Need Tips - Great White Sharks

[Sealizard]

I could use some pointers for shooting photos of Great White Sharks.

Will ambient light be enough to capture these guys or do you need to add a touch of light to highlight the tonsills? Any other pointers - underwater or above water - would be appreciated.

The cages will be in less than fifteen feet of water.

[Jonathan Bird]

It is my experience that a touch of fill flash always makes a GW image look better by helping to seperate the shark from the background. Wait until the shark is pretty close, expose for ambient light so you have a nice blue background, then add a touch of strobe fill. I'm usually a two-strobe kinda guy, but in a cage two strobes can be cumbersome, so it might be easier to just use one. You don't need a large strobe--you are just trying to add some fill. An Ike 125 or SB105 or the equivalent is plenty in my experience. I usually shoot manual with the strone on 1/2 or 1/4 power depending on how close the sharks are coming.

Jonathan

[Sealizard]

Thank you - that's just the "touch of light" I needed. I'll make some notes of your suggestions on duct tape and strap them to my strobe to remind me when (hopefully) the action gets going. Although ambient light may be fine, the separation of background and subject will be nicely enhanced by the metering and the strobe. And some of my best results shooting sharks have been with one strobe - but I had forgotten that lesson. I'll send pics when I get home.

[Jonathan Bird]

Here is an example of one of my shots from the Neptune Islands, South Australia. It was shot with a Nikonos V and a single SB-105 strobe on Ektachrome 100.

Jonathan

[Sealizard]

Rays from the sunlight really make this shot unique. Adds an *other-world* or mysterious quality to the shark. Very beautiful.

[Jonathan Bird]

Thanks, I would like to take credit for that, but the shark showed up in the right place at the right time. I was lucky on the sun rays. When you're stuck in the cage, you have little control over the background!

Oh, I mean, yeah, I planned that perfectly! ;)

Jonathan

[Clay Coleman]

Wow, Jonathan. No wonder you get the big bucks. -Clay