Mermaid from Atlantis

   model - Kai     photos - Zorian  

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to photograph a beautiful Mermaid, visiting from the mystical continent of Atlantis.  It was truly an honor. 

Kai, is a working model, that is wearing an incredible mermaid costume, created by her mother for Halloween.   Kai’s mother, Julie, designed and created this Atlantan Mermaid outfit, to be functional for trick or treating.  It has a fish tail skirt instead of a “fish tail”, to allow Kai to walk from house to house, go to parties and not flop around like a fish out of water.  The fabric on the skirt looks like scales, the shell pearl encrusted top and the crown  are fit for an Atlantean Princess.

Normally, I love to find natural light that is magical, without a lot of modification.  In this case I decided to add an off camera, portable flash.  This allowed me to keep the magic of the “Golden Hour”  and still bring out the sparkle and texture in the outfit. 

I had my assistant move around to different spots while I was shooting, adding just a whisper of fill light, where I thought it was needed.  I filtered the Sony HVL-F58AM flash with a Rosco, tough UV filter and Rosco, 1/8 cto, held in place, on the flash  with an old bicycle tire that has been cut into pieces like a big rubber band.  This method of adhering the filters to the flash, is easy and quick.  I think, it is far superior to tape because there is no glue residue left on the flash that will attract dirt, sand and all sorts of junk.