Guadalupe Island Shark Cage Diving Photo Tutorials
Guadalupe Island great white sharks are one of the most popular underwater photo and video subjects. And for good reason – the most photographed swim confidently in the open with a mouthful of teeth, eliciting awe, and pumping the adrenaline of eager divers. There are many different ways to photograph sharks, from long focal lengths to capture natural encounters to intense feeding sessions where only a fisheye lens will capture the scene.
Explore the details of shark photography at Guadalupe Island offering great tips, gear advice, settings and insights. Use them at the best shark diving spot in the world – Guadalupe Island!
Guadalupe Shark Cage Diving Photography
Many moments underwater at Guadalupe Island cage diving are unpredictable and are often the product of a chance moments in your shark cage. As a photographer, you should always have a catalogue of shots in your mind that you imagine getting if that chance encounter occurs. Yet the challenge lies in thinking of an exciting new way to shoot a subject that has been photographed thousands if not millions of times.
With some forethought, planning, and imagination you may find yourself looking through the viewfinder at a moment, and a composition that no-one else has ever seen at Guadalupe Island this season:
1. Fish-Eye and Wide-Angle Lenses: Bring along a Canon 16-35mm wide-angle lens to Isla Guadalupe cage diving for a few reasons. First, different lenses provide different perspectives, which helps vary the body of work you create. The 16-35mm gives you a little more reach than a fish-eye and can be useful if the sharks are a little shy. It’s also a good idea to have redundancies. If anything happens to one of your lenses, you have another option to shoot with.
2. The Surface: By including the surface in your images, you offer the viewer a sense of perspective, and it can provide nice reflections and texture to the image.
3. Strobes/Ambient Light: Remember, the deeper we go underwater, the more color we lose. That’s not to say you shouldn’t use strobes at the surface. Strobes can be used to fill in shadows, but are not as necessary at the surface. Play around with it and see what you prefer, because ultimately, that’s all that matters.
4. Alternate Between Shark Cages: Multiple shark cages left and right at the surface can get you the Guadalupe white shark shot you are looking for!
