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Lemon Sharks Near the Surface
"In so many kayaking pictures you never get to see the world below you. Here it's very peaceful up top, and underneath it's just a city of sharks.
"In this image, Ugo had convinced me that it was OK to get in the water in Shark City with my cameras. I'd been there long enough to realize that I wasn't going to get chowed. But the first time I dove in Rangiroa there were easily 300 to 400 sharks. My eyes just about jumped out of my head. But the sharks are well-fed, and if you don't do dumb things like hold bait in your hand, you should be OK. Of course, I don't recommend this unless you are with an expert who knows the area.
"I was actually in the water with the writer, fully submerged. There were roughly 100 sharks circling us. On occasion they would think that my camera lens was the flash of a fish and they would go right at it. I just about had to bump one on the nose with my camera."
—Photographer Peter McBride
Photography Notes
- Camera: Nexus underwater housing with a Nikon N90 camera
- Film: Fuji Provia 100
- Lens: 24mm
- Shutter speed: 1/60th
- Aperture: f5.6
- Time of day: 3 pm
"Once again, you're dealing with a different focal length because of the water magnification below the water. Also, you have a different light reading below the water and above. Basically, it's like trying to blend together two pictures, so you try to find a happy medium, where you might be slightly over-exposed above the water and slightly under-exposed below. In this particular shot I didn't use a flash. Sharks can be difficult to shoot with flashes because they are so white they often reflect flashes too much. Flashes are more important when you are in deeper water.
"In an over-underwater picture it's very easy to get it very blurry with the water-air transition. You just try to hold a very still camera on a perfect perpendicular plane. It's a little difficult; you have to anticipate waves. This particular day it was quite wavy and the sharks were stirring things up. You only have a few inches above the water that your lens is above, and it can easily get covered. But the water does help as a stabilizer for the camera."
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