Sinus Torture

In the Bahamas, Green Turtle Cay - image not being able to dive more than two feet without feeling like your head is going to blowup and your eyes popping out of your skull.  It has been a tease having the reefs in the backyard and not being able to go out and play.

Taking sinus medicine and trying to clear cavities with saltwater to no avail.  On the bright side, I have some time to get over the infection.  On the not so bright side we have been stuck eating pasta for the last three days.

And to top it off the locals have told us the the reefs are being overfished...

Oldie but Goodie.

Caribbean Reef Shark (Green Turtle Cay / Bahamas, 1999)

Photo: Wolfgang Leander

Click to enlarge

I know, this is not a prize winning photo. And yet, I like it very much: It is the type of image Hans Hass took in the late thirties / early forties when he still did breath hold diving. Photographs like this one got me hooked on sharks when I was about six years old.

Since I was strongly impressed by the first shark photographs, I subconsciously still tend to photograph these amazing animals pretty much the way the pioneers of underwater photography did. Thus, I don't use flash; I stick to black and white film; I take my pics while free-diving, and I use only moderate wide angle lenses.

The featured photograph was taken with an ASA 400 film pushed to ASA 1600 - hence the grain. I used a f3,5 28mm wide angle lens, and the available light was too low to have a fast enough shutter speed - it was maybe 1/25th of a second; you can tell by the blurry yellow tail snapper in the foreground.

I still remember vividly the intense way that shark, a young female, observed me, and luckily I was able to capture that piercing look. The eye, however small it is, is the focal point of the photograph. Enlarge the image, and look how the shark looks at YOU.

So, yes, while this pic is just an average one, it is, to me, a goodie that is almost iconographic in a very personal sense.