Underwater
I managed to find two more images to workup… but only just. The shooting conditions on the day were really difficult. A super bright sun and cloudless sky created big problems in holding the highlights on both the croc & the sea grasses. Plus the bottom was very muddy (it’s a swamp after all) & if the croc or I disturbed it lots of particles clouded up the water. Oh & did I mention, I was scared which never makes it easy to concentrate :-)
Anyway, here’s the two I’ve worked up…
I’m guessing that like many photographers, I’m revisiting my back catalogue during these long Covid enforced lay-offs from shooting new subjects. I usually only work up two images (at the most) from any shoot, so I still have quite a bit of choice left. I’ve just moved on to looking through the shots I took of the crocodile in the mangrove swamps of Cuba in August 2019.
As I look through the images I’m taken straight back there. It was an amazing trip because before boarding the liveaboard boat for a weeks diving in the Gardens of Queen marine sanctuary we spent three days in the Cuban capital, Havana. If you ever get the chance to go to Havana please take it up, it’s a photographers dream - there’s literally an image on every street corner.
Anyway, back to the croc… it took us two days to find a suitable subject; not too big, not too small & not too aggressive. This male was perfect and he was happy to model for me for over an hour. I was terrified, I’ll admit that. Looking at the shots I can still remember just how much I had to keep talking to myself to stay calm.
If you’d like to see a video of the shoot you can do that here - https://youtu.be/u7jhdAs56Ik
Let’s see if I can find a couple more shots to work up to make it all worthwhile… I’m hopeful :-)
Cuban Crocodile
Whilst on a dive in Cuba we came across this huge shoal of silversides - literally millions of them. I tried to create an image of the sharks with them, but ended getting something completely different. Not everything goes to plan!
Most of my underwater videos cover specific shooting situations so I thought you might find it interesting to see a general dive. I'd say 50% of my dives are like this, I don't go underwater with any specific objective in mind, I just look around for interesting subjects & click away... & there's always something interesting underwater :-)
I try to plan all of my shoots to give myself the best chance of success - and it’s no different underwater. I knew when I went to Cuba that I’d stand a decent chance of getting good shark action because Jardines de la Reina has been a protected marine reserve for 60 years. That means there are lots of fish and they support lots of sharks. I was also particularly lucky because my guide for the week (Luis) is a shark fan too, so he was very comfortable around them and knew exactly where to take me for the best opportunities.
We’d plan our shoots together on the surface, create our underwater studio and then invite our models for the day, in this case caribbean reef sharks, to join us on the shoot.
Take a look at the video below & you’ll see how we go about it.
I captured this image whilst in Cuba last August and it was probably the most technically challenging underwater shoot I've ever attempted. It took four people to pull it off safely - but I think it was worth it.
I’d seen similar shots & I thought that my trip to Jardines de la Reina, Cuba, might give me an opportunity to try it because it’s renowned for how many sharks you see there. This is because the area has been a protected marine reserve for over 50 years - it was established by Fidel Castro who was a scuba diver himself. It’s very rich in fish species because fishing is not allowed… & if there are lots of fish there’s always an abundance of the apex predator, the shark.
I’d hired a guide & boat to myself for the trip so it was the ideal time to try things out. I also got very lucky because my dive guide loved sharks too & needed no encouragement to try the shoot. We planned it for a couple of days, visiting likely looking spots in the day. We needed lots of sharks if it was going to work, plus obviously a good sunset. This was the plan;
anchor the boat so I could use the anchor rope to hang over and steady myself. This was necessary because I needed to lift the camera out of the water, 50:50 in & out is needed for these split shots, and it’s a heavy camera.
we’d hang a bait box over the side to attract the sharks, plus the boat driver would throw in extra fish to get sharks directly in front of me
my guide and an extra spotter would watch front and back to make sure no really large sharks, like Tigers or Hammerheads, showed up - that would make it very unsafe
The shoot was planned for the Thursday evening & all we could do now was hope for a good sunset. We arrived around 30 minutes early, anchored up & dropped the bait box over the side. Within 10 minutes we’d got at least 10 sharks around the boat! The sunset was doing its bit too. We did a final briefing so everyone knew their job & in we got. I took up my position & started shooting.
The sharks were all around me - they were banging into my legs and body as they competed for the food being thrown in. Now I like sharks, but when you can’t see them coming (my head was above the water) & they are banging into you, well that’s another matter!
I just kept shooting, I’ll admit that I never composed a single shot. It was too hectic and well, frankly, scary. I just took loads & hoped one would work.
Thankfully the sun goes down quickly near the equator so the whole shoot only lasted 15 minutes, but it was enough. I climbed back on to the boat completely exhausted.
When I came to review the photos it was as you would expect if you just click & hope - at least 90% were rejects. But I did get a few & this one is my favourite. A great reminder of a very intense experience. Happy days :-)
The video puts you there with me but it was shot, like the stills, with no attention to detail so apologies about the excessive camera motion.
Sharks at Sunset
