Designer, Sheryl Checkman with artist David Dunleavy at his booth at Beneath the Sea

I would love to have been beneath the sea today but since that wasn’t possible I did the next best thing – I took a bus out to the Meadowlands Expo Center to “Beneath the Sea,” the annual Consumer Dive Show. I got to listen to some interesting seminar presentations, which succeeded in further wetting my appetite to get back into the water. I re-lived past dives during a presentation on the Turks & Caicos Islands by Michel Gilbert & Danielle Alary, discovered some new Photoshop tips from Larry & Denise Tackett and learned about photographing models underwater with photographer Jason Heller. Jason’s newsletter, Dive Photo Guide is a great resource for underwater photographers. In between seminars I got a chance to catch up with some friends from the two dive clubs that I belong to: OceanBlue Divers and NYUPS (New York Underwater Photographic Society).

And that was just the morning.

After the seminars I set off to walk the show, make some contacts and see who else I would run into. I stopped by my friend, David Dunleavy’s booth to see his latest work and catch up. David paints beautiful ocean life paintings and murals. I even bought one of his t-shirts. If you like the t-shirt that I have on in the photo above, it’s one of my “Life is Balance® Neutral Buoyancy Scuba designs.

I joined REEF to show my support for the ocean environment. The Reef Environmental Education Foundation is a grass-roots organization helps conserve marine ecosystems by educating, enlisting and enabling divers and other marine enthusiasts to become active ocean stewards and citizen scientists. I bought a beautiful DVD  called “Sensational Seas Two” which is a compilation of various top underwater photographers and videographers and is narrated by Stan Waterman and Annie Crawley. It’s a wonderful view into the undersea world and all proceeds benefit ocean charities. I can’t wait to show it to my friends who don’t dive and always ask me what it is that makes me so obsessed with the sport!