Checking in at the hotel wasn't too hard for the Animalia Modelling students and all were in a way pleased that they were grouped together with adjoining rooms. Much of that had been set up by Maggie when the trip to Mieni was announced as part of the class's schedule. It worked, and the students did hope for some fun while they were on Mieni.
"So... where do you think Miss Maggie will have us practice?" Zoe wondered as they finished the checking in and getting their bags placed, "On the main island here or one of the other ones?"
"I'd hope for a spot with some shade," Karen spoke as she walked up.
Zoe looked over to look to Karen and could even see some nervousness and/or strain just being in the air conditioning at the moment. The Snow Leopard Animalian was every bit as strong and beautiful as any other Animalian, but her thick gray fur with blackish-gray rosette spots was designed for much colder temperatures than a tropical island.
"The heat really bothers you that much?" Zoe asked her.
Karen nodded, "My fur is designed to hold in heat and fend off icy winds on mountains... that unfortunately means this tropical heat is not easy to deal with. The shade may lessen that... and if absolutely pushed... I'd even try seeing if the ocean is cool."
"Swimming could actually be fun," Martha commented with some interest.
"Perhaps," Karen nodded, "and it'd be best to practice and just grin and bear it while we're here as part of the class."
"Hopefully there are no action shots of a cute squirrel being chased by a lion and leopard," Gwen commented, flicking her tail slightly.
"Given some of the comments on the video of the volleyball game the high school canines had here, she might have everyone run... though for different reasons," Zoe teased.
A series of groans and chuckles followed as they made their way out. They found Maggie waiting for them outside and looking at a small pamphlet as they approached. As they got closer to her, she did turn to them and gave a small smile.
"So, are we ready?" Maggie asked as she looked to them. When they nodded, she smiled again and continued, "Okay, for the moment, we'll stay only on the main island here and provide for practice on the various things we've covered already work with some of the things that you may encounter if you ever do something like Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue."
Maggie then began to walk forward and toward some of the nature trails that were on the main island. It was a bit more shaded than the other areas of the island and was close enough to the beach that they could hear the gentle surf hitting the beaches on the island as they entered the forest area.
"Now... in situations like this, many shots will be in places like this... a tropical island or at least in a more beach type environment," Maggie explained, "and in some, the idea for the shot will have you interacting with the environment in some way..."
"Using nature as a prop?" Gwen asked.
"In a sense, yes," Maggie nodded, "And it could be as simple as standing or laying on the beach to posing with or on some other part of the surroundings. Now, given some of the nature conservation issues related to some of Mieni's wildlife, we can't leave the path practicing hear would be difficult... but it would be at least something to give you an idea as to possible sites you'd be asked to be on."
"Like this guy?" came a question from Zoe.
Everyone turned to see the young Lion Animalian looking at one of the tree frogs native to Mieni. The amphibian was sitting on a tree branch and was looking back at the group of Animalians on the path.
"Some shots may include animals," Maggie commented, "though as Animalians, you probably wouldn't be tasked with one of those shoots. They tend to try and go for something that mirrors the whole beauty and the beast concept."
They resumed their walk along the path and Maggie continued to explain the nature of many of the nature poses often used in shoots dealing with swimsuits. In many ways it amounted essentially teasing the potential viewer of the photos and could amount to using things like trees as a pole to lean on or lean from and so on. It amounted to only conversation for the moment, but Maggie did mention they would take some shots once they got to the beach that they could use. They all did fine with this, and even Karen did okay with the heat, though all of them were still looking forward to getting to the beach and even potentially swimming. They walked along and soon saw a path that left the forest and moved to the beach and all of them were eager for it and things had been calm for moment.
However that peace ended as they moved on the path toward the beach. The hiking paths on the atoll had been marked wood chips that had been layed down and were of sufficient size that none of the birds that had come to Mieni would be able to use them as nesting material. It then transitioned to sand as they got closer to the beach. As they walked along one of the tree frogs jumped from a tree that it was on and landed on the top of Karen's muzzle. She hadn't expected it gave a startled "rrraaaahhh" before running at full speed toward the beach with the frog ending up going along for the ride. It was only once she splashed into the water that the frog hopped away. The others came up to see the tree frog hopping out of the ocean and Karen standing in the ocean.
"I suppose you didn't like the Frog Prince?" Martha teased.
"It was a fine enough story... I just didn't expect to have a frog on my nose," Karen answered.
"You okay?" Zoe asked.
"Just a bit embarrassed," Karen admitted, "I suppose you'll like a good laugh..."
"Anyone can be startled," Maggie spoke in a somewhat authoritative voice, "and in the end, our goal is also to be friendly with each other... prevent some of the reality TV type backstabbing that you see."
The others nodded in acceptance of that as they moved to move into actually practicing for potential future shoots which went well. Maggie smiled at that and was happy to see that everyone had fun. Some of the shots she took with her camera phone was even a fake water fight between Karen and Zoe, looking as though they were splashing each other.