Great white shark breach, False Bay (Photo, Travel)
:: Wednesday, July 12th, 2006 @ 6:54:48 am
great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) breach, false bay, south africa
*UPDATE* Purchase a print of this image!
This is what I came here to get! Four days, and only one breach opportunity. Luckily, I managed to nail it. :) I was lucky, though — I had the camera in portrait orientation and when the shark rotated horizontal I managed to keep him in the frame without cutting anything off. I’ve been going out with Chris & Monique Fallows here in False Bay/Simonstown.
A big storm is going to hit Cape Town tonight. 5-meter swells and wind speed at 35+ knots. Gonna be fun.
Read more for two bigger images.
And, as requested, and animated version:
UPDATE: You can see the BBC footage from Planet Earth at YouTube. It’s awesome.
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Wow.
you should photoshop in a little miniature you for perspective.
that is one big fish.
that is amazing, seeing the detail in those shots. he’s even got little fins on the underside of his tail! coooool.
Those are anal and pelvin fins. Check out this illustration for more on shark anatomy. Obviously, this is a huge male. ;)
WOW!
nice! xrated claspers and all! how far were u?
The shots were at 100mm on a 1D Mk2. You can figure it out. :)
I’d definitely put a bigger watermark in these photos.
Bah. if someone uses them illegally, i’ll find them and get payment out of them.
nice job on framing that :)
Fantastic shots - so what size do think this one actually was?
I’d like to see a .gif animation!
gota love that 8.5fps :) great shots.
If I had such big claspers, I’d jump out of the water to show them off too.
Also, it looks like the shark is vomiting water, which is quite hilarious. To me at least.
Stephen - the shark was about 4 meters (13 ft) long.
Aaron - the claspers are indeed rather large!! :)
I am so proud of you, Eric. These shots are wonderful.
Thanks, mom! My mom is the coolest. Did y’all know that she has dropped me off for trips to photograph great white sharks? It’s funny to hear a “have a good trip!” from your mom on the way out to be in the water with big sharks. :)
HOOOOOOLY SHIIIIIIIIT!!!!!
These are awe-inspiring Eric. Amazing! Congratulations.
Eric - VERY GOOD. I’m jealous and impressed ! This is a huge girl :-))
very nice, eric!
great pictures! wasn’t it difficult to get sharp shots when you are on the boat?
Jens — it’s a BOY!! :)
that’s pretty astounding.
holy schnikes!! Those are some amazing shots. So what made the shark jump out of the water like that?
Eric, Do sharks have testicles? What do they look like? Those are awesome photos.
eggrollmonster: sharktrust.org says:
“Internally males have testes that produce sperm and secrete hormones that control the development of male characteristics.[…] Externally the only difference is the absence of claspers.”
Awesome stuff Eric. You seriously have the best life. Man, to go all around the world would be enough, but to take some seriously superb photography is too cool. Look forward to your new stuff.
BTW, pepcid rocks. ;-)
-Snuffy
Wish I could be as eloquent as the photos are beautiful — but, WOW! is going to have to suffice.
Breaching shark my bum … that guy is FLYING. It always amazes me how much power they have with little effort. Beautiful pix Eric!!
Wow Eric! I’m a bit late to the party. I must say that you never cease to impress with your spectacular photography. Great work on the shark! It must have been a rush. And yes you nailed it perfectly!
Great pics, loads of patience.
Kinda puts this incident which happened last week into perspective…
pics
Eek.
[…] OK, I’m embarrassed to admit that until I saw these pictures by Erich Cheng (scroll down the page for the money shots), I was not aware that sharks breached at all, let alone so dramatically. […]
One of the most efficient animals ever, displaying itself in shear beaty. My sincere congratulations for the beaty and the quality of these images. Guy
WOOOW
unbelievable.
It remind me fotos of national geographic!
What a pity we don’t have such great sharks in France!
Eric, your images have inspired me to do the same thing as I’m in Cape Town next year. I have one question: For both breaching & close-up shots, what is the best lens: Canon 70-200 ISmm or Canon 24-105mm. I can only get one before I go, but I don’t know which is better. I assume you would have been able to take these shots with a 24-105mm as your focal range was 100mm. Very keen to hear your views. Thanks for the inspiration!
David - I think either would be fine. The 24-105 is lighter and may be easier to hold. You’re going to want a long lens for natural predation shots, though.
I saw this footage on TV last week on the Planet Earth program and at the point when the shark is horizontal, it is the most phenomenal piece of video footage I have ever seen in my life….well done
Es para fliparlo, es una de las pocas fotos que me han llamado la atención realmente en internet
God is a White Shark.
These are wonderfully graceful and awesomely powerful shots, Eric. Congratulations indeed.
love your pictures im really into great whites looking forward to more pictures do you cage dive i saw people this week swimming whith great whites on shark week discovery channels 20th aniversery you are a great picture taker
Absolutely stonking.
Someone should show this to the Sun - so they know what one looks like!
awesome animal..awesome pics….how can any mere human dare to think these magnificnet animals should ever be hunted or killed…will any man even come close to such evolutioanry perfection…rock on Jaws…….:)
[…] and haven’t done a food diving post in a while. But Eric recently told me to check out a series of his photos of a Great White Shark and, well, I don’t want to have to describe […]
Great captures! Were these taken closer to Seal Island or more to shore?
(love those obscene claspers, btw!)
why would a shark jump out of the sea ? to be noticed? she is like dancing in the air . . . .BALLET! =) LIKE THIS ONE