i’m going on a blue shark day trip snorkelling only with blue sharks in july

curious what you all advise about using strobes. it would be much simpler using natural light but would some fill in make the pictures much better?

the attached images from the tour company website

my thoughts are:

if no strobes i can use program or similar to get fast shutter speed with available light- also much easier bobbing about near the surface without a big rig

downside is that it might be a dark day - slower shutter speeds - and underneath of sharks could be very dark

i can’t work out from the images if flash has. been used

I guess you know NIck More's fantastic slow shutter images of blue sharks :

https://www.divephotoguide.com/underwater-photography-special-features/article/motion-blur-blue-sharks-uk/

Personally I would definitely bring a strobe, -maybe just one would be enough, just to get at least a sharp front part of the shark-, sometimes available light images look a bit washed out when you need to balance the sunlit surface and the shark itself .

I have seen them thanks - they are fantastic

it looks like strobe was used as there is too much light on the sharks face to really be from above

strobes it is!

Which company are you going with out of curiosity? , i'm tempted to try this too and there are many providers..
Thanks!

You can get great pictures of blue sharks with and without strobes. I prefer to use strobes to get better-balanced pictures of the white bellies of the sharks.

I did a couple of trips with Joe Romeiro in Rhode Island. Unfortunately, he doesn't offer these trips anymore. End of August/beginning of September, I booked two trips with "Blue Shark Snorkel" in Cornwall.

thanks for the advice

strobe definiely made the images better

I'll submit a few more when I have had time to sit down and process in LR

accidentally overexposed on the strobes a bit but as I was shooting in raw I was able to take this down and give the photos a much more dramatic look by reducing the overall exposure. Quie pleased with some of these

If anyone is in the South of the UK - these trips run from Plymouth with InDeep and a few out of Penzance

compared to flying halfway round the world to see sharks at a distance this was an amazing experience. The sharks turn up eventually and then swim round and round you until you fill up your sd card or run out of batteries!

On 7/16/2026 at 3:33 PM, Mike Saunders said:

accidentally overexposed on the strobes a bit but as I was shooting in raw I was able to take this down and give the photos a much more dramatic look by reducing the overall exposure. Quie pleased with some of these

If anyone is in the South of the UK - these trips run from Plymouth with InDeep and a few out of Penzance

compared to flying halfway round the world to see sharks at a distance this was an amazing experience. The sharks turn up eventually and then swim round and round you until you fill up your sd card or run out of batteries!

Nice shot, caught a good pose. I would suggest pulling in the white point followed by a light S curve to boost contrast a little.