Belonging passionately to the second group, I joined eight other underwater photographers for five days of shark interactions in the waters off New Providence, Bahamas at an event called the Shark Shootout, taught by Stephen Frink and hosted by Stuart Cove.
Our photographic quarry was scores of Carcharhinus perezi, better known as Caribbean Reef Sharks. Stuart Cove has served as the wrangler for countless movies involving sharks, including three James Bond films.
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The sharks made themselves known before the first diver left the boat. It takes an act of faith the first time you jump in among the gathering fins. Eventually it becomes routine. They know your camera is not the feedbox they are waiting for, so after a couple of passes, the sharks move on. A streamlined descent and ascent is advised; avoid flailing arms or legs.
Once descended, we took up positions along railings and waited. Soon Stuart Cove feeders clad in chain mail set up stations on the bow and the stern of the enormous wreck.
The sharks congregated, forming orderly spirals at each station, much like planes stacked up over an airport. At a photographer's signal, a feeder withdrew a chunk of fish on a short pole from the feed crate. The sharks followed the bait, and the feeder led a shark or two right into our camera domes. Get the timing right, and the result is an extreme close-up of a Caribbean Reef Shark.
One favored lens among the shooters was the Tokina 10-17, an ultra-wide angle. At that focal length, you need to be practically nose-to-nose with your subject. Over the course of repeated encounters, we became accustomed to the sensation of sharks passing inches above our heads.
The Ray of Hope sits in no more than 60 feet of water, which meant even air-hungry types like myself had plenty of time to set up shots with the wreck as a backdrop. We experimented, trying new approaches on each dive with different lenses, set ups or exposures.
During surface intervals, we had the opportunity to snorkel with the curious seven-foot sharks. Many of us donned chain mail and secured ourselves to a dive ladder for some ultra close ups. On the surface, the sharks seemed more prone to make close passes. Stuart Cove enforces strict dive precautions, which helped ensure the shark-diver encounters remained friendly.
From hood to toe, we wore black and gloved hands on camera housing handles reduced the risk of limbs being mistaken as bait. During dives, we adopted new underwater pantomime to avoid unnecessary movement. A slight nod of the head to a feeder signaled we were set up for the shot. A quick waggling of the fingers told the feeders the sharks had kicked up too much detritus and to move the feed box to avoid backscatter.
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For shark-feed images, the wider the lens the better; this requires close proximity. We shot manual exposure primarily, starting at F8 and 1/125 and playing with strobe power settings to get the lighting right. I found it's easier to over- than under-expose, and little can be done in post-production to fix an over-exposed image, so too much light was quickly identified as the enemy in these shoots. Fiber optic-fired strobes like the Inons are triggered by the on-camera flash. I found that setting my on-board flash settings as low as possible shortened recharge times and minimized incidences of the dreaded "please wait" message on the LCD monitor.
The trick was to take as many shots as possible. In the end, if you come back with one or two really nice keepers out of the 200 images you shot that day, you're ahead of the game.