Pixellator

Pixellator: Mrs. Pix – Where the Wild Things Are

Exhibitionism, Nude in Public

I don’t think Maurice Sendak would quite get the rise out of this series that you and I might (he was gay), and he might not approve of my coopting the title of his famous work (though he did not like it much), but what the hell … it works.

It doesn’t take a lot of guess work to figure this out. I’ll expand on the story as the posting proceeds.

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So … one day, Mrs. Pix and I decided to go to the zoo. We had a plan. Cameras are essential for a trip to the zoo, right? Photo-ops of wild things? Sure. Our twist on this classic excursion was that Mrs. Pix was the wild thing I would be shooting. She wore easy-off/easy-on sandals, sunglasses and hat, a calf-length wrap-around coat with sash (easy-open/easy-close) … and nothing else.

Our plan was to be to be among the first visitors and knowing how people tend to move very slowly through a zoo, pausing to appreciate all the exhibits they encounter, we planned to move out ahead of that initial wave, snapping a few open-coat pics in the less-trafficked areas before the wave of people spread throughout. We further aimed to stack our odds by going mid-week, when we knew that zoo traffic overall would be at a minimum and most kids would be in school (and their parents at work).

So … the day came and got up early to execute the plan … and we almost cancelled. The day was gloomy with that cloud cover that gives no hint of the direction of the sun. It had been raining through the night and as day broke there was really no hint that the rain was over. It looked like a day of alternating mist and rain – uncommon in our part of the country. But … rather than waste the opportunity and the planning already invested, we decided to make the best of the situation.

As often happens in our area, the weather eased a bit as we drove. By the time we arrived, the active rain had ceased, leaving just a pleasant mist in the air. As we pulled into the main parking lot, we were amazed … virtually nobody. We had certainly planned our timing for minimum crowd, but the rain had done what we could not have hoped for. With the main gate about to open, there was almost no one waiting except for a few moms with strollers being orbited by a few babbling munchkins.

So … the gates opened and we entered. We kept to plan an moved quickly away from the entrance, quickly finding ourselves in an environment we had never experienced – this HIGHLY popular zoo, virtually EMPTY of people. It was not at all difficult to find ourselves completely isolated, not only from the few visitors we left increasingly far behind us, but also from zoo workers, who were apparently occupying themselves with indoor tasks to avoid the very weather we were taking advantage of.

It was not at all difficult at all for my nature girl to feel very comfortable with our situation and easily shed her coat, and even sandals, to pad around barefoot and completely naked in the tingly mist. The first couple of shots were pretty furtive, both of us craning our necks to see if anyone might possibly be in the area, then her quickly stripping down for a couple quick shots and redressing just as quickly. But as we continued our trek deeper into the mist, with our plan obviously working out very well, she became more and more comfortable.

Eventually we reached the farthest point accessed by the regular paths - a pavilion overlooking the open-savanna exhibit where numerous species were allowed to roam "freely". We knew we were far out ahead of other patrons, and Mrs. Pix was quite comfortable now enjoying the setting completely naked - as nature intended.

Enjoy …