Early morning isn't my best time.

I usually require rolling myself luxuriously out of bed, making myself a cup of coffee, and nursing it over the next five hours before I feel I can be trusted to operate kindly among society. Not every day gets to start that way, though, and this morning was one of those mornings. I've been wanting to shoot at Likeke Falls for quite some time now. We've hiked there once or twice, done one merkid shoot there (which I am so behind on posting about!), and I've just been in this weird, lusty limbo for doing a full on mermaid shoot there with an adult (kids are cute and all, but they tend to tire easily, and not take direction very well because that's just how kids are! And that is perfectly fine). And then we got not one, not two, but FOUR shoots at Likeke!!!! And because we can't do anything over a reasonable period of time, we booked them back to back, and two days in a row.

Sande's shoot was first, and after a moist and slightly winded hike (though just for me. I am...uh...chubby and out of shape, as I trumpeted to the forest when Derek asked why I was breathing a little heavily), we made it to the falls. And I was definitely worried about the weather. It had been a gorgeous, cloudy sunrise that morning as we drove in, but it got steadily less colorful and more ominous and rain threatening as we hiked in. It should be noted that nobody seemed worried but me, so I swallowed that down and went about figuring out where we'd ACTUALLY be shooting. I made sure that we arrived as early as possible, because this really is an easy hike, and it really is a popular hike. Being a weekend, this place was going to get CROWDED.

We had to work fast, and I wanted to make sure we could be as out of the way as possible, so we set up on the very top of the falls. Oh, and for the uninitiated, the falls used as the photo for this entry isn't Likeke. It's Manoa Falls, and while that place is PLENTY dramatic, it's also way more popular and harder to get to than Likeke. Not a combination I feel keen to explore.

Sande was, for lack of a better term, our Likeke guinea pig. She got to test out the best spots (and the bad spots, sorry, Sande!!). Sande walked so our other three Likeke shoots could run, but let's not lie...Sande ran, too!!!! She looked AMAZING, and when the other hikers started slowly pouring in she didn't bat an eye. Sande didn't come to play, either. She had mermaid hair, mermaid jewels, and mermaid poses out the nose.

We flew through her shoot and had SUCH a great time. And the photos? Mer-MAGICAL.

Have I mentioned I love puns? I. Love. PUNS.

And merfolk. I love merfolk more than puns. But when I can put them together, it's the best thing in the world.