Shark cage

Hi all,

Last week I had the chance to go and snorkel with a tourist outfit that takes people to snorkel inside cages and look at sharks here in North Shore Oahu. Must be an amazing experience for them, since many have never put their heads in the water before. Anyways, here are some shots, I hope you like them.

Most of the sharks in the photos are Carcharhinus galapagensis

Comments always welcome...

Cool, the third one looks like the shark were tied to strings like a puppet... All Natural Light???

I've always wondered if I approached the operators if they'd let me outside the cage. I would almost hedge a bet and say you have a little inside leverage! Nice shots...A few look like black tips but not sure of the last one.

What is the cage for

I guess if it gets people to see sharks are not mindless man eaters then it can't be all bad.

Who was your Captain, Luiz?

Cool looking shots, love the dappled light...

dappled light indeed, and very well balanced fill flash. awesome shots. what lens did you use?? I'm guessing the 17-55??

Um, Luiz, you left the cage door wide open to take those shots... Look at the look of panic on those tourists' faces...

great shots!

Luiz....

Must be nice to get outside the cage - you must have some leverage. You did you go with? Looks like the cage for Hawaii Shark Encounters, if so it is nice to seem them still running strong after Jimmy's early departure.

Back in May I had my first run-in with a Niuhi while on the "dive." I end up going on the charter about once a year when friends visit. It was nice because I chartered the boat for a group of 12; for many of whom it was their first time in Hawaii, first Shark encounter, and for three it was their first time snorkling -so lucky them. Good times!

Thanks for the comments everyone. I went with North Shore Shark Adventures (the captain was Joe Pavsek). We actually were not in the same boat as the tourists, we took Joe's other boat and we just stayed along side the boats with the cages; the photos above are from two different cages.

The captain (Joe) is a friend of our shark researchers here at HIMB and is proud of announcing that he supports HIMB shark research, so we get all kinds leverage from him. In the end of the month we will take our rebreathers out there to go a little deeper and try to photograph the action better from 10-20ft below.

Pakman: that's a glass "window" in the cage but yes, they were pretty surprised when we jumped in outside the cage.

Undertow: yes, 17-55 indeed, it's a great lens for shark photography, although I had it at 17 most of the time and was kind of wishing that I had my 10.5mm on.

Rodriguez: I used two Ikelite strobes, but just to barely fill in the dark spots in the sharks. Ideally I should have used a magic filter on those.

Pakman: that's a glass "window" in the cage but yes, they were pretty surprised when we jumped in outside the cage.

aha... that makes sense... I was scratching my head thinking why on earth would you build a shark cage with one side wide open like that...