Great white shark breach, False Bay

:: Wednesday, July 12th, 2006 @ 6:54:48 am

:: Tags: Photo, Travel

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.

Popularity: 29% | False Bay, S. Africa | link | trackback | posted @ Jul 12, 2006 06:54:48

:: 48 comments (rss)

1. posted by norm on Wed, July 12, 2006 @ 7:14 am

   Wow.

2. posted by kennyliu on Wed, July 12, 2006 @ 7:40 am

   you should photoshop in a little miniature you for perspective.

   that is one big fish.

3. posted by Caroline :) on Wed, July 12, 2006 @ 7:42 am

   that is amazing, seeing the detail in those shots. he’s even got little fins on the underside of his tail! coooool.

4. posted by echeng on Wed, July 12, 2006 @ 8:07 am

   Those are anal and pelvin fins. Check out this illustration for more on shark anatomy. Obviously, this is a huge male. ;)

5. posted by Adman on Wed, July 12, 2006 @ 8:13 am

   WOW!

6. posted by al vinjamur on Wed, July 12, 2006 @ 9:31 am

   nice! xrated claspers and all! how far were u?

7. posted by echeng on Wed, July 12, 2006 @ 9:39 am

   The shots were at 100mm on a 1D Mk2. You can figure it out. :)

8. posted by anonymous on Wed, July 12, 2006 @ 12:56 pm

   I’d definitely put a bigger watermark in these photos.

9. posted by echeng on Wed, July 12, 2006 @ 12:59 pm

   Bah. if someone uses them illegally, i’ll find them and get payment out of them.

10. posted by Alexis on Wed, July 12, 2006 @ 2:17 pm

    nice job on framing that :)

11. posted by stephen on Wed, July 12, 2006 @ 3:08 pm

    Fantastic shots - so what size do think this one actually was?

12. posted by David on Wed, July 12, 2006 @ 3:46 pm

    I’d like to see a .gif animation!

13. posted by Curtis on Wed, July 12, 2006 @ 5:43 pm

    gota love that 8.5fps :) great shots.

14. posted by Aaron on Wed, July 12, 2006 @ 6:41 pm

    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.

15. posted by echeng on Wed, July 12, 2006 @ 11:03 pm

    Stephen - the shark was about 4 meters (13 ft) long.

    Aaron - the claspers are indeed rather large!! :)

16. posted by shu on Thu, July 13, 2006 @ 2:49 am

    I am so proud of you, Eric. These shots are wonderful.

17. posted by echeng on Thu, July 13, 2006 @ 3:01 am

    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. :)

18. posted by Mer on Thu, July 13, 2006 @ 10:43 am

    HOOOOOOLY SHIIIIIIIIT!!!!!

19. posted by Justin K on Thu, July 13, 2006 @ 10:55 am

    These are awe-inspiring Eric. Amazing! Congratulations.

20. posted by Jens Kuhfs on Thu, July 13, 2006 @ 11:17 am

    Eric - VERY GOOD. I’m jealous and impressed ! This is a huge girl :-))

21. posted by Chung on Thu, July 13, 2006 @ 11:51 am

    very nice, eric!

22. posted by Daniel on Thu, July 13, 2006 @ 12:36 pm

    great pictures! wasn’t it difficult to get sharp shots when you are on the boat?

23. posted by echeng on Thu, July 13, 2006 @ 1:17 pm

    Jens — it’s a BOY!! :)

24. posted by jesse on Thu, July 13, 2006 @ 1:58 pm

    that’s pretty astounding.

25. posted by angus on Fri, July 14, 2006 @ 1:19 am

    holy schnikes!! Those are some amazing shots. So what made the shark jump out of the water like that?

26. posted by EggRollMonster on Fri, July 14, 2006 @ 7:48 am

    Eric, Do sharks have testicles? What do they look like? Those are awesome photos.

27. posted by markus on Sat, July 15, 2006 @ 11:44 am

    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.”

28. posted by Snuffy on Sat, July 15, 2006 @ 6:30 pm

    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

29. posted by Marjorie on Mon, July 17, 2006 @ 1:22 pm

    Wish I could be as eloquent as the photos are beautiful — but, WOW! is going to have to suffice.

30. posted by Ronda Allen on Wed, July 19, 2006 @ 2:07 pm

    Breaching shark my bum … that guy is FLYING. It always amazes me how much power they have with little effort. Beautiful pix Eric!!

31. posted by Manson on Fri, July 28, 2006 @ 9:33 am

    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!

32. posted by simon on Wed, August 02, 2006 @ 4:49 am

    Great pics, loads of patience.

    Kinda puts this incident which happened last week into perspective…

    A Fish Hoek lifesaver has survived a shockingly close encounter with a large shark that attacked his surf ski while he was out paddling in the bay. … “I fell out of the ski, between the shark and the ski with my one hand on the shark’s back.”

    pics

    Eek.

33. posted by Across Weirdish Wild Space » Sharks Jump ? on Mon, August 07, 2006 @ 10:41 pm

    [...] 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. [...]

34. posted by Guy on Thu, November 02, 2006 @ 4:04 am

    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

35. posted by Laure on Sat, November 04, 2006 @ 5:53 am

    WOOOW unbelievable. It remind me fotos of national geographic! What a pity we don’t have such great sharks in France!

36. posted by David Garry on Wed, January 03, 2007 @ 9:14 am

    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!

37. posted by echeng on Wed, January 03, 2007 @ 11:10 am

    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.

38. posted by Tom on Sun, January 21, 2007 @ 12:18 pm

    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

39. posted by Martin R. on Thu, February 15, 2007 @ 11:53 pm

    Es para fliparlo, es una de las pocas fotos que me han llamado la atención realmente en internet

40. posted by José Estévez on Sun, June 03, 2007 @ 5:45 pm

    God is a White Shark.

41. posted by AJRaffles on Thu, July 19, 2007 @ 7:22 pm

    These are wonderfully graceful and awesomely powerful shots, Eric. Congratulations indeed.

42. posted by devin on Thu, August 02, 2007 @ 11:38 am

    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

43. posted by Matt Prince on Thu, August 02, 2007 @ 4:07 pm

    Absolutely stonking.

    Someone should show this to the Sun - so they know what one looks like!

44. posted by tulipp on Thu, August 02, 2007 @ 9:08 pm

    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…….:)

45. posted by   Cheng White Shark Photos - Travel on Wed, August 29, 2007 @ 12:39 pm

    [...] 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 [...]

46. posted by Jesus Christo on Sat, February 09, 2008 @ 12:43 am

    Great captures! Were these taken closer to Seal Island or more to shore? (love those obscene claspers, btw!)

47. posted by Wyl-Ellen on Sat, May 10, 2008 @ 9:30 am

    why would a shark jump out of the sea ? to be noticed? she is like dancing in the air . . . .BALLET! =) LIKE THIS ONE

48. posted by SHARK WEEK: RECOMMENDED IMAGE(S): Breaching great white shark sequence off of Seal Island, False Bay by Eric Cheng « The Conservation Report on Sat, July 19, 2008 @ 7:47 pm

    [...] SHARK WEEK: RECOMMENDED IMAGE(S): Breaching great white shark sequence off of Seal Island, False Bay by Eric Cheng Posted in Uncategorized by buckdenton on July 19th, 2008 The image shows a male great white (Carcharodon carcharias) leaping out of the ocean. Purchase this image that captures an amazing display of great white behavior here. [...]

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