Blair and I had a great day of diving with Bull Sharks. Unfortunately, they didn’t get very close to us in the water, unlike our last dive with them. I know that sounds like a strange thing to say (…wanting sharks to get closer to us), but it isn’t a scary thing. It was just hard to get good photos of them when they stayed far away.
Regardless, here are some of the best photos from this day.
We had a wonderful time scuba diving recently with 12 female bull sharks off the Playa del Carmen beach in Mexico. It was a nice relaxing; slow paced dive watching these great creatures swim around us (no cage). I can’t get enough of the sharks. I’ve dove with Great Whites, Tiger sharks, Sand Tiger Sharks, Bull Sharks, Reef sharks, Caribbean sharks, etc…. Such wonderful animals. Wow, what a great day diving with Phocea Mexico!! Check them out if you are ever in this area and want to dive with Bull Sharks, reef dives or in the cenotes.
Bull Shark
Bull Shark
Tonight I’m posting something different. I think you need something different from time to time and so do I. For your viewing pleasure, I present to you “The Beast”. I took this picture off the coast of Isla de Guadalupe Mexico in 2012. It took us 30 hours by boat to reach this spot. We traveled from San Diego and by boat to Ensenada Mexico where we checked in with Customs. Then from Ensenada, we made the long crossing to Guadalupe.
Once on site, we anchored off shore and drove with the Great Whites for three days. I don’t know how many different Great Whites we saw, but they circled us on every dive. Sometimes there would be only one at a time, other times there was up to 5 at time….that we could see. So I don’t know if there were only 5 sharks or 50 different sharks. In the end, it doesn’t matter. We had a great experience and enjoyed the show.
The Beast in this photo was typical of the 14 footers we experienced. Large, graceful, and just amazing.
To purchase a print or view the entire gallery, click here.
To purchase a print or view the entire gallery, click the photo above.
This is a re-print of the article I wrote for Nikon Rumors.com, which they posted on their website on Jan. 11, 2013. You can see that version here: http://nikonrumors.com/2014/01/11/guest-post-shark-photography.aspx/
Shark photography….really???? I know that’s what you’re asking at this very moment. Let me come back to that question.
My interest in photography and scuba diving was engrained in me early by my father. In the 1960’s he was scuba diving on shipwrecks in the Great Lakes during the infancy of recreational scuba diving, as we know it today. He also worked as a professional photographer his entire life, so I grew up surrounded by these activities and his passions were passed onto me. Over the last twenty-five years I’ve completed hundreds of dives in all different environments (lakes, quarries, cenotes, rivers, ice, oceans, wrecks, deep dives, reefs, drift diving, big animals, exotic locations, etc.) in over 20 countries and taken tons of photos. I started taking my photography seriously about six years ago. No big shock that I decided to combine my hobbies and purchased an Ikelite underwater housing and strobes for my Nikon D90. Since then, I’ve upgraded my main camera to a Nikon D800 and focused my photography on three areas (HDR Landscapes, HDR Architecture, and underwater images). I use the D800 for the above-water work and continue to use my Nikon D90 setup for the underwater work.
Photographing sharks in their native environment is one of the things I love most. So back to the question about “shark photography…really?” Yes really!! Now I realize that scuba diving isn’t for everyone. And scuba diving with some of the most dangerous animals on earth really isn’t for everyone. I’ve had countless people ask me why? Why risk it? Why would I even want to be that close? Why get in the water with these animals? In the end, the answer is the same….. I love seeing these beautiful animals up close and for those brief encounters trying to just experience the moment. I don’t find them scary and have never been threatened by them for a second. I honestly don’t think they see humans as anything other then something odd in their world. In the past I’ve dove with Great Whites, Tiger Sharks, Lemon Sharks, Reef Sharks, etc…. So when we were planning our last trip and decided on the Playa del Carmen area of Mexico, I knew it was an opportunity to dive with and photograph Bull Sharks.
Mark from Phocea Mexico
So I booked my dives in advance with Phocea Mexico (http://www.phoceamexico.com/). I must say they were the friendliest, most well organized, and greatest value of any dive operator I’ve encountered in all my travels. During the months of November through March, they do a daily Bull Shark dive about a quarter of a mile out from the main swimming beach in Playa del Carmen Mexico. Earlier in the day, I completed two reef dives with them and saw Bull Sharks in the distance during those dives. On all of my past shark dives, the crew used chum to get the sharks to come in close to us. Not here!!!! We literally took the boat out from the beach, went over the side and quickly dropped to the sandy bottom at about 60 feet deep and waited. Within minutes the sharks found us and came in close for a peek at the visitors in their territory. After about ten minutes the numerous sharks got bored of us and moved off…..I thought. Later when we started to swim back up to the boat, one of them followed us right up to the surface. Nothing like looking down and finding a 10-foot Bull Shark right below your feet…. I loved every minute.
On the Bull Shark dive, I photographed them using my Nikon D90 in the Ikelite housing with two Ikelite strobes. I had the camera set in Manual mode at f8, ISO 100, and 120th of a second, RAW format with the shark about 10 feet away. Top side, I used Photomatix Pro to tone map the image and convert it into a black and white (B/W) image in Photoshop CS6. I felt converting it into a B/W helped make the shark pop out of the image. The original picture was very blue since there isn’t much light to distinguish colors below 30 feet. The color image was a little flat.
Great White Shark - Guadalupe Island Mexico
Tiger Shark in Bahamas
Great White Shark
Bull Shark
Bull Shark
MJ and I just got back from a trip to Michigan, Puerto Morelos Mexico, back to Michigan and now home in Pennsylvania. We had a great time visiting my family and her parents in Michigan and spending time with her family in Mexico. It was a very nice trip all around and we didn’t have any travel issues, which was a small miracle with the weather problems during our travel periods.
We met some new friends, Don and Lori, while we were in Mexico. They are from Holland Michigan and we talked with them just about every day. It was nice getting to know them and share some scuba diving stories.
I would also like to express my thanks to Phocea Mexico ( http://www.phoceamexico.com/)
This is a nice scuba shop very close to the beach in Playa del Carmen Mexico. They were extremely professional, nice and provided a wonderful experience. Thank you to Martine who communicated with me in advance via email and over the phone while I was in Mexico. She was wonderful. Dani was very nice and provided a warm welcome when I arrived. The Dive Master Mark (see a picture of him below) was extremely polite, knowledgeable and was an instant friend. Thanks to all of them and their fellow co-workers. I’ve used literally dozens of dive shops in tons of countries and they are the best I’ve dealt with while traveling. Top Notch all around. Thanks
Today’s photo: I took this picture while diving with Phocea Mexico about a quarter mile out from the main swimming beach in Playa del Carmen Mexico. This was the 3rd dive of the day. We did two reef dives earlier and saw Bull Sharks in the distance during those dives. The 3rd dive was to specifically find and dive with these sharks. In my past shark dives with Great Whites, Tiger Sharks, Lemon Sharks, Reef Sharks, etc.. the crew would use chum to get the sharks to come in close to us. Not here!!! We literally took the boat out from the beach, went over the side of the boat, dropped quickly to the sandy bottom at about 60 feet deep and waited. Within about two minutes the sharks found us and came in close for a peek at the visitors in their territory. After about 10 minutes they got bored of us and moved off….I thought. Later when we starting to swim back up to the boat, one of them followed us right to the surface. Nothing like looking down and finding a 10-foot bull shark 5 feet below your feet….. I loved every minute.
I took this photo with my Nikon D90 in an Ikelite underwater housing and two Ikelite strobes. I shot it in Manual mode (f8, ISO100, 120th/second), RAW format, and the shark was about 10 foot away. Later I used Photomatix Pro to tone map the image and converted it into a black and white (B/W) image in Photoshop CS6. Converting it into B/W helped make the shark pop out of the image. The original picture was very blue since there isn’t much light to distinguish colors at below 30 feet. The color image was a little flat since everything looks blue. I hope you like it.
To purchase a print or view the entire gallery, click the image above.
Dive Master Mark
