The opportunity to take pictures of
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As a young boy, I was always fascinated by sharks. So to have an opportunity to take pictures of sharks while actually being in the water with them was a dream come true. I must confess to being nervous and apprehensive during the boat ride out there. But once I was in the water and had my camera in hand, I forgot all about the fear and let the fascination take over.
Heading out to look for black-tipped reef sharks. The man
standing was our French guide on the shark feed.
Side view of a black-tipped reef shark in the shallow
lagoon waters of Bora Bora, Tahiti.
Here comes Jaws! I was about 3 or 4 feet away from this shark
when I took this photo. He simply glided right on past me.
There were six of us in the water off the shoreline of Bora Bora and about 6 or 7 black-tipped reef sharks around us. The sharks were attracted to the boat with fish blood and fish oil. A couple of other people with us also had cameras and began taking shark pictures as well. The sharks would swim among us but concentrated most of their attention on our French guide and his assistant who were feeding them chunks of fish.
Our French guide (I don't remember his name) was hand feeding
some of the sharks.
Shark circling around for more food.
One shark headed directly for my friend at one point - then dove under him just brushing his foot. But at no time did we feel threatened. They were more interested in the chunks of fish than they were in us. While I was taking pictures of sharks, time seemed to stand still. I was hoping to capture a couple of good shark photos, but it was more difficult to photograph them than I imagined because of their constant movement. Nevertheless, I was pleased to get a few shots worth saving. This trip happened before the age of digital cameras and I ran out of film quickly. But I will always cherish the memory of taking
pictures of sharks in Bora Bora, Tahiti.
The sharks were very quick and it was difficult to center them in the
camera frame. I cropped quite a bit off the bottom of this photo.
Here is another photograph that I had to crop a bit.
Please visit more of my Tahiti pages:
Pictures of Moorea, Tahiti
Pictures of Bora Bora, Tahiti
Tahiti main page
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