Monday, January 19, 2009

The Great White Shark


Until you see them, you wont know just how phenomenal these creatures are. The great white Shark is an animal that lives up to almost all its reputations, in the natural world that is. C4 Images and Safaris just did a shark tour in Cape Town, South Africa and what a tour it was.
Being out in the African bush photographing quite a lot, one hardly ever sees any kills- and we actually count ourselves lucky to see predatory action when in the reserves. Well, seeing Great whites in action put a whole new meaning to predatory action. In one morning we witnessed and counted 20 (yes, that is twenty) “events” as the researchers call them. Twenty attacks on juvenile cape fur seals as they return to the sanctity of the island.

Photographing the action was quite a challenge and the light, or the lack of it, was against us this day. Dark overcast clouds did not help the quantity of light- however, there was lots to see: Sharks in the water, Sharks chasing seals, photographs of seals bobbing in the surf, Seal island and many gulls and petrels that were loitering around the boat. So we didn’t manage to get any huge shark breaches or action, but we did manage to photograph all manner of interesting subjects. A great Photo Tour- which is exactly what we are dong next year for our pelagic tours. Photograph sharks, seabirds and albatrosses, seals, dolphins and penguins on these very exciting photo tours. It should prove to be every bit as entertaining as that which we experienced this last week!


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