Great White Sharks of South Africa

I've been visiting South Africa in the hops of getting shots of the magnificent Great White Shark breaching. While I was lucky to see this behaviour in previous years by some big sharks in False Bay, the stars never aligned for a photo to be had. Things were made worse by the fact that this year not a single white shark has been seen in False Bay, so there were a lot of last minute changes to the itinerary.

Thankfully, on my 3rd trip in 4 years, I was finally lucky to hit the jackpot on the decoy on 2 magnificent full-on breaches. These are juvenile white sharks, but no less magnificent.

Part of the reason why I got into wildlife and subsequently wildlife photography was specifically seeing the original Air Jaws documentary as part of shark week back in 2001. Being on the same both with Chris & Monique Fallows when I finally got these images makes it even more special.

WOW!!!!!

Eek!

Great shots. I take it people don't swim in those waters? What did you use as a decoy? A seal silhouette? I gather there were a couple of disappointed sharks. Did they spit out the decoy? Did they leave tooth marks in it? Or better still, a tooth? (For those unfamiliar with sharks, they lose and replace teeth routinely.)

Unreal. Third photo is pretty remarkable.

Yeah these are photos right out of Shark Week.

Awesome

Thanks all

joedlh wrote in post #18908506
Eek!

Great shots. I take it people don't swim in those waters? What did you use as a decoy? A seal silhouette? I gather there were a couple of disappointed sharks. Did they spit out the decoy? Did they leave tooth marks in it? Or better still, a tooth? (For those unfamiliar with sharks, they lose and replace teeth routinely.)

Well you'd have to be pretty crazy to swim right at seal island (unless you're cage diving and what have you, which is fun but visibility is quite poor) but people do swim not too far away and there were a few guys in the water surfing 800m away or so.

The seals are made of hard foam. On most of the breaches they seem to be just trying to do damage with an initial hit, so when they realise it's foam they just simply not pursue it further.

Here's an idea of the seal decoy's after the hit, the bottom one was brand spanking new but didn't last long, the one on the top has a bit more "experience" disappointing sharks

These are absolutely amazing, what a rush!

Incredible!

Fantastic series.

Wow, superb.!!

scermat wrote in post #18908475
I've been visiting South Africa in the hops of getting shots of the magnificent Great White Shark breaching. While I was lucky to see this behaviour in previous years by some big sharks in False Bay, the stars never aligned for a photo to be had. Things were made worse by the fact that this year not a single white shark has been seen in False Bay, so there were a lot of last minute changes to the itinerary.

Thankfully, on my 3rd trip in 4 years, I was finally lucky to hit the jackpot on the decoy on 2 magnificent full-on breaches. These are juvenile white sharks, but no less magnificent.

Part of the reason why I got into wildlife and subsequently wildlife photography was specifically seeing the original Air Jaws documentary as part of shark week back in 2001. Being on the same both with Chris & Monique Fallows when I finally got these images makes it even more special.

These are all phenominal shots. I've never seen anything like them before. I can't imagine how many hours you've spent trying to get these images.

These pics are out of this world. I love the last one where all you see is water and teeth.

Great shots and at less than 200mm, that was too close for comfort for me! - Especially like the second shot.