Whale sharks and hammerhead schools in Galapagos

I just spent a week diving the Galapagos and experienced the best whale shark and hammerhead shark encounters I’ve ever had.

Am here in Ecuador with Ken Weemhoff (sole booking agent of the Deep Blue), Matt Moreno (member here on WP, but never posts), Dan Baldocchi (L&M), Berkley White (Backscatter), Lawrence Groth (Great White Adventures), Steve Rosenberg (author of a dive book on Galapagos) and a few more industry types (dive shop owners from Texas).

As always, Antonio Moreano, our Galapagos guide, was AWESOME. He's my favorite guide in the Galapagos.

More later...

whale shark (Rhincodon typus) and divers at darwin’s arch, galapagos

school of scalloped hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna lewini) darwin’s arch, galapagos

school of scalloped hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna lewini) darwin’s arch, galapagos

Wow, the viz looks amazing. Hope it's like that when I go there in June!

Wow! That whale shark photo is amazing....the Viz does look amazing..

M.

I got them warmed up for you guys... I was on Aggressor 1 the Sept 28th- Oct 5th.

Silkies were a little scarce, though, weren't they? Saw a smallish tiger at Darwin, picture only good enough to tell what it is

Real nice, Eric. Thanks for showing - would you mind posting the exposure for those shots? The whale shark is incredible.

Aloha

Bryce

Oh man, I have not seen a nice clean blue (awesome lighting) WS photo like that from Galapagos. I gotta get me some of that!

Looks you have great time there, hope to see the usual full report soon.

Hey I reconize that Floppy Shark Nar only kidding. Wow Eric you have done it again with amazing pics from you trips.

Cool

Wowzers! Great stuff, Eric. All three are fabulous.

Alex

Thanks, guys, for the nice words. Our second dive at darwin was the best I'd ever had. The sun was out, and the water the clearest I've seen. Near the end of the dive, a whale shark showed up at the surface and swam directly at us over and over again. She opened her mouth repeatedly (not feeding, but something else) and made physical contact with a few of us!

The guides speculate that she wanted to be scratched; in the past they've had whale sharks lifting pangas out of the water in an attempt to get some scratching...

Also managed to get really close to a couple huge school of hammerheads, both shooting stills and video. Steve Rosenberg and I stayed at the darwin platform while the others went on. Coincidentally, after the group left, the sharks swam right up to us.

Fantastic shots, Eric. That first one is one of the best, clearest photos of a whale shark I've ever seen! Can't wait to see more!

I second that! That first shot and the second (never seen so many hanmmers in one photos) are stunning. I see that you've moved your watermark to the middle of the whale-shark photo - good thinking.

Cheers

James

The viz is stunning, and the shots are better -- perfect exposure and comp. Never seen it like that at Galapagos or Cocos, in many trips -- once had it that good at Malpelo.

The viz wasn't as good this summer at Cocos(and the photo is much less impressive, 'cept for the sunball from 100 ft), but there are lots of chances to see lots of sharks at any of these places. I have a lot to learn, but reckon this shot conveys the pure numbers pretty well (snotty looking stuff in the water is gazillions of small jellyfish, and yes they did sting):

D70 / 16mm / ISO200 / f11 & 1/500 / Alcyone, Cocos, Costa Rica

Cheers,

Chris

Real nice, Eric. Thanks for showing - would you mind posting the exposure for those shots? The whale shark is incredible.

Hi, Bryce -

The whale shark shot has had the bottom blue cropped out of it (but no cropping from the other borders).

EXIF info for the whale shark shot:

File: 061004_113617_echeng6357.cr2

File size: 13.2MB

Image Serial Number: 000-6357

Image counter: 32292

Camera Model: Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II

Camera serial number: 0000303652

Firmware: Firmware Version 1.1.4

Owner: Eric H Cheng

Date/Time: 2006:10:04 11:36:17

Shutter speed: 1/125 sec

Aperture: 6.3

Exposure mode: Manual

Flash: Off

Metering mode: Evaluative

Drive mode: Single frame shooting

ISO: 200

Lens: 16 to 35mm

Focal length: 17mm

AF mode: AI Servo AF

Image size: 4992 x 3328

Image quality: Raw

White balance: Auto

Color matrix 1: sRGB natural-looking hue and chroma

Color space: sRGB

Saturation: Normal

Contrast: 0

Sharpness level: 0

Tone: Normal

Custom Functions:

CFn 2: No exposure without CF card

CFn 4: Shutter release: AE lock; AE button: AF

CFn 8: Top LCD panel: ISO, Back LCD panel: Remaining shots

CFn 15: 2nd-curtain flash synchronization

CFn 18: Hold Assist button for registered AF point

EXIF info for hammerhead school (from side):

File: 061006_111512_echeng6491.cr2

File size: 14.4MB

Image Serial Number: 000-6491

Image counter: 32426

Camera Model: Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II

Camera serial number: 0000303652

Firmware: Firmware Version 1.1.4

Owner: Eric H Cheng

Date/Time: 2006:10:06 11:15:12

Shutter speed: 1/80 sec

Aperture: 6.3

Exposure mode: Manual

Flash: Off

Metering mode: Evaluative

Drive mode: Single frame shooting

ISO: 400

Lens: 16 to 35mm

Focal length: 16mm

AF mode: AI Servo AF

Image size: 4992 x 3328

Image quality: Raw

White balance: Auto

Color matrix 1: sRGB natural-looking hue and chroma

Color space: sRGB

Saturation: Normal

Contrast: 0

Sharpness level: 0

Tone: Normal

Custom Functions:

CFn 2: No exposure without CF card

CFn 4: Shutter release: AE lock; AE button: AF

CFn 8: Top LCD panel: ISO, Back LCD panel: Remaining shots

CFn 15: 2nd-curtain flash synchronization

CFn 18: Hold Assist button for registered AF point

EXIF info for hammerheads (from bottom):

File: 061006_113519_echeng6553.cr2

File size: 15.5MB

Image Serial Number: 000-6553

Image counter: 32488

Camera Model: Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II

Camera serial number: 0000303652

Firmware: Firmware Version 1.1.4

Owner: Eric H Cheng

Date/Time: 2006:10:06 11:35:19

Shutter speed: 1/100 sec

Aperture: 10

Exposure mode: Manual

Flash: Off

Metering mode: Evaluative

Drive mode: Single frame shooting

ISO: 250

Lens: 16 to 35mm

Focal length: 16mm

AF mode: AI Servo AF

Image size: 4992 x 3328

Image quality: Raw

White balance: Auto

Color matrix 1: sRGB natural-looking hue and chroma

Color space: sRGB

Saturation: Normal

Contrast: 0

Sharpness level: 0

Tone: Normal

Custom Functions:

CFn 2: No exposure without CF card

CFn 4: Shutter release: AE lock; AE button: AF

CFn 8: Top LCD panel: ISO, Back LCD panel: Remaining shots

CFn 15: 2nd-curtain flash synchronization

CFn 18: Hold Assist button for registered AF point

Thanks for that Eric - question - Can you say why you chose the film speeds that you did? I noticed the whale shark at ISO 200 and the hammers at 400 and 250. Sorry to be annoying, but I tend to not change the ISO very much and virtually never to 400 - do you mind telling us your thoughts on those film speeds for the situations?

Thanks

Bryce

Nice shots, all three. The whale shark is perfect (love the composition).

I'm not a photographer but I know a fantastic shot of a whale shark when I see one. Way to go Eric

Steve B)

Berkley White and I did an ISO comparison while we were on the boat. I find the Canon 1D series to be excellent, even at higher ISOs -- but at ISO 400, you had better nail your shot. The relatively clean images at ISO 400 don't adjust well if you underexpose.

Here's my rationale. I prefer sharp images over soft or blurry ones, and am willing to accept noisier images in exchange.

Berk discovered that he can't go past ISO 250 with his D2X underwater and still get results that are acceptable, but he pored over 100% crops of my ISO 400 stuff and was impressed with the look.

That middle hammerhead shot was taken at 1/80 f6.3 ISO 400. It should be obvious why I had to go to ISO 400! I'm barely passing, there. 1/80 with slow-moving hammers is ok, and I refuse to open up past 6.3 or so with that crappy Canon 16-35 lens. It's just too soft past 6.3 (and 6.3 is sort of on the edge...).

I swam straight into the school and decided to shoot silhouettes. There was no time to change ISO, so I spun the dials and ended up at 1/100 f10. There's a lot of real-time reaction when you suddenly are forced to shoot upward or downward, and changing ISO in real-time is nearly impossible...

When I was younger I told my R.E teacher when asked "what do you want to be, if we're reincarnated" I said "when I come back i want to be a dolphin"...

Sod that !!!

I want to be 'Eric Cheng'

You must have gills Eric ?

Fantastic

Keep it up

Dive safe

DeanB