Nick Mariano spent most of his life working as a DSS Special Agent and Foreign Service Officer with the United States Department of State. His work took him on assignments to Turkey, The Netherlands, Denmark, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Italy and the Island of Malta. Following his retirement, Nick and his wife, Pat (a mixed-media artist) moved to Myrtle Beach, SC, where he began a second career as a photographer and a professional diver. Nick continues to work when needed for the State Department and travel throughout the world, giving him the opportunity to photograph a wide array of countries and peoples and do underwater photography at numerous dive spots. A number of his photos show some of the local sea life on wrecks just off the coast of South Carolina. He displays his photography at a number of local galleries in the Myrtle Beach area. Nick has also sponsored a number of art shows in the Myrtle Beach area to benefit the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, which helps promote anti-poaching laws in Africa and rescues baby elephants whose parents have been killed, usually by poachers. He is the proud parent of two fostered babies at the Wildlife Trust’s sanctuary in Kenya and has visited the sanctuary on a number of occasions. Nick recently became a Field Contributor for Nature Photography Magazine and hopes to get some photos and articles published in the near future and recently published 2 books, one Kindle and one soft cover, on Amazon.Com, entitled “ Masai Mara- A Photographic Safari”. He was also selected this year to be an Artist-in-Residence for the South Carolina State Park Service. You can also checkout Nick’s work on his web site: www.worldpics.org.