I just love mermaids. I was a mermaid in my past life. I just feel it when I go in the sea.

 Why I chose to do model in the hardest dress first... I think I was just really really excited. In reality, I should of done this look last but I felt this dress needed to be done in the pool and not the ocean for safety reasons. Lots of fabric adds a lot of complication to posing and treading water as the fabric creates a lot of weight and tangles easily around the legs. 

The overall look is soft and very pastel with a whimsy of dream like fantasy. 

I ended up not using safety divers for my pool shoots and instead practiced and learned how to achieve perfect buoyancy under the water using just one breath of air. These were the hardest photoshoots I have ever done and were extremely challenging. I would inhale air then exhale enough air to float between the bottom and surface of the pool. Then I would open my eyes and equalize my ears while fixing my hair and my dress. Then while still on the same breath of air I would then pose until I had to return to the surface where my team would bring me a rescue tube to hold while I took the time to reset again. 

Something I had to overcome was the pain of flooding my sinus while posing. If you have ever been in a pool and had water go up your nose... well that's the feeling. I endured this in pool and ocean water. I also had to overcome modeling "blind" as I had to have my eyes open while underwater. I had to remember which light source and direction I needed to look; while remembering which fuzzy blob was the photographer while also modeling and holding my breath. 

 Surface play was fun to experiment with and often I would touch the top of the water while underneath to create different reflecting effects. As much as I wanted to dive right into ocean underwater shoots I wanted to also experiment with what could be done overall during the day and night in the pool.  

 The night pool shoot aloud us to play with light in a way we couldn't control the same way during the day. We could create a completely different type of art with underwater and surface lights. Having complete control over the lighting we were able to create god rays and highlight reflective items such as air bubbles and in this case my jeweled pasties. 

For this look I wanted to create an art piece straight off the pages of an epic odyssey. I adored a dark angelfish mermaid tail with a fluke the size of me! I trained through the month of January and while on location to be comfortable to swim in a tail which was the equivalent of swimming with your legs always tied together. The fluke was a large silicone fin which was then covered with a fabric skin that wrapped around the lower part of my body creating a mermaid tail. 

I had to become an expert makeup artist and learn how to do waterproof and fx makeup. Each look I matched my lip and eye shadow colors to my dress or tail. I wore lace front wigs that had to be secured safety to my head with clips, pins, and glue. Luckily I never had a wig come off during our underwater shoots and my makeup held up even after getting out of the water. 

 Here they are, this is what this dream project was all about! I'm a mermaid. 

Both photoshoots were done at the Dolphin's Den coral reef where natural swim throughs have formed creating a beautiful grotto or cenote like chasm underwater. This location took about ten minutes to swim out to as the dive boat needed to be anchored outside the coral reef. These natural coral and wave sculpted rocks made for a very bumpy ride, entry, and exits aboard the rocking boat. You can see in the behind the scenes videos that a good amount of travel time was required to get to and from this beautiful location.  Upon entering this location one must first swim through the dark to reach the vibrant cavern. In one of the BTS videos you can see us enter into a giant void only to emerge into this breathtaking location. The name "Dolphin's Den" originates from a tragic story about a pod of dolphins who got lost and drowned within the maze of tunnels. There skeletal remains have since been vandalized or taken by local divers and tourists, leaving no remains of what should of been an undisturbed gravesite. 

All the ocean photoshoots required the support of my entire team. I had two safety divers to help me get to and from each locations, help with posing, and provide me with my mask and air from their secondary regulator. Another diver for BTS GoPro footage and of course the photographer. 

This was the dream come true moment for me. The moment I finally relaxed and felt most like myself.

So much work went into the preparation of this project and I was so stressed out. I am not a professional model or a mermaid but in this moment I got to dream I was both. There are few moments in our lives where we truly feel at peace, and for me being 45 feet down in just my own skin was perfect. I was so incredibly excited, nervous, anxious, stressed, happy, etc.

Everything was finally happening and I wanted to prove to myself and the world what I could do. I learned from my underwater pool sessions and the experience was overwhelming, the hardest photoshoots I've ever done. However, I was ready for this moment and once I was there everything came naturally. I fell more in love with the ocean, mermaiding, modeling, underwater photoshoots, and ultimately myself and my art. To create beauty and narrative, art like a dream, I couldn't be happier with the results. I can proudly say I absolutely killed it. I made the dream a reality and created underwater magic through modeling and photography.