Getty Has Not Requested My Images

Dear Undercurrent,

John Bantin's piece about UW photography in the November issue should probably begin with the very last sentence of his article.

"As for land photos, the latest smartphone will take beautiful quality pictures that you can post instantly on the Internet - and you can get an underwater housing for that, too."

Also, I would add, if you cannot create a decent image with your phone, you need photography courses, not a camera. It is like riding a bike, which the Tour de France winner used. It is a nice expensive bike, but it will not help us to win.

One issue to keep in mind when spending a ton of money on photo equipment is that viewers will look at those images from 45 MP cameras. I bet 99 percent of them will be looked at on a cell phone. Now that $5K camera makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?

For over 20 years, I've shot underwater with compacts, beginning with a 3 MP camera. Now, I use a 10-year-old 20 MP camera with dedicated housing. Small, easy to travel with, impact-resistant housings all about $1000.

As for results, let me say Getty or anyone else has not requested any of my images for publication and probably will not even if I had that $35K equipment.

- Michael Zagachin, Peabody, MA