4th photo of my Great Whites series of 8 (False Bay, South Africa, 2010)

If you’ve seen the rest of the sharks in my photos, you might have noticed how they all take center stage, except for this one. This shark breached so fast I almost missed it as I was trying to wipe seawater off my face! Thank God I had pre-set the focus to the decoy earlier and was still able to get the photo as I rushed to reframe and fired a couple of shots in the process. Pre-focusing saved the captain from what would have been endless rants.

Location is key, these sharks usually hunt around Seal Island, home to around 50,000 seals. This is where the sharks wait for the seals to go out at sea. Almost all the decoy runs were carried out in that area.

Photographed using: Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III – lens at 200mm – 1/1250 – f7.1 – ISO 1000