One for my Baby...

When I shoot, most people don't pay me too much mind, especially if I am working outside around New York or Boston. Many of the people you see here and there, respectively, are tourists and their cameras are blazing away. I look like just another tourist.

However, when I do my underwater work, it's another story. Why? Because I have my camera, underwater housing, two strobes, their extension arms, external filter (sometimes on, sometimes tucked around the strobe arms), handles, two coiled cables and hooks that link her to my SCUBA BC (a vest used in diving). It looks like something out of a sci-fi film. More 1980s sci-fi, less CGI.

Baby, as she is known, actually weighs about as much as a toddler. She turns a lot of heads. She's big and awkward to carry. She takes a bit of maneuvering from shoulder to hand and back to shoulder when carrying her to boats or pools. She is like a baby in those respects. Baby also requires a lot of attention, which she gets, and need to be protected, which I do.

But no matter how heavy she is, no matter how big the cases are that I have to take with me when I got to shoots - either down the street to a 6-foot pool or down 90 feet in the Caribbean Sea - I love Baby. I couldn't do what I do without her.

So, this one's for my Baby...and one more for the road.