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A lone hammer (scalloped hammerhead, Sphyrna lewini) in the open blue, around Isla Manuelita, Costa Rica (Cocos Island).

A lone hammer (scalloped hammerhead, Sphyrna lewini) in the open blue, around Isla Manuelita, Costa Rica (Cocos Island).
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NIKON D70s

settings

Aperture f/4.0 ISO 400 Shutter 1/640

upload_date

Jan, 2013

Views

1049

Likes

+392

Awards

Zenith Award

Creative Winter Award

Curator's Selection

Summer 2020

2020 Choice Award

Featured

Superb Composition

+54

Absolute Masterpiece

+38

Top Choice

+34

Outstanding Creativity

+15

Peer Award

+12

Exceptional Contrast

Jaw Dropping

All Star

Superior Skill

Magnificent Capture

Genius

Top Ranks

Top 10 rank

Top 10 rank week 1

Dude this is awesome!

Holy guacamole, super shot

Awesome!

sweet!!

Congrats!

Great shot, congratulations on feature

Bellissima.

congrats, fantastic, please take a look at my works

Terrific mono shot. Congratulations.

I like it in B&W, Congratulations!

wow, superb !

Fabulous. Looks great desaturated.

Wonderful shot.Congrats!

Terrific shot! Congratulations.

Very Cool Shot, Love the mood of the gray tones and the detail. Awesome Shot!

An absolutely eerie shot! Love the black & white.

Platinum

Amazing capture. Congrats. - Jake

great shot of the Hammerhead shark

how to save this picture?

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Same photographer See all Behind The Lens

Scarred blue shark (Prionace glauca), off the coast of Rhode Island; the midday sun was rather bright, and unfortunately highlights the scratches on m

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Giant sunfish, Pacific sunfish, Mola Mola (Mola mola), Punta Vicente Roca, Galapagos, 2012, Copyright Terry Goss, All Rights Reserved.

Caribbean reef shark (Carcharhinus perezi), Bahamas 2010

Spotted eagle ray (Aetobatus narinari), Wolf Island, Galapagos, 2012, Copyright Terry Goss, All Rights Reserved.

Green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas), Punta Vicente Roca, Galapagos, 2012, Copyright Terry Goss, All Rights Reserved.

Behind The Lens

Location

Isla del Coco, better known as Cocos Island, which is a full day's journey by boat off the southwest of Costa Rica. An absolutely amazing place to dive, and rumored to be (one of?) the inspiration(s) for Treasure Island.

Time

Hard to recall off hand when it was taken (without checking the image data), as we were diving four times a day for over a week. Probably lunchtime.

Lighting

Hammerheads are so skittish around people (seriously - don't let sensationalist media try to tell you otherwise, hammers don't like people!) that it is a serious lesson in patience and persistence just to get one to come close enough to get a portrait. So ambient lighting is usually what you'll deal with, especially when in a group (4-8) of divers. In this case, the hammers were just too far away from our rocky reef hangout, and the current was just too strong to try to hang out mid-water-column and take pictures, so I wanted to capture the ghostly shadows passing overhead.

Equipment

I still had my old rig for this trip, which didn't perform all that well in low light or slow shutter speeds - Nikon D70s in Ikelite housing, Nikkor 12-24mm lens under an 8" acrylic dome. I had Sea & Sea YS90 strobes, but they're simply not powerful enough for anything more than 8-10 feet away.

Inspiration

Witnessing a cloud of hundreds of scalloped hammerheads with your own eyes is one of the most amazing things that exists on Earth, I think. I tried to capture as much as I could of it, but my novice photography abilities coupled with strong currents and very shy, deep water animals presented serious challenges.

Editing

I converted it to greyscale and heightened the contrast a bit, and removed a lot of spots. I think I then sharpened it a bit and did a once-over with noise reduction.

In my camera bag

When I'm at home or about the neighborhood, I only use an iPhone. For traveling, I'm stuck with baggage fees: I have a 50-pound Pelican case for the underwater rig & parts, and carry two Nikon D300 bodies in my backpack, usually along with my Nikkor 18-200mm, 105mm macro, 12-24mm, and the killer Tokina 10-17mm fisheye. Then there's all the dive gear, and as a result I travel with very little clothing or non-essentials.

Feedback

Cocos is serious diving - don't go there unless you are a strong swimmer, with good air-consumption rates. Adding a heavy, bulky camera rig on top of that can make an otherwise fun dive into a lesson in dangerous frustration. So, be a strong diver first. (I wasn't at the time.) After that, deep water photography requires powerful lighting, (&)or a really good sense of optimal exposure in high-contrast environments. And so much PATIENCE.

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TerryGoss-viewbugadds-4

A lone hammer (scalloped hammerhead, Sphyrna lewini) in the open blue, around Isla Manuelita, Costa Rica (Cocos Island).

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow pterantula

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