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Getting this picture last month was an exercise. Model (Iara Mandyn) and I swam a good distance from the mother ship to the entrance to the grotto (small hole and blue glow in the back). I climbed up the back wall of the grotto with underwater system, nestled in a small niche and shot down at Iara with a wide enough angle lens to also capture the vent at the top.
No scrapes, bruises, bloody or broken parts. Amazing.
Just saw the cover of Plongee, the French diving magazine on-line version with one of Julie Andersen's photos taken during the SCUBAPRO cold water gear shoot in Ontario, Canada.
Julie, from Cape Town, South Africa, was the lead female diver and lifestyle model for both the warm water gear shoot in Palau, Micronesia and the cold water gear shoot alongside the St. Lawrence Seaway on the Canadian side.
Others in our photo crews were named and pictured here:
https://blog.chriscrumley.com/BlogBook/324
https://blog.chriscrumley.com/BlogBook/412
I should also mention that Julie is founder and leader of Shark Angels, one of the most active and successful conservation groups working to save sharks from finning and other abusive practices around the world.
I'm doing several dozen test/coaching sessions a year for people who express interest in having a mermaid experience. I'm amazed at how quickly some people absorb what I call the "50 Key Techniques" to being a successful, attractive and realistic MerPerson.
This 16-year-old, Lydia (accompanied by her aunt Johanna - studio rules) was one of the fastest learners I've encountered and absorbed most of it in one 90-minute session.
Lydia is an active swimmer, diver and lifeguard in after-school events and that surely has something to do with it.
Have done a number of book and magazine covers lately with a MerTheme. This is four of the books.
I'm fortunate enough to work with some of the most talented underwater models and MerPeople on the planet and these covers show four of them; Christina Macfarlane (first and third cover), Malena Sharkey, Ashley Nadine and Kristi Sherk in Mexico, Palau, Florida and Virginia.
An outtake from a SCUBAPRO cold weather gear shoot in Canada that ran full page in the French Magazine "Plongee."
I'm making a fair number of underwater images these days with mermaids, dancers and other artistic subjects in the "wet studio" and on boat and island locations. But, with 5,000+ logged dives around the world, I have a decent collection of marine life images, i.e. this image of six sharks off Grand Bahama Island.
That background gives me a great appreciation for the marine life photography and conservation efforts from people like Douglas Seifert & Emily Irving, Howard & Michelle Hall, Julie Andersen (Shark Angels), Brian Skerry, Marty Snyderman, Imran Ahmad, Brandon Cole and a host of others who are friends and Friends.
Douglas says he photographs the "real" mermaids and sends me a dugong photo. I send him Iara and Kristi. I think we both win.
Spent four hours yesterday underwater with a ballet dancer and the red ring.
Model: Katerina Dahmen
MUA: Katerina + She Laq
Location: Wet Studio, Virginia Beach, VA
Red Ring: Robert Minnick and Malena Sharkey