Views
2022
Likes
Awards
Zenith Award
People's Choice in Marine Life Photo Contest
Top Shot Award 22
Contest Finalist in Picturing Aquatic Animals Photo Contest
Staff Favorite
Peer Award
Absolute Masterpiece
Superb Composition
Top Choice
Outstanding Creativity
Magnificent Capture
All Star
Genius
Superior Skill
Virtuoso
Top Ranks
Categories
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Discover more photos See all
Behind The Lens
Location
This image is taken while diving on the tiger beech off Freeport, Bahamas. We spent a week aboard the "Bahamas Master" a liveaboard boat for diver only. Diving with those amazing animals 4-5 times per day was unreal. Each dive we had 5-6 tiger sharks encounters as well as some bull sharks, hummerheads, reef and lemon sharks. Most of the divers aboard where photographers and we learned a lot from each other. I have been interested in underwater photography for more then 10 years, and as a matter of fact that is how I started my photography journey.Time
Diving was allowed only during the day, since sharks behavior at night is unpredictable and diving with them would not be safe.Lighting
Shallow diving with tiger sharks allows for the sunlight to shine through the water eliminating the necessity for strobes, even though I use strobes Moet of the times for underwater photographyEquipment
My underwater photography gear includes Canon EOS 7D Mark II in Ikelite housing , Tokina fisheye 10-17 lens, pair of Ikelite DS-160 strobes. This image was taken in the manual mode with f/10, 1/200s, ISO 100 at 10mm.Inspiration
Sharks are my passion and diving with those amazing and poorly understood animals was great. Being the oldest fishes in the ocean they are beautiful and gracious, perfectly suited for their lifestyle. Ocean is their realm and we are just guests there. We have learned a lot about their behavior on our trip, observing them in the nature for hours each day, and that was great.Editing
Postprocessing was done in PS, by adjusting white balance and some cropping.In my camera bag
Underwater photography equipment is somewhat confusing and quite expansive. I use Ikelite housing for my camera since it works great, allows access to all camera controls, including manual focusing, and is fairly affordable. Ikelite strobes work well with the housing allowing TTL controls. Canon EOS 7D Mark II is great for fast and quickly changing focus. The best glass for underwater photography is clearly Tokina 10-17 fisheye. Curvature of that lens in combination with housing dome eliminates peripheral distortion, creating great wide angle images with minimal distortionFeedback
Diving with tiger sharks is not easy, but can be done very safely if you follow rules and are careful. You need to be an experienced diver to do that.