I have been planning on photographing basking sharks down in Cornwall since the beginning in the year. And have had the chance to spend 5 days out searching on Charles Hood's boat, who is the perfect guide not only hugely experienced with the sharks, but most importantly how to ensure excellent photographic encounters. I was sharing the boat with Doug Perrine, which made it feel like a most exotic trip, despite the fact I was staying at my Mum's each night! We saw sharks on 3 of the 5 days I went out, with really good encounters on two days. The boys head out to sea (l-r, Hood, Rowlands, Perrine):
Although I have read about the size of baskers, their size was very impressive - most in the 6-8m range (with that big head). Bigger than most of the whale sharks I have seen in the last decade (although I have not seen 100s of whale sharks recently). They also look impressively sharky - being most closely related to. One of the most amazing moments of the trip was seeing one breach clear of the water. WOW. No photos of that, but Pete Rowlands (who was on the boat that day) has some classic audio, his video was pointing the other way.
Because of their size, and the limited visibility of UK waters, most classic basking sharks shots are quite similar - and tend to focus on that distinctive and charismatic head from the 3/4 front. Those were shots that I was very keen to get. But in addition I wanted to try something different and wanted to produce a split level shot. This is typical classic shot, that I took on my very first pass by a basking shark (on Tuesday):
Nikon D700 Subal housing and Nikon 17-35mm +3 dioptre.
I am sure many have tried to take splits of baskers, it is an idea clearly suited to a large subject that swims close at the surface and often close to land, but I had never seen a decent split shot of this subject from the UK. There is certainly not a well known one. This is because it is rarely glassy flat calm in the UK. To get this shot I would need a much larger dome to get a controllable split in the Atlantic waters in the west of the UK.
Several underwater photographers have built big domes. And I am grateful to several who have shared their experiences with me, particularly Pete Atkinson who went out and photographed his for me. I also wanted to trim the dome and housing so it floated horizontally, because it is very difficult to hold such a big dome at the surface in deep water. Here is a photo of me with the dome in the water (the arm bands are to allow me to hoist it out of the water if the leak alarm goes off - see below!):
As is typical of these projects it ended up falling behind schedule and wasn't ready for my first two days on the boat. But finally got it ready - although far from the builder's best effort (I won't name names)- there is loads of glue spilled inside my dome, it doesn't actually fit on my Subal and leaked consistently. Luckily I have a D300s Nauticam for review and it fits on there with the Subal port converter and lots of tape to stop it leaking! Which worked.
So I have been able to get it in the water and was pleased to get some images. This one is a composite, but I am really pleased with it. I have been planning this dome for ages now - as those who I have been boring about it know. So very pleased to get it in action and to produce the image I had in mind (with the help of the computer). I posted a different version of this image (different top and bottom) on facebook already.
This is a basking shark in front of St Michael's Mount, Cornwall. Both taken on the same morning, with Nauticam/Nikon D300s and Tokina 10-17mm.
I have yet to encounter a shark the right distance from land to get the shot I want in camera (for competitions mainly!). The big dome certainly allows me to reliably shoot splits in these sea conditions, now I just need to luck into a shark in the correct position. I have one more day (Monday) in Cornwall, so fingers crossed - otherwise it is likely to be Scotland, next summer!
Alex
p.s. Many more basking shark images (no other split levels)! But these are the only ones going public for now.
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