During 2017’s Hurricane Harvey, a photograph of a shark swimming down a flooded street in Houston was posted on Twitter—and retweeted thousands of times. Around that time, National Geographic photographer Thomas Peschak received an email with the words, “Guess who’s back?”

Peschak knows that great white shark well. He photographed it 15 years ago following scientist Trey Snow in a bright yellow kayak off South Africa. Ever since then, people have been photoshopping the shark into their pictures to fake scary scenes.

Like many photographs that capture our attention, Peschak's original shot of the shark resulted from a combination of ingenuity, patience, and serendipity. (See “14 Not-Fake Shark Pictures From a Real Nat Geo Photographer.”)

In 2003