I started SCUBA diving in 1961 in quarries and off the coast of New Jersey. The gear was very primitive by today’s standards but it was all we had then. At a certain point when diving in the Caribbean I started to get a bit bored same reefs, same fish, same everything then I discovered the underwater camera.

I had taken photographs on land for years. I started with a Brownie Hawkeye camera at the age of eleven. As time passed my cameras got better and so did my skills. I did photography for News Letters, documentation, social events, an occasional wedding, christening, and nature. Then I decided to couple two loves, diving and photography!

With Nikonos V in hand I headed off to my first underwater photography class given by Robert Leahy, an instructor of underwater photography at Temple University, in March of 1990. In November of 1991 I attended the Nikon School of underwater photography on Bonaire taught by Scott Frier, formerly the head still photographer for the Cousteau Society and now with Nikon. Amos Nachoum instructed a class I took, he photographs above and below water and is well published in travel and dive magazines. There are other seminars I have taken dealing with composition that are helpful in either land or underwater photography. The last class was in July 1999 on Cayman Brac, with Frank Fannell, formerly of Nikon Underwater Systems, and David Doublet of National Geographic.

Over the years my camera systems have grown to a pair of Nikonos V cameras with assorted lenses and a Nikon F5 in an Aquatica housing that uses assorted lenses from wide angle to telephoto-macro. There is to complete the package two strobes for each camera set up. The strobes put back the color that water filters out.

Most of my photography comes from the Caribbean area: Florida, The Bahamas, St. Thomas, St. John, Turks and Caicos, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, Cayman Brac, Jamaica, Tortola, Aruba, Curacao, Bonaire, Barbados, Gunanaja, Cancun, Isla Mujeres, Roatan, and Utila. Some of my images are from the Pacific: Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji. Most recently I was off the coast of Borneo on: Derawan, Sangalaki, Kakaban, Maratua, Kapalai, Mabul, and Sipadan Islands. I am now trying to do more live aboard dive boats now rather than land based operations as they give me more dives per day and a greater range during a dive trip.