Ever since I was a small person, I’ve always had an affinity toward the ocean and what lies beneath the waves.  Growing up in along the Southern Californian coast, I have always had access to its bounty.  I started my relationship with the sea working as a pin head aboard sport fishing vessels during the summers when I was 10.  This was great fun for many years and I have since seen many incredible events on the water.

In high school, I was told that I had to start volunteering at either the hospital, Orange County Marine Institute (now Ocean Institute), or some place like those.  I chose the OCMI.  I did the training for the touch tank for weekend visitors.  I soon learned that their tour boat, the R/V Sea Explorer, had openings for volunteers.This was an amazing time for me.  I quickly earned the crews friendship and respect being the youngest volunteer that they have ever had.  I was able to do this through high school on weekends and just about full time during the summer.  In July of 1998 I logged more hours that any other volunteer ever (152 hours), and subsequently eared volunteer of the year.  They have been a great inspiration for the direction I wanted to focus my career. 

I was also during high school that I became certified through PADI in Open Water.  This was my 16th birthday present and I could not have been happier.  In high school, I became involved with the science club and SAVE (Students Against a Vanishing Environment).  My sophomore year I was president of the science club, V.P of SAVE and was bumped up to president for both clubs my senior year.
After high school, I was accepted to Humboldt State University in far, far Northern California.  During my sophomore year I learned of the dive program that HSU offered.  This included minors in recreational diving, scientific diving and leadership diving.  Being a university, the HSU dive program is not well funded, so photography was done using Nikonos II, IV and Vs shooting slide film.  This 7 year span of my life included many adventures, and when it was all said and done, I graduated with a B.A. in Geography and minors in Oceanography and Scientific Diving.  My senior project was using personally collected data in Trinidad and Van Damme State Beach, along with data collected from 8 other sites along California.  The paper and presentation was entitled “The Population Fluctuation of Sub-tidal Invertebrates along the Californian Coast.”  I presented my findings at the California Geographic Society’s annual meeting.  Also, during my last semester I took the position of vice president of the HSU Geographic Society.

After graduation I came to Monterey where I started working at Backscatter.

Credentials:

Currently working at Backscatter Underwater photo and video, the premier underwater photography store.

Graduated from HSU in 2007 with a B.A. in Geography and minors in
Oceanography and Scientific Diving.

AAUS & NAUI Scientific Diver with HSU ‘06

NAUI Underwater Photography with HSU ‘05

NAUI Master Diver with HSU ‘02

PADI Open Water through Dive & Surf ‘99

Gear:

Canon Rebel XSi

Tokina 10-17mm Fisheye Lens

Canon 100mm Macro Lens

Seatool 450XSi Housing

Inon Z240 Strobes

Hartenberger Nano Focus Light

Canon Powershot A570

Inon D2000 Strobes

Sealife DC600

Nikonos V

SB 105 Strobe

Nikonos II