Mr. Magoo the Lemon Shark
Diving in Jupiter Florida during the annual Lemon Shark Aggregation, we came across this guy who reminded me of Mr. Magoo - His eyes were off to the side and he...
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Diving in Jupiter Florida during the annual Lemon Shark Aggregation, we came across this guy who reminded me of Mr. Magoo - His eyes were off to the side and he kept bumping into all of the divers. He was curious, but harmless. About 2 seconds after I snapped the shutter here, he bumped me and knocked the strobes back off of my camera kit. Shot at 85 deep.
This is always a hard kind of photo to take. For underwater photography, the trick is not to get the flash to light up all the particles in the water and obscure the subject, but instead, light the subject alone. In this photo, there were two high power flashes... each strobe on my camera was pointing about 45 degrees away from this lemon shark. The column of light was overlapping on this sharks face-mouth-teeth. Exactly where I wanted it to be. Of course, to do this properly, you must be very close to the subject (as I was). That is kind of scary sometimes.
As for Sports, I'm a master diver and try to scuba dive as often as possible. In some cases, it takes enormous amounts of stamina (and I don't mean swimming away from sharks) and although not typically considered a "sport", every dive exercises each sense and muscle in my body.
Jupiter, Florida, USA
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This is always a hard kind of photo to take. For underwater photography, the trick is not to get the flash to light up all the particles in the water and obscure the subject, but instead, light the subject alone. In this photo, there were two high power flashes... each strobe on my camera was pointing about 45 degrees away from this lemon shark. The column of light was overlapping on this sharks face-mouth-teeth. Exactly where I wanted it to be. Of course, to do this properly, you must be very close to the subject (as I was). That is kind of scary sometimes.
As for Sports, I'm a master diver and try to scuba dive as often as possible. In some cases, it takes enormous amounts of stamina (and I don't mean swimming away from sharks) and although not typically considered a "sport", every dive exercises each sense and muscle in my body.
Jupiter, Florida, USA
Read less
Jan, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken during a "shark dive" in Jupiter Florida, USA. The goal was to swim with the sharks during the annual "Lemon Shark Aggregation". The depth of this dive was about 75 feet below the surface. The sharks are very curious and generally harmless. There were about 15 different sharks swimming around us at the time I took this image. I was on my knees on the bottom and was prepared for the sharks to swim around me. The shark in this photo was swimming right at me and was about 18 inches away from me when the shutter went click. This was a "calculated", but "lucky" shot. As I was using my older gear underwater, the shutter lag from time of press to click is well over 1 second. I anticipated this lag so I clicked early. When I saw him coming, I pressed the shutter. He got closer and closer then "click". About 2 seconds later, he swam right above me - he hit the strobes on the top of my camera and bent them backwards. No damage done - they are on flexible "arms", but it did make me question why I was down there.Time
We headed out on the boat at dawn, and dropped into the water for the first dive around 8:45. This shot was taken around 9:15am in crystal clear water. As stated above, we were all at the bottom taking photos and enjoying the visits from these sharks.Lighting
Lighting is always very tricky underwater. Especially below 30 feet, where color gets lost. The goal is to light up the subject and get true/vibrant colors without getting the water/scatter of air bubbles and debris in the water. Here, you can see his white teeth and gray skin. My underwater camera gear has two strobes which fire simultaneously. The strobes are pointed above and away from the shark so not to light up the "bubbles" in the water. Instead, the trick is to get the shark in the "light column" created by the strobes. On this dive, I had plenty of time prior to taking this image to set up the gear before this guy came in for a look at me. I set the camera settings on the surface before jumping in. Only fine tuning and positioning of the strobes was required.Equipment
Interestingly, my normal underwater gear is much larger and more complex (Nikon D7200 in a Nauticam case) with a much wider angle lens (Tokina 10-17) than the camera I used for this image. This was my first shark dive I ever did. Since I wasn't sure how dangerous or scary it would be, I decided to go with my smaller rig - this is a Canon G10 camera mounted in the stock Canon underwater case. I had two Sea&Sea YSD2 strobes and a Sola focus light mounted on top of the frame. Before entering the water, I set the camera to manual, set the speed to 1/125th, the ISO to be 800 and closed down my F-stop to as small as it gets (F8). This way, I would use it as a "point and shoot" and get as much light as possible.Inspiration
I'm a master scuba diver and an avid underwater photographer. I am very interested in documenting what I find underwater. I am also continually trying to improve my underwater photo techniques. I mostly focus on Coral Reefs and Wrecks. I am fortunate to live in South Florida, where this is in my "back yard." I am part of an Underwater Photo Society who prides themselves on education. We regularly have guest speakers and learn about issues like warming seas, endangered species, and habits of local wildlife. I learned early on about the Lemon sharks and how they come each winter for their spawning aggregation. I've always been keen on sharks. Especially since I saw Jaws when I was 14 years old. The club gave a talk about these amazing animals and scheduled a "shark dive" to visit and observe. When I learned how to behave underwater and that most of them are not there just to "EAT ME", I decided to give it a try. During that dive, we were expecting to see many kinds of sharks. I was hooked. This shot is just one of many in the series from the dives of that day. We swam with 5 species of sharks (Lemon, Reef, Bull, Tiger and Hammer-Head). Most of them are "meat eaters", but I felt totally at ease underwater with them. My inspiration was based on conquering my initial fears and to learn and experience as much as I could. I definitely accomplished my goals.Editing
Post-processing is very important for underwater shots. In almost all cases, the white balance is off and needs to be adjusted. This is because light underwater behaves differently then light above the water. Light bends and color is lost the deeper we go. Suffice it to say, images almost all need to be adjusted in one way or another. Lightroom is my friend. I pride myself at not "changing" content in the image using post-processing, but instead, just adjust to make the image more natural and look like what I actually saw. Here I set the white balance, adjusted the white and black points and did minor shadow adjustments. Just a little sharpening on the teeth and what you see is what I experienced.In my camera bag
I'm a photographer and have both topside kids and underwater kits. My topside bag normally has my new Nikon D500 with the 16-80 mm F2.8 lens and I always have my 70-200 F2.8 zoom with me. There is more, but I'm not going to talk about my topside kit here as this is an underwater photograph. Underwater, I take both wide angle and macro shots. As you can imagine, I cannot change lenses underwater, so a decision has to be made before heading out of what to shoot (wide or macro). Of course, once this decision is made, I have to stick with it for the duration of my dive. My normal underwater kit is made up of a Nikon D7200 in a Nauticam Housing. The lighting I use for each (wide/macro) is basically the same, but set up differently underwater. When I shoot Wide angle, I fit the camera with a Tokina 10-17 lens and a 4 inch underwater dome on the Nauticam housing. When I shoot macro, I use the Nikon 60mm lens and a different dome to allow me to get closer to the subjects. The flashes I use are a pair of Sea&Sea YSD2 strobes attached to 9 inch arms. On the top of the case is a Sola 600 focus light. My "bag" is actually a soft cooler. I set up the camera gear in the housing at home before heading out to the boat (or beach). All is cleaned and sealed before I head out. When I get to the boat, I fill the "bag" with fresh water and make sure everything is sealed prior to jumping in to the salt water. If I see no "bubbles" in my bag coming from the housing, I take the camera gear with me. My thinking process is this - fresh water will hurt camera gear, but not destroy it like salt water. Flooding of underwater housings happen to the best and most careful of us all. To help prevent flooding, I have recently fitted the Nauticam housing with a new "leak detector" kit. I can now pressurize the housing prior to heading to the water. The light turns green if it is water and air tight. It will turns red if the vacuum is lost and/or if any moisture gets into the housing.Feedback
I can talk about underwater photography all day - it is my true passion. You need to know that It is different then topside photography only in how the light acts underwater. Plus, you need special technology/equipment to take the camera underwater. If you are heading underwater to capture images, get to know these differences, and spend the time and money on a good underwater housing. Here are some tips and advise for capturing this kind of image. First, for sharks, eliminate the fear!!! Sharks are your friends and need to be respected. They can "smell fear". Just relax and have fun. There is no reason to be scared. Once that is accomplished, the rest is just science. The underwater housing allows me to adjust the settings (Zoom Length, ISO, Speed, F Stop) using the dials on the camera case. Underwater, we want the most light to enter the sensor as possible. I initially set my F Stop set to F8. Light changes in water every 5 feet so adjustments are always necessary. Sometimes I step it down as far as F22 to get as much in focus as possible. It all depends on what I see after my first "test shot" underwater, how deep I am and what the subject is. When I step it down, I almost always have to set my ISO to a higher - sometimes as high as ISO 5000. I love the D7200 as it allows this with very little noise. I have tried, but discovered that auto-ISO simply doesn't work properly underwater as the light is not as predictable as topside. Use your head and take your time with settings. Don't take 1000 shots hoping for a few good ones. Plan your shot in your head, get close and shoot one or two really good ones. Always shoot in raw. That way, it is OK to under-expose a little - you can pull the details back in Lightroom The really cool part of underwater wide angle is that the water helps prevent the photo edges to be curved out of whack when shooting at 10 mm. If you shoot a horizon topside at 10mm, the horizon won't be horizontal. The image will be curved due to the "fish eye" optics of the lens. Underwater, the same image is not curved due to the magic of water and light. Did you ever wonder why they called it a "fish eye" lens? Well, now you know. The rule of underwater photography is "the closer you are to the subject, the better results you will get." That is because your strobes don't light up the whole ocean!!! When I say close, I mean CLOSE! 10 inches or less. For a shark shot, this means you have to be "very close".... scary, right? The Tokina setup here for Wide angle works brilliantly. It allows you to get extremely close and still focus properly. I can get 1 or 2 inches away from the subject and the camera will be spot on in focus. For an image like this, you have to shoot wide angle. I always shoot at 10mm, this gives me a LOT of subject matter in my image. Sharks... know their behavior. I waited until this guy was swimming right at me. Finally, be a good and competent diver. Your life is at stake!!! Take your time, relax, and know your equipment. If you are a new diver figuring how to be buoyant underwater, you probably shouldn't have a DSLR camera with you. Once you master diving, you can start with underwater equipment. Just have fun. the earth is mostly underwater and what we can capture there is limitless!!
