...in 10 minutes or less.
So new divers often ask me, how do you get the sharks in your videos to behave so nicely for the camera? Do you bait them? Actually, most sharks I film are quite shy and have the tendency to behave like dogs. I know, sounds crazy, but watch this video:
[vimeo]12935171[/vimeo]
The shark you are seeing is one animal, a juvenile, about 7 FT long. To get this action, I separated from the other divers and went solo. The trick is not scaring the shark and letting them come to you in their own time. More divers scare them. Observe the fish swim pattern on the wreck or reef. It's like rush hour traffic. Everything has a rhythm. Sit and wait. Put yourself in the swim pattern of the shark and let him (or her) come to you. The first pass in the video was close. The second pass, closer. In the third pass, the shark was completely relaxed and actually altered it's pattern to come to me. I use a super-wide angle video lens. At closest approach, the shark was less than 12 inches from the glass.
Minimize your breathing (sharks are scared of bubbles). Relax and show no fear. They WON'T bight you, LOL. Don't move at all as they approach. DON'T try and touch them, it's like hitting them with a shock because of their skin sensitivity.
Try and remember that if these guys REALLY wanted to eat you they most certainly could. They could come tearing in at 30+ MPH and knock you down with their 300 LB weight before you even know what happened. The point is they chose NOT to. Instead, they behave very politely. I've been in the middle of a school of thirty or more at one time and have always enjoyed their company.
BTW, the wreck is the F.W. Abrams, a tanker off Cape Hatteras. 90 FT of 80 degree blue tropical water. The ray in the video is 4 FT across. The fish on the wreck are fantastic.
Everything you see in the video was filmed in less than 30 minutes on one dive.
ENJOY!
So new divers often ask me, how do you get the sharks in your videos to behave so nicely for the camera? Do you bait them? Actually, most sharks I film are quite shy and have the tendency to behave like dogs. I know, sounds crazy, but watch this video:
[vimeo]12935171[/vimeo]
The shark you are seeing is one animal, a juvenile, about 7 FT long. To get this action, I separated from the other divers and went solo. The trick is not scaring the shark and letting them come to you in their own time. More divers scare them. Observe the fish swim pattern on the wreck or reef. It's like rush hour traffic. Everything has a rhythm. Sit and wait. Put yourself in the swim pattern of the shark and let him (or her) come to you. The first pass in the video was close. The second pass, closer. In the third pass, the shark was completely relaxed and actually altered it's pattern to come to me. I use a super-wide angle video lens. At closest approach, the shark was less than 12 inches from the glass.
Minimize your breathing (sharks are scared of bubbles). Relax and show no fear. They WON'T bight you, LOL. Don't move at all as they approach. DON'T try and touch them, it's like hitting them with a shock because of their skin sensitivity.
Try and remember that if these guys REALLY wanted to eat you they most certainly could. They could come tearing in at 30+ MPH and knock you down with their 300 LB weight before you even know what happened. The point is they chose NOT to. Instead, they behave very politely. I've been in the middle of a school of thirty or more at one time and have always enjoyed their company.
BTW, the wreck is the F.W. Abrams, a tanker off Cape Hatteras. 90 FT of 80 degree blue tropical water. The ray in the video is 4 FT across. The fish on the wreck are fantastic.
Everything you see in the video was filmed in less than 30 minutes on one dive.
ENJOY!
