Ladew Gardens Summer camp 2017: meet a mermaid! + INTRODUCING MICHELLE

  Good morning, everybody! :)

This month I had two mermaid appearances at Ladew Topiary Gardens, one on the 23rd and another on the 30th. You may remember them from my first big mermaid appearance at an event they had last year: "Nature! Art! Play!". Ladew Gardens are a beautiful topiary gardens in Maryland, and a visit to the garden makes for a wonderful afternoon out, and they sometimes have events, concerts,  summercamps, and more! Everyone there is very friendly and family oriented, and the gardens are maintained with love. :)


This year, they aren't having their annual Children's Day, but are having another family oriented event later in the fall, when it'd be too cold for a mermaid. However, I still got to attend an event at Ladew this year, on two different days! :) Ladew's summer camp theme this year was water/the ocean, so it was very fitting that a mermaid make an appearance to say hi and talk to the kids at the camp. It was really fun!

We also did multiple photoshoots while we were there. Before I go any further, I do want to clarify for local models and photographers that I have a pre-arranged special photography contract with Ladew Gardens in exchange for offering my mermaid services volunteer, and I was granted special permissions for professional model photography and commercial image use. Otherwise, Ladew Topiary Gardens prohibits professional individual and family portrait photography, and commercial photography of the gardens must be arranged in advanced. Here is Ladew's website page regarding their photo policy. I wanted to share this in advance so nobody gets in trouble thinking it'd be a good place for a shoot. We were also granted permission to arrive early and take photos before the park was open to the public for the day, so we could shoot undisturbed.


Anyway, the first day I went with Mum. We took a photoshoot on the side of the "Great Bowl", the large fountain where I took photos in my red tail this year. Although, this time I didn't get into the fountain, just sat on the side of it. It was a mild day out and the water was very cold! Also, this marks my first official photoshoot in my silicone tail, yay! :D

After I got my tail on at the Great Bowl, we (me, Mum, and our hero of the day, Rachell from Ladew) debated on whether or not it'd be easier to wiggle out of my tail, wheel it to the koi pond where I'd be stationed to meet the kids, then wiggle back in, or to wheel 165 lbs of mermaid to the pond from where we are now. After some back and forth, I was loaded into the wheelchair, and Rachell and Mum wheeled me THE ENTIRE WAY ACROSS THE GARDEN. Both of them were so helpful, I was very grateful to have so much help!



 We also took a couple photos near the koi pond where I sat until the camp kids came down to say hello. The kids showed up and chatted for awhile (they loved it, which always makes me happy), and when they left, I wiggled myself out of my tail, packed it up, wheeled it to the car, and then Mum and I spent the rest of the afternoon at Ladew casually. :) We took a few more pictures, too, just a couple, mostly on our phones. They'll be released at a later dater after the backlog of photos I have to edit are finished.

Here's a selfie Mum and I took after the kids left. :) She was also the one who did my eye makeup, which we think looked really pretty. It was nice to spend a peaceful day the garden with Mum after the big event. We both had a lovely time.

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The second time I went with one of my best friends and new photographer, Michelle. This talented young lady came to America all the way from the Philippines, and it was so fun to work with her both on a personal level and professionally. This is her first debut as a professional photographer, and she did a fantastic job. Since neither of us drive yet, we were dropped off by my grandparents and picked up in the afternoon by her dad after work. This time we couldn't bring the wheelchair, knowing it wouldn't fit into her dad's car, so I called Ladew before we arrived and asked if we could borrow one of their garden wagon-cart thingies to tote our stuff around. We wouldn't have a car to store everything between the meeting with the kids to pick up in the late afternoon, so we were especially grateful they had a spare cart we could use. We had to tote everything around in it from about 9:30am to about 3pm, talk about a workout! Sidenote: I have since gone online and purchased a similar cart of my own to use for events, it should be soooo helpful for events. It isn't here yet, but will be in time for the next big event.

After last week's event, I also bought a pop up tent to change in for events and things, since there isn't always a place to get out of my tail away from the public eye, and even if no kids are around to have to preserve the magic, it's not a very majestic process. We ended up bringing the tent on the cart and didn't even use it, hahaha. There were almost no people the entire day (probably because it was HOT), which was nice because we virtually got the park to ourselves even after it opened. It was also hot enough to get IN the koi pond this time, which made for some great pictures! I sat in the koi pond from about 9:30 to 11:45, and other than the camp kids, we had 2 or 3 people walk by. I was able to sneakily crawl out of my tail, dry off, and put my gypsy clothes on without anybody even being in the vicinity.

Here are some photos in the koi pond that Michelle took, she is so talented! We used both my camera and her Iphone 7's camera. My camera (Canon Rebel T3) is kind of outdated, and while sometimes she co-operates and we get excellent photos, sometimes photos in low light or bright sunlight don't turn out very well. If I'm in the pond and soaked I can't get out to adjust settings for every individual shot, and Michelle is still new to DSLR shooting. Also, every now and then the autofocus doesn't seem to want to acknowledge my face exists and focuses on literally everything else except it. It's time for an upgrade pretty soon, that'll be my next big purchase. Anyway, I must say, Michelle's phone took some FANTASTIC photos that were just as good or even better than my DSLR. It was very nice to have it as a backup. We took about 50/50 with phone and camera. She has a great eye for beautiful captures.

Let me tell you what, hauling myself in my tail with water inside up onto this waterfall for pictures was NOT an easy task, but it was worth it!

She also used the burst shot setting on her phone to capture a few hair flips. I was able to make GIFs out of them! :)

We spent the rest of the day touring the gardens, taking photos and hauling the cart around. :P  At one point we asked permission to leave it in the gift shop while we went to the cafe for ice cream, since there was a heckton of stairs to get down there. The staff at Ladew are always nice and very accommodating. I was sad to miss seeing a couple of my friends from Ladew last year that weren't there when I was this year, but I finally got to meet Ms Barbara Burnoff in person after we've been communicating over email for about three years, she is sooo sweet!

Here are some of the photos in my normal Gypsy clothes that Michelle took! She was insanely helpful the whole day, and the photos turned out really well. Thanks for everything, Michelle! You rock!!! She has a great artistic vision and has the potential to go big in the photography world. This was her first time with model photography in a professional setting, and she totally nailed it with very minimal direction needed. She communicates well also, which is very important for photographers.

And here's one of us together after the day was over, right before we were picked up. We got soooo sunburned hahaha, but we had a great time!

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Both days were really fun. The kids loved it (the staff seemed to as well ;)  ), we got some GREAT photos, and everybody had a fantastic time! Thanks to Ladew Topiary Gardens for having me again this year, and thanks to Mum, Michelle, and Rachell for all the help! I think all involved had fun and wonderful memories to last forever. See you soon!


Love,
Queen Werandra