My virtual reality is made from cardboard

For the SF Bay Guardian's annual Sex Issue, we decided to base our 2014 cover shoot on our cybersex story, and go with a TRON-esque setup (inspired by Playboy's 2010 tribute) with Virtual Reality headsets, à la Oculus Rift.

We immediately found two perfect models: dominatrixes Maitresse Madeline and Lorelei Lei at Kink.com, which kindly allowed us to stage the photo shoot in Kink's Battlestar Galactica space at the San Francisco Armory. (Sidenote: Kink has the most amazing prop closet I've ever seen!)

And photographer Matthew Reamer took care of the blue and red lighting to perfection.

But I ran into problems finding an Oculus Rift VR headset that would be available during our scheduled photo shoot. After looking at a few VR spoofs online, I decided to make my own with cardboard, goggles, and spray paint:

I think my fake headsets translated pretty well in the final cover:

Guardian photo of Maitresse Madeline (top) and Lorelei Lee by Matthew Reamer

Here's a behind-the-scenes shot from the photo shoot, courtesy of Matthew Reamer:

From left: Maitresse Madeline, Eleanor Bleier, Matthew Reamer, Pony Gold, Lorelei Lee, Brooke Ginnard