Tue - August 19, 2003

SH-SH-SH-SH-SHARK!



A Soupfin Shark cruising the kelp forest

After a day and a half of shooting video in the pristine kelp forests I decided it was time for a change. I put my D100 in its housing , left the strobes in the case, and jumped in to work on some available light still shots. I shot the cathedral-like formations of the kelp fronds for about 20 minutes and then wandered off to see what else I could see. I was swimming up a canyon when I just happened to look behind me - just in time to see a shark coming up from behind. I whipped around, pointed the camera without looking, and fired off a shot. Unfortunately, the shark saw me just as I saw him and bolted away. Thanks to the magic of digital photography I could see that I had succeeding in taking an overexposed, out of focus, photo of the tail of a shark. I followed it off into the kelp and eventually it came back. I got off several good shots this time until I exhaled and the noise of my bubbles spooked it away again. By then I was out of air and I headed back to the boat to refill my tank and switch over to video. While I was waiting, other divers came back with reports of more sharks. They appeared to hanging around. Armed with video, I swam back to the area where they had last been seen.

It was probably 15-20 minutes before I found them again. It was in a clearing in 15 feet of water. Two or three sharks would cruise in and out and around the clearing. I shot video while holding my breath until I thought my head would explode. My patience and the headache paid off. I ended up with a about 9 minutes of video and a great ending to the day.

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