In July, I went to French Polynesia with Fabrice Charleux of Plongeur.com to capture stills and video of the incredible schools of gray reef sharks that call its remote atolls home. At that time, I posted only a few still frames from the trip—not because I didn’t want to share, but because I had something larger planned. When I returned home, I called up Mary Lynn Price of DiveFilm and asked her if she would be interested in collaborating in a podcast episode. Luckily, Mary Lynn was excited about the project, and together, we have finally finished and published a new DiveFilm HD episode on the sharks of French Polynesia. To see the video, please download it from iTunes. DiveFilm is currently the only ocean-related podcast featured by Apple, and the only way to make sure it stays there is to have folks download and view it through iTunes!

Links to podcast: DiveFilm HD on iTunes. The episode is called “Shark Diving French Polynesia!”

Special thanks to Fabrice Charleux (gracious host and organizer; translator; subtitling), Mary Lynn Price (editor; podcast goddess), Don Kehoe (grumpy photo assistant), Dave Patchen (supporting friend), Adam Tow (interview camera assistance) and Rae Chang (interview assistance). This would not have been possible without all of you!

Footage taken with Canon 7D, Canon S95, and GoPro Hero camera in Eye of Mine flat-port housing.

SHARKS! Video grab from a dive at the south pass of Fakarava

This is a screen grab from a video I took while diving the south pass of Fakarava (Tumakohua). There are hundreds of gray reef sharks there, just hanging out in the current. It was every bit as incredible as it was the last time I was there.

We did two shark dives in Tahiti hosted by TOPDIVE-Bathys dive center. I’ve done shark dives all around the world, and was really impressed by the number of gray reef sharks in the area. We had approximately 50 gray reef sharks, a few black-tip reef sharks, and a couple lemon sharks. A tiger shark has been at the dive semi-regularly, but it didn’t show up for us.

Given that Tahiti is an easy, 8-hour flight from LAX, the shark dive at TOPDIVE-Bathys might be the most accessible dive with lots of sharks for those of us who live in California.

I’m told that the baited dive is both new and controversial here on the island, and interestingly, the Tahiti shark dive isn’t even highlighted on the TOPDIVE-Bathys website (but the Moorea shark dive is). But given the quality of the local shark dive, it will no doubt attract a good number of divers in the shark diving community.

Fakarava, French Polynesia

I haven’t been in the water since December—it’s the longest I’ve been dry in a decade. Obviously, the big reason I haven’t been in the water is that I’ve been busy in my role as Director of Photography at Lytro. Startup life and lots of time underwater do not seem to be compatible. :)

Tomorrow, I’m headed to French Polynesia with my buddies Don Kehoe and Dave Patchen. We’ll meet up with Fabrice Charleux of Plongeur.com for 10 days in Tahiti and Fakarava. I haven’t been to French Polynesia since an epic journey in 2005 with Douglas Seifert, Ron & Valerie Taylor, Mike McDowell, and others, and I’m really looking forward to being there again.

I’ve packed two Canon 7D bodies (thanks, Dan, for the loan of a body!), a Nauticam underwater housing, Ikelite strobes, 4 GoPro cameras in 2 underwater 3D GoPro housings, 2 Lytro prototype light field cameras, and a Fuji X100. That may seem like a lot, but it’s travelling light compared to what I often bring on photography trips.

Sharks, here we come!