About the Photographer - Dan Schwartz
I live in the Oakland hills of California and began diving in 96'. Basically I had achieved goals of visiting (most) places I had always wanted to travel in the world (Sumatra, Egypt, Tibet amongst other countries) and I was now looking for something different to do domestically.
I wanted to fly. I love hiking in the upper elevations of the Sierra Nevada mountains and thought about taking up sky diving - bird's eye view and getting the adrenaline rush of a free fall. And I thought about SCUBA diving - taking a leisurely hot air balloon ride over totally unknown terrain. What made me choose SCUBA was nature. I thought if I sky dived, I'd maybe come across a flock of geese. However with SCUBA I'd see ...
... plus there's plenty of times of the adrenaline rush. We dive off kayaks on California's Monterey, Sonoma and Mendocino coasts where it can seem like a change of season coming up after a dive.
In wanting to "put back" into the comumunity I love, in 2000 I joined The Marine Mammal Center as a volunteer in their Rehabilitation and Water Rescue Departments.
In 2007 I became certified as a Specialty Diver for Reef Check California where we monitor our ecosystem - surveying indicator species' diversity and abundance.
I've won prizes for my photos at regional underwater photographic competions. My biggest prize (2006) was winning a weeks stay at an oceanfront condo in Belize in the annual Northern California Underwater Photographic competion - Monterey, CA.
See you in the water.
I may be e-mailed at seawindowz1@yahoo.com