Fish Say Cheese: If Your Shark Photos Aren't Good, You're Not Close Enough Jakob Schiller - Wired
go to original June 1, 2015

Jorge Hauser has three rules for photographing sharks. First, always make eye contact so the shark knows you’re watching. Second, always dive with a buddy so a shark doesn’t sneak up behind you. And third, no matter what, remain calm so you don’t flail around like a dying seal.

These simple guidelines have kept sharks - and any number of other things–from making a snack of him during the hundreds of hours he’s spent beneath the surface making the stunning images in his ongoing series Fish Say Cheese.

Hauser lives in Mexico and fell in love with sea as a child while fishing with his grandfather. He didn’t start shooting seriously until 2011, but once he dove with a camera, he was hooked. He’s photographed all along the coast of Mexico and through the Caribbean, and even visited the Red Sea. He likes to get in close - often getting mere inches from his subjects - because of the intimacy it creates. “I’ve literally kissed a shark,” he boasts.

He dives without a cage, and shoots with a Canon EOS-1DX and a 14mm lens. The gear is protected by a Nauticam NA-1DX underwater housing with a nine-inch glass dome port. Unlike some underwater photographers, Hauser shuns strobes in favor of natural light. It’s hard to shoot an entire 12-foot tiger shark or vast school of fish with artificial lighting, he says. To get the best possible light, Hauser works near the surface so his subjects are drenched in the soft, sifting rays from above.

Read the rest at Wired

Photo: Jorge Hauser

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