Swimming with sharks ( Test Shots )

He's behind you

                                                    The simple yet effective setup

                                            I think this is my fave of the test shots

 

Bit of a nightmare job lighting wise . This is as close as you can get to the sharks without getting your equipment wet . Taken at Blue Planet Aquarium in Ellesmere Port where you can dive with sharks for about £200 or free if you do it for charity* . Luckily I had a bit of time to experiment before the Journalist took to the water . 

The two main problems were the reflection of lighting ( Normal and Christmas decorations to add to the problems ) , then the actual lighting inside the tank . To combat this I had my camera resting as close to the perspex as possible and at times had a coat over my head and camera ( may have looked a bit daft but it worked )!!

Using direct flash would have been totally useless with this job unless you want a white star in the middle of the image . To combat this I Used 2 flashguns with a remote flash trigger ( See 5th picture down ) . My spare flashgun was £35 and remote flash triggers £20 from E bay . (  The triggers I ordered a week previous and they actually got delivered that morning from Hong Kong so quite lucky really !

All pics were taken on a Canon Eos 40D at Iso 800 ( Any higher and I find things get too grainy ) . 

Not forgetting that you also need the sharks to perform . 

( Nobody died or lost any limbs )