The Azore Islands, located off Portugal in the North Atlantic Ocean, are convenient stop-overs for migrating oceanic sharks, and blue sharks congregate there in the summer months. Divers can rendezvous with them at the Condor Banks, located 35km off the island of Faial. The bank is about 180m deep, and has become a popular shark dive spot, having been the only place in the Azore Islands where fishing is prohibited.

Wind the clock back to 1937, and we will find a young man from Austria by the name of Hans Hass spending his holiday after graduating from high school in the little town of Juan-les-Pins on the French Riviera. It was here he observed an Englishman hunting for fish underwater which seeded the inspiration that would later make him one of the greatest diving pioneers.

It is also a good technique to use for practical reasons; Without noisy bubbles, it becomes possible to get closer to shy creatures. But the main advantage is that it’s easier to keep up with fast moving animals, such as marine mammals and sharks, when you do not have to propel bulky scuba apparatus through the water, too.

Attracted by several cleaning stations, the sharks come regularly before sunset for their early morning “toilette”. They are cleaned by the small cleaner wrasse that clean the sharks' skin, gills and even inside their mouths of parasites, bacteria and food debris.

 

Due to this behavior, it also makes it necessary for observers to be there on time as well, because it is the only chance to see and approach this shark to photograph it.

Yet the whales are elusive and their behavior is nowhere near what Herman Melville described in his famous novel, “Moby Dick”. Suddenly, a bulbous head sticks high out of the water. With flippers slapping the water, the sperm whale heads straight for us in order to ram us.

 

For centuries these openings have provided inhabitants with access to fresh water, and the inaccessibility of the deep caves beneath the openings has long beckoned the adventurous, though physical challenges limited how far they could go.

In recent years, however, technological developments in underwater equipment have made it easier for divers to go farther into the networks of dark tunnels branching out from the submerged caves, and reports began to emerge about this dark underworld and its store of human and animal remains.

Caution is a useful behavioural trait for many inhabitants on a tropical reef. It can be a matter of survival. Trying to capture a full format image of sardine with an ultra wide-angle lens is therefore better left to the experts. The creatures you meet underwater also have a comfort zone which you cannot penetrate—you need to keep a certain minimum distance. This is typically in the range of 0.7 to 1m. This makes the 28mm, 35mm and 50mm focal length lenses the best choice for pictures of fish that are 0.2 to 0.5m long fish.

 

First of all, the strobes—or flash units—need to be both neutrally buoyant and in balance. It is no good if one end is positively buoyant and the other negative. A neutral and balanced strobe ensures that the photographer can work in any position or situation and not get exhausted from supporting or directing the strobes even after the typical ten minute hover to get that elusive shot.

Needless to say, the cameras, too, need to be perfectly buoyant and balanced, and they usually are. But it is to no avail if fitting the strobe to the camera doesn’t balance either.

10 Tips

1. Most important, the strobe needs to be buoyant and perfectly balanced so you are able to work in any position. A buoyant strobe can be easily aimed at the subject because it can be moved in any direction without releasing the joints of the strobe arms.
   
    
2. Remember that in wide-angle photography the position of the strobe is very important to avoid backscatter and to gain an uniform illumination of the subject. You have to take into account that the larger the picture angle, the further the strobes have to be positioned away from the lens!

Wide-angle lenses can be divided into three categories:

1. standard wide-angle with focal lengths from 28 to 40 mm (film equivalent);
   
    
2. super wide-angle with focal lengths from 17 to 24 mm; and
   
    
3. a special type of super wide-angle: the fish-eye, which covers angles of 180 degrees and above.

Always go as close to the subject as possible to minimize the loss of colour and brilliance from absorption and diffusion in the water.

All living creatures, and especially crustaceans, which leave their dwellings in the dark, are best captured with close-up or macro photography. Sleeping fishes can often be approached by inching closer and closer until you are just a few centimetres away. This gives you the opportunity to get close-up images of their eyes and fins, which, during daylight, are virtually impossible. Many UW-photographers ask me if flashing strobes will disturb a sleeping fish. Good news! It is scientifically proven that sleeping fish are not disturbed by strobes.