One last post of GWS. This time the sharks are really close. This first one was shot at 12mm. I’m not sure how the sea weed got between his teeth. I really wish it wasn’t there but I was not about to try and floss for her.
This one was shot at 22mm.
Archive for the ‘Image Subject’ Category
Guadalupe Island: Great White Sharks (#5)
Guadalupe Island: Great White Shark (#4)
Here are a couple more Great White Shark images from our recent trip to Isla Guadalupe.
These two are from different days. I posted them together because they both show right-left movement.
It is truly amazing to see how graceful these big animals are underwater.
It’s also interesting to see how many scars they have on their bodies. For the females, most of them come during mating when the male bites them to hold on. Good thing sharks are fast healers!
Guadalupe Island: Great White Shark (#3)
A quick post today.
Thviagra is my favorite shark image from the trip.
Guadalupe Island: Great White Sharks Near the Surface (#2)
As I mentioned in a previous post the cages we used for this expedition were submerged to 40 feet. There are a number of advantages to do this instead of only using surface cages. But there is at least one advantage and that is not having the opportunity to capture lines of light created by the water’s surface acting as a lens to that focuses the light on the shark’s back. So I thought I would start the shark close-up with some shots take either from the surface cage of early in a dive in the submerged gage, but while it was still on the surface.
Isla Guadalupe: Great White Shark (#1)
In the previous post I showed the gages used to protect the divers when Great White Sharks are around. So this time I’ll show a couple images where a shark swim between the two submerged cages. This way you get some scale as to just how big the animals are. This particular shark is about 15-16 feet long.
Many operations only use cages on the surface. These were submerged to 40 feet to allow view of the sharks in more of their environment.
Where Are the Sharks?
Unfortunately we were unlucky enough to be the first group in the water when we arrived at Isla Guadalupe. We did see a Great White Shark but it was too far away for a picture. Most of the time we got to look at blue water.
However these pix will give you an idea a what diving in shark cages is like. My wife, Sue, and I were in the two person cage for the first dive. Here is my first frame, a “test shot” of her—both strobe fired. (Underwater you just never know.)
And here is a shot of the other cage, the four person cage.
California Sea Lions
Before getting to Isla Guadalupe and the Great White Sharks we spend a few days diving around Islas San Benitos. This was all kelp diving. The highlight of this part of the trip was spending an afternoon at a sea lion rookery. The pups, like any young mammals, are full of energy and are very inquisitive. The can make for some interesting photo ops.
I’ve been told that the literal translation of the German for sea lion is sea dog. I think the next two images illustrate just how much these young sea lions do look like little puppy dogs.
Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly
About a month ago Jim Wilson and I went to Springtron Manor to check out their Butterfly House. While there I lucky enough to find samples of all four stages of their life cycle: egg, caterpillar, pupa, and adult butterfly. I don’t think these are great pix by any means, they simply document the four stages of this butterfly’s lifecycle
Lifecycle
Pipevine Swallowtails can have a wingspan up to 3 1/2 inches. They are black with bluish-green metallic color on the hind wings. When a Pipevine Swallowtail folds its wings while it’s resting, you will see a curved row of bright orange dots underneath its wings.
Pipevine Swallowtail eggs are a reddish/maroon color and laid in groups of up to 20 eggs on the underside of host plant, pipevine, leaves. Since Pipevine is poisonous to vertebrates, adult Pipevine butterflies are poisonous to birds and other predators that might try to eat them.