This Mom Shared The Reality Of Underwater Photo Shoots And Just How Graceless They Can Be
This is Casey Dumadag, a mom of three who has documented each of her baby bumps with an endearing photo shoot that she, her fiancé, and her kids can look back on.
With her first baby, she had an amazing shoot on the beach:
And with her second, she took things to the forest:
So, with baby number three, she wanted to kick things up a notch by channeling her inner Beyoncé for an underwater photo shoot. However...that wasn't quite the end result. Recently, the 29-year-old looked back on her DIY maternity shoot and couldn't help but share the "beautiful disaster" on TikTok.
@caseyyyy_d not what i pictured. #CompleteMyLook #MyColoredHair #FordMaverick #fyp #momsoftiktok #pregnancy
♬ original sound - Amir Yass
"Remembering when I wanted to do a cute underwater pregnancy shoot, but I couldn't even get under the water," Casey wrote across the video, which has been viewed over 1.7 million times.
Hailed as "Not America's First Top Model" by one top commenter, Casey's video was the perfect illustration of just how graceless those weightless underwater photo shoots can truly be. First, you have to get — AND STAY — underwater:
Then, moms-to-be are expected to position their bodies in a way that doesn't hint at their fight against buoyancy's upward pull:
Hair gets in your face:
The trip back up for air can look less like Ariel and more like you just got a sharp intake of water up your nose:
And when you finally get in position, the waves can completely distort your features:
"I was hoping for beautiful, elegant, mermaid-like shots," Casey told BuzzFeed. "[I wanted] some of me swimming up to the surface, some of me holding my bump underwater with my beautiful haku lei, some swimming close to the sand on the bottom of the ocean. ... I did not get any of that! I couldn’t even get myself to go underwater."
Throughout the hour-and-a-half-long shoot, Casey battled her claustrophobia, struggled with her inability to hold her breath long, and even lost her haku lei, which is Hawaiian for "flower crown." However, she did manage to get two photos resembling what she was hoping for, including the shots above and below.
When the photos were first emailed to her, Casey said, "I was doing work in my office [and started] crying laughing so hard, by myself. It was a great laugh break! Every photo kept getting worse and worse, and my body was warped in most of them."
Even now, after re-discovering the set on a hard drive, the mom of three loves to laugh at the whole experience, but would never try it again.
And that's perfectly fine. There will be plenty of family photo opportunities now that her baby girl can join in.
