Under the Sea Mermaid Show

You know that it's been a long winter when everybody begins to fantasize about a Florida vacation. And what could we hope to see on our visit? Sea, sand, and sunshine, to be sure. And maybe even mermaids? Well yes, we can dream, can't we?

So, not to be left out, we created our own little mermaid show, featuring the Dancing Girls and their tiny green alligators. Each Dancing Girl had her own special spot to sit in on the coral reef, with her trusty gator nearby.

The mermaid on the lower right corner of the reef is even gently tickling her gator under its chin with the tendrils of her pink silk skirt. (If only this photo had sound to go with it, you'd hear the gator's tiny green giggles.)

The tune to accompany this image is one that I've used before, but it's a favorite, and I absolutely MUST use it here. The song is Under the Sea, from The Little Mermaid.

Source note: There is a very famous mermaid show at Weeki Wachee Springs in Florida that served as the inspiration for this shot. I've visited Florida many times, and have swum in quite a few of its beautiful springs, but have never visited Weeki Wachee. I'll be sure to add it to the list!

Back story/technical notes: I had a vision last week of an underwater scene featuring the Dancing Girls as mermaids. So this was originally intended to be an actual underwater scene. I started with three Dancing Girls and a clear Pyrex bowl filled with water, but the bowl was too shallow, and besides, the Dancing Girls all seemed to want to float, not sink beneath the waves (as they are actual flower blooms, this makes sense, of course). Then I tried using an empty Jif peanut butter jar, inserting the reef into it and tying the Dancing Girls to the reef using nearly invisible fishing twine. However, it didn't really work out, as it's tougher than you think to tie fuchsia blooms to anything, let alone underwater. And drifting in the water, tied down against their will, they looked more like the victims of the demented serial killer out of that J-Lo film The Cell than mermaids. And then the Crittergators started screaming and crying that they feared the mermaids were drowning, which they weren't, as Dancing Girls (not unlike mermaids) are capable of holding their breath underwater for hours at a time. So in the interests of public mental health and general Dancing Girl safety, we ditched the underwater concept and ended up with the scene you see here.