Swimming with sharks

I’ve never really been one to heed warnings. More often than not danger needs to be staring me in the face before I react. On my recent shoot in Hawaii I spent countless hours bobbing in the ocean like a cork without a home. I was almost halfway through the two week shoot, so although this was my first time shooting with an underwater housing in the ocean, I was feeling extremely comfortable in the water by now. In my ongoing quest for outstanding locations I came across Snorkel Bob’s description for Olowalu: “This prolific reef will keep you busy for days or till lunch, whichever comes first. That’s Oscar’s lunch. OLOWALU IS POSTED WITH SHARK WARNINGS.” Blah. Blah. Blah. “Surely,” I reasoned, “the guide was written 10 years ago by some bloke who no longer spends any time in the water.” The location looked like it had lots of potential, and after seeing numerous locals in the water, I decided it was worth a look.

Despite Snorkel Bob’s warning and my wife’s strong opposition I bravely headed to the water’s edge. “Warm sun. No fins surfacing. Seems fine.” Then, less than 2 minutes after submersing myself, it happened. “Oscar” and two of his friends emerged in the distance. I guess that Snorkel Bob dude was right. Now I’m no oceanic expert, nor do I claim to know anything about shark behavior. But a shark is a shark in my book. And I wasn’t about to stick around to see if “Oscar” and his friends were an aggressive species or not. In all my time in Hawaii, I don’t think I ever swam as quickly as I did that afternoon to shore. Typically I can spend hours poking around in the water even when I say I’m only going to be a minute. So when I emerged from the water after only a few minutes, my wife knew but said nothing to save any ounce of manly ego that remained. (She’s cool like that.)

Aside from that one shark incident, my first experinces shooting in the ocean with an underwater housing went extremely well. Shooting with the Ewa Marine housing took a little getting used to, and I quickly learned how difficult is is to compose a shot when both you and your subject are at the mercy of the ocean. The slightest swell, wave or current compound movements significantly.

Lessons Learned: ALWAYS heed Snorkel Bob’s warnings. Shoot TONS of frames to ensure you get the shot you after; between the cumbersome nature of housings and the movement of the water there will be lots of misfires. Using large memory cards helps reduce the number of times you have to get out of the water to change cards. It’s a time-consuming process. When shooting over/unders make sure to dunk your camera in the water frequently. This helps ensure success as water droplets “stick” to the front element differently each time. Spit helps too. Finally, I learned that I can swim almost as fast as Michael Phelps when trying to outrun reef sharks. (Which I have since learn are quite docile animals.)

Equipment Used: Ewa Marine UB-100 housing, Nikon D300, Nikon 12-24mm f/4 lens, Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 lens (only fits in housing when set to 70mm due to it’s length), SanDisk Extreme 4 8GB cards

Additional samples of my underwater work from Hawaii can be found in the “Latest Work” gallery on my website.

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