Ornate Wobbegong at Fish Rock

This magnificent 2.5 metre Wobbegong was perfectly positioned on a massive boulder as he surveyed his territory with a resident school of Bullseye providing further camouflage. To capture this image I needed to manuevour within 30 centimetres of its mouth which can invade the comfort zone of some animals! The model, in this case my wife Cherie, must be careful not to disturb the shark and the photographer should be very alert to the shark's body language as disturbed marine life acts two ways, flight or fight. Watch out for any movement or tensioning of the sharks pectoral fins, you then have a split second to shoot your picture and duck if its flight or take the bite if its fight. Hopefully it bites your camera!

Photo Data: Location: Fish Rock, South West Rocks, New South Wales, Australia. Genre: Extreme Wide Angle Sunlight & Strobes. Nikon D200, Nikkor 10.5 Full Frame Fisheye lens, Seacam Housing & Dual Seacam Strobes, ISO 200, Manual Exposure Mode. Exposure f8 @ 1/125 th second. Image by Kevin Deacon

Photo Hints: Select the exposure to render the water column a nice blue. Shoot some test shots of some rocks nearby to test that your strobe power setting is suitable for a similar strobe to subject distance as your intended subject. Move gently into position and minimize your movements while close as you do not want to disturb the shark.

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