The View from Below

This past July I finally took a much needed vacation to the Turks & Caicos Islands to go scuba diving. I had been looking forward to getting back into the water since it had been two years since my last dive vacation. I was anxious to use my new camera and underwater camera.

Everything started out great. I arrived on the island of Providenciales on schedule and after the short cab ride to Club Med I joined my friends who had already been there for a week, for lunch and then spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach…ahhh heaven!

The following morning I woke early firmly first day of diving. It felt great to jump in and once again visit with the undersea world. A couple of reef sharks showed up to welcome me back, as did a sea turtle. What more could I ask for? I noticed the abundance of Lionfish on the reef however. And, consequently, the scarcity of other reef fish.

I tried out various settings on my camera trying to figure out the best ones for shooting underwater. I guess it probably worked have better if I hadn’t just bought the camera the week before I left for my trip! Reading the manual once just didn’t prepare me for all the shooting options. After 3 days however, I was starting to get the hang of it

My fourth day of diving started out like any other dive day, except perhaps for the slight nauseous feeling that I still had since coming up the night before from the night dive. Once I got into the water however I felt fine. I usually dive with 3 other buddies. My usual buddy was off taking a specialty course so it was just three of us. At the beginning of the dive one of my buddies told me that this other guy “might” end up tagging along with us since his buddy, one of the instructors, might have to take care of a student who had trouble clearing. I should have known that this uncertain buddy situation was not a good idea. We all signaled ok and proceeded on the dive, which for me maxed at 114 ft.

We were swimming along the wall, and I was taking pictures when I noticed that two of my buddies were getting too far from me and the other guy, who I assumed was with us was way back and much deeper than me. I waited and motioned for him to come shallower. He didn’t so instead I swam towards my regular buddies to catch up.

Maybe it was the exertion of swimming to catch up and fussing with my new camera, but I seemed to be running low on air. I signaled to my buddy that I was low and that she should stay close in case I needed to breathe off her octopus. We starts to ascend to about 15-18 ft to do our safety stop while swimming towards where we thought the boat was. I tried breathing from her octopus but the hose was twisted and I couldn’t get comfortable so I decided to continue to breathe off my own tank. What I didn’t realize was that as my tank emptied, it got very light, and consequently so did I, and I ended up surfacing too fast. I remember seeing a red flashing ascent warning.

On the surface I felt fine and we proceeded to swim to the boat after signaling to the crew on board that we were ok. After a surface interval of about an hour I dove my second dive at a max depth of 58 ft for 50 minutes. Other than a bit of a current, this dive was uneventful.

About 3 hours after my last dive, I was relaxing on the beach when I noticed a pain in my right wrist when I tried to move it forward or backward. I immediately went to see Alain, the scuba doctor to see if I should be concerned. He put me on O2 for 30 minutes and gave me an aspirin. There was no change at that point so he decided that I should go to the clinic on the island where they had a chamber. The

Having left my stuff on the beach, I went back to get it and take a shower. By the time I started to walk back to get the taxi to the clinic, my wrist was feeling much better. I was on O2 during the 15 minute cab ride to the clinic and again at the clinic for another 30 minutes. Dr. Euan Menzies, the British doctor at the clinic suggested that I go into the chamber to be on the safe side, although he did suggest that it was possible that my wrist pain could be tendinitis. If after the first 10 minutes the pain went away completely, then I would stay for a US Navy TT5 which would be for 2 hours, 45 minutes. If not I’d need to stay longer. Thankfully that was all I needed.

To complicate matters, I had to share the chamber with another fellow diver who was not as lucky as I was. I only had what the doctor called “pain only” DCS, whereas my companion was affected neurologically, unable to move his arms.

The inside of the chamber was pretty tight with three of of inside (me, the other patient and a tender to look after us). In addition, due to the pressure at depth, it was also extremely hot. We had to wear oxygen masks to breathe, with “air” breaks every so often. Needless to say, this was not a comfortable experience. My yoga breathing came in handy to keep my anxiety level down.

We were brought down to 60ft and, just like we were in the water, I had to clear my ears as we went down to relieve the pressure. We stayed at 60ft for about an hour and a half (although it seemed much longer to me) and then were slowly brought up to 30ft. After a while I was told to go into the smaller outer chamber, where they would be able to slowly bring me back up to the surface, while the other chamber remained at depth. While the outer chamber was quite small and I was alone in there, sitting on the floor, it was much more comfortable than the other space. Because we were getting shallower, it was a lot cooler in there. After another half hour I was at the surface and finally released. Time spent in the chamber: 2 hours, 45 minutes. I don’t know how I could have handled any more time in there. I’m not sure if it is this way in all chambers, but I wasn’t allowed to bring in a book or ipod (no metal and nothing flamable) so it is basically just sitting or laying down, breathing oxygen through a mask and staring at the walls. Pretty boring.

Overall I will say it was a pretty surreal experience, one that I do not want to ever repeat. All I can say is after seeing the bill I am so glad to have DAN (Diver Alert Network) insurance! I still had to put a deposit on my credit card and had to put the bill though my insurance first but, once they deny it, DAN will pay. If you are a diver, DAN is something you cannot be without. Accidents can happen, even to experienced divers like myself. I was given immediate and professional care by everyone at the Menzies Medical Practice.

I spent the rest of my holiday on the surface, swimming, snorkeling, sunning and hitting a few tennis balls, but still wishing that I could join my friends under the sea. Oh well, next time…

The view from the beach of Grace Bay, Provodenciales

I’m finally going to take a well-needed vacation. In just 6 days I’ll be heading south for the beautiful Turks & Caicos Islands to go Scuba Diving. It’s been two years since I’ve been down there and I can’t wait to get wet again!

I just bought a new Canon G11 camera and underwater housing and I’m anxious to try it out. As with all new cameras there is a learning curve. The G11 has tons of settings, from all automatic to all manual. Hopefully by the time I jump in the water, I’ll have mastered, or at least learned enough about all the various features and options, to take some kick-ass photos! Stay tuned, my results will be posted.

My Earth Day design is available on items that will help you get started: travel mugs and Sigg water bottles to avoid disposable coffee cups and plastic water bottles, tote bags for groceries and, of course, t-shirts. Check out all the Share the World styles and products!

Pack up your groceries in this eco-friendly tote

Take this re-useable Sigg Water Bottle to the gym instead of a plastic bottle.

Grab your coffee to go in this travel mug

This design is available on t-shirts for men, women and kids! Check out all the styles and products!

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!

Fraudulent activity with ATM card on my mothers' CHASE bank account. Multiple withdrawals per day were made on consecutive days at ATM machines all over the city during the time she was in the hospital in a very confused state.

On March 3, I discovered that someone stole my 92 year old mother’s CHASE ATM card while she was in the hospital and managed to withdraw over $8,000 during the period of time between February 24 and March 3. We thought that the culprit might have been one of her aides, who have been working for her for years but to date the police cannot prove anything. Whoever did steal the card has done this before. They went to ATM’s all over the Bronx and Manhattan, all either on the street or inside of bodegas – all places where cameras are not available.

CHASE has just informed us that they will not refund my mother the money. They claim that since the pin number must have been given out that the card was compromised and therefore they are not responsible.  Her memory is not what it used to be. She needs home health care workers to assist her in the activities of daily life, sometimes going with her to retrieve money from the ATM.

What I would like to know is  why CHASE did not flag this suspicious activity and alert us to this? My mother usually made one or two withdrawals every month for a about $100 a piece. In the period from February 24 to March 3, multiple withdrawals were made per day for amounts of $100-200 each from both her her checking and savings account totaling over $8,000 plus non-ATM fees. What is more, all the withdrawals were made at ATM’s in neighborhoods that my mother had never been to before and would not have gone to! What kind of bank allows this to happen without questioning it?

Until she went into the hospital this time, my mother carefully watched her bank account, paid her own bills and balanced her checkbook each month. She would have noticed any unusual withdrawals. However, when she was brought into the Emergency Room in the middle of the night, she was taken without her pocketbook and wallet and the door to her apartment was left unlocked. When I arrived at the ER at the Allen Pavilion of Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, I asked the aid who was scheduled to come in to retrieve her purse and bring it to us in the ER. I didn’t look in the contents of the wallet at this time so I have no idea whether the ATM card was there at that time or not. What I do know is that, once I discovered the money missing from the bank accounts, I did have one of the aides look and she informed me that the card was missing.

I know now that it was not a good idea to leave my mother’s purse in the hospital room with her. But, the thing is, nothing but the ATM card was missing. All of her credit cards were there as well a a small amount of cash.

So, who is responsible? Who stole the card? It might have been one of her aides, though they have been working for her for many years and have never stolen anything before. Or maybe a hospital worker? Or maybe an EMT? Someone working at the Independent Living Retirement community where she lives? The police are investigating but it is doubtful that we will ever truly find out. The police detective on the case has interviewed one of her aides and seems to believe that she is innocent. The other aide is voluntarily going to call and make an appointment to speak to him as well — not something a guilty party would likely do. Could someone have looked in my mother’s wallet, seen her ID cards and guessed at her pin number? It’s possible.

One thing that is clear to me however – CHASE, a bank where my mother has trusted her money for years, had a responsibility to monitor my mother’s accounts for fraud and to alert her (and us) if something was out of character. They failed to do this over a period of two weeks – enough time for a considerable amount of my mother’s life savings (which she needs to live on) to be taken from her. Instead of doing the right thing (for which I am sure they are insured), CHASE has instead decided to take a hard line against an elderly woman. If this isn’t taking advantage of the elderly I don’t know what is.

Apparently there are other complaints against CHASE for this very same thing. A similar thing happened in Watsonville, CA in January of this year which I discovered at RipoffReport.com. What am I going to do next? Alert the media, that’s what.

Poster uploaded to the Design for Haiti website

I designed this poster for the Design for Haiti website, which was created by Aaron Perry-Zucker, who also created the Design for Obama website, in which I also participated. Click here to see my entry on the website and rate it.

My poster, shows the red and blue colors of the Haitian flag and the word “Haiti” with a vertical rift being sewn together with a needle and thread. The message: repair Haiti!

The purpose of this website is for designers to use their creativity to help call for advocacy and understanding in light of the devastation and upheaval created by the recent earthquake.

Taken Too Young.

I lost a friend this week. She had Lupus but in the end, it was a blood disease (unrelated to her Lupus) that took her life. She was 47.

Christine Stoddart was (I can’t get used to using past tense) one of the strongest, most generous, caring people that I know. She lived her life large. She was fearless. I think she had no regrets. She always said that she knew she would die young and wanted to get the most out of every day. And she did. She was a great skier and an incredible golfer. She was always the first person to buy a round of drinks. She had an incredible smile and the most beautiful blue eyes. Her favorite color was blue. She loved her family. She loved her friends.

In June of 2008 she married her husband Glen who she met on a ski trip to Jackson Hole. I was lucky enough to attend and photograph their wedding in Yellowstone Park. She moved to Vail, CO where Glen lived to start their life together.

When I last spoke to Christine, about 3 or 4  weeks ago, she sounded happy. She and Glen had moved into a new home, she had a job that she liked and lived in a place that she loved. The only things missing were the friends and family she left behind in New York. But living in a ski town, she knew that the distance wouldn’t prevent her from seeing her friends. She had opened her home to her friends in the past and was already planning how we’d all come out to visit to ski with her in March.

She was a good friend who brought light and humor into the lives of those she touched. I will miss her dearly. The world will be a bit dimmer without her.

Keeping her Memory Alive

Christine was an incredible athlete stemming back to high school, where she was awarded the Gold Key Award in her senior year. This prestigious NYSPHASS Award is presented to athletes who have at the end of their high school careers, participated in intramurals, varsity and junior varsity sports and demonstrate leadership skills.

Her family has established an organization, the Friends of Christine Stoddart, to keep her memory alive. The organization will raise money to establish a scholarship fund, and help refurbish the girls’ team locker room at her former high school, Earl L. Vandermeulen High School in Port Jefferson, NY. Donations can be sent to:

Friends of Christine Stoddart
c/o Susan R. Mickel, Chase Bank, 120 Main Street, Port Jefferson, NY 11777

Red Tree super-imposed over the Central Park West cityscape

Did you ever wish you could make up your own landscape? Painters do it all the time. They might take some mountains from one place and a lake from somewhere else and paint them together to create their own Shangri-La. I used to paint — back when computers were practically non-existent and I was a budding artist at the High School of Music & Art in NYC in the early 70′s.  I painted landscapes in oil on canvas. I was ok, but not destined for greatness as a fine artist so I traded in my paint brushes for a career in graphic design. It’s a way to earn a living, while still being creative, but sometimes I still get the itch to create just for myself.

Now with a digital camera and Adobe PhotoShop CS4, I can once again use my imagination to create new landscapes (and seascapes for that matter) right on my computer. I can add my own touch to nature!

How do I do this? I use the layers palette  in PhotoShop CS4 to combine the two photographs that were used to make up the finished image above. Each photo gets its own layer. The photo with the red tree is on the base layer and the buildings on Central Park West are on a layer above. I then add a layer mask to “reveal all” to the buildings layer. Now, making sure that I have the layer mask selected on the layers palette, I use the paintbrush to brush away the parts of the buildings photo that I don’t want. I adjust the opacity of that layer to give the photo a more distant look and making the red tree layer pop more. By using layer masks instead of the eraser tool to get rid of unwanted parts of an image,  my original images are untouched so that if I need to go back and add parts back in I can. When I get the composition the way I want it, and after I have saved the PSD file, I then flatten the final image and save as a tiff, a png or jpg file and I am done.

The above image is available for purchase at my Dive Art & More gallery

Below are the two original images that I used:

Photograph of a red-leafed tree in autumn

Central Park West with the Central Park Lake in the foreground

It’s always great getting back on the slopes but I can’t say that the experience was pain-free. As soon as I struggled into my “custom-fit” boots I knew something was wrong. They were so tight I could barely feel my feet (and not in a good way!). I managed to ski all weekend despite the severe pain of my boots pressing on a nerve below my ankle. When I got home I proceeded to mark my feet with a marker showing exactly where my boots hurt and then went straight to Surefoot where I had purchased them. Surefoot makes custom boots with liners molded to your foot and they guarantee the fit as long as you have the boots. Adrian, the boot technician that worked with me was terrific. He looked at my marked up foot and saw where the problem was immediately. Not exactly sure how to fix the problem, and rather than submit me to trial and error (and possibly more pain), he made me new custom liners right then and there! I have no doubt that my next venture onto the snow will be virtually pain-free! Thank you Surefoot for superb customer service!

Now I can’t wait to get back out on the slopes and hit those diamonds! Maybe I’ll wear one of these shirts, because when the shoe  (or boot) fits, diamonds ARE a girl’s best friend!

"Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" T-shirt design available at WearMySkiArt.com

And, now that my ski boots won’t be hurting any more, I will definitely not be “whining” on the slopes!

No Whining. If you ski double diamonds you can't whine about it!