morning (it’ll be a little early because of Thanksgiving here in the States). I actually found it a very sexy feeling to be dressed, tied up and gagged, and then completely soaked, and it’s especially intense with a pantyhose over your head and really makes you focus on not panicking. By the end of both these scenes I was practically laughing through my gag due to the crazy intensity of it. Fun sexy times and I hope we’ll do more…

I’m looking forward to our Pre-Halloween Party next month on Saturday, October 22nd. My friend Jessica put together this cute flyer to help promote it. If you’re in the L.A. area, come on out. It’s gonna be a fun one!

It’s always a really fun time shooting with Monica Belle. She’s a blast and is always really into it. She has this adorable voice, so I always make a point of getting her talking on the phone or chatting when we shoot video. She can be both super sexy and hilarious when she’s riffing and improvising. And with her presence and personality, which really comes through in the pictures, I suspect she’d make a great dominatrix too! We got to shoot this set of pictures earlier at the start of the summer and I think it’s turned out to be one of my favorites from all the things we’ve shot together. And a nice stroke of luck, it looks like she’ll be back in town around Halloween so we’re already planning to do another one. Stay tuned for more!