White Sharks - seeing past the teeth

After 300 odd hours of closely observing New Zealand great white sharks underwater, I have found them to be surprisingly wary and cautious.

They are obviously intelligent, intensely curious and incredibly graceful for such an immense creature. Their eyes, rather than being black and cold, are a beautiful shade of blue ringed with brown – observant, rather than soulless eyes!
From a filming perspective sharks are hard to beat; they have ‘presence’ and command attention!

Pretty much everyone loves to see big, dangerous predators (on TV) and great whites have been the stars of Discovery's Shark Week for over 20 years. Not to mention the subject of hundreds of documentaries and news stories. It seems their popularity in the media just continues to grow and they polarise opinions in a way not many other creatures can!

Although no longer portrayed as mindless man-eaters, they are still sensationalised in the media and rarely viewed objectively. It is very hard to write an article or make a documentary about sharks without someone taking offence or disagreeing with the angle taken.
There is also a considerable clash of opinions on the subject of shark viewing from cages and whether this changes their behaviour or poses a danger to water users.

When it comes to filming great whites, a cage is not a bad thing, and I am very lucky to have been involved with some exciting white shark film projects since 2008. These include Discovery Shark Week documentaries and a 3D Imax movie about great whites, as well as helping to design filming cages and write risk management plans for shark shoots. Best of all though, has been the opportunity to spend a lot of time in the water filming and observing these awesome creatures.

‘Shooting’ sharks

Probably the most important thing to remember when you are behind a camera is not to get so engrossed in what you are capturing through the lens that you forget about the real world – particularly when filming sharks! White sharks are unforgiving of mistakes, and if you don’t maintain eye contact or let your attention wander they are instantly aware and will take advantage, resulting in sticking their head into the cage out of sheer curiosity, which can cause problems!
It is hard to resist shooting lots of close-up head shots when filming white sharks as there is something mesmerising about those big dark eyes and huge teeth. It is worth pulling back and shooting wide to get the whole shark in the frame. Showing them in context as a big graceful predator is more striking than just another Jaws shot!

Getting a variety of different angles is important; I particularly like the perspective from inside a bottom cage where you are seeing the sharks circling above you or swimming across the kelp at eye level.

Just saying hi!

On one ‘Shark Week’ shoot in 2013 we used a second small cage with one side made of a clear perspex. It was quite a weird feeling seeing a big shark swimming toward you without any bars between you and it!

One of the most unforgettable white shark filming experiences I have had though was in 2011, trying something that hadn’t been done before in New Zealand at the time. Getting into an open filming cage at night to film white sharks in the dark was an eerie and mind-blowing experience! Dropping into the cage and scanning the dark water in front of the large open door, then suddenly seeing a huge shape looming out of the blackness. Mouth gaping, in slow motion, massive triangular teeth and pectoral fins spread nearly as wide as the cage – that was a major rush! Watching its head rapidly fill my field of view as it homed in on my video lights and having to raise the door quickly before it crashed into the cage certainly elevated the heart rate a bit.

Although it is those heart-stopping moments that stick in your head, what is fascinating is watching how white sharks interact with each other and the things around them. The way they change tactics as conditions alter, approaching out of the sun, coming from underneath, keeping track of where you are looking and always approaching from your blind spot. They are the consummate predator!

White sharks also display quite individual characters. The smaller males are often more stroppy and excitable while the big females are usually calmer and more measured. Some individuals are more curious than others and just seem to want to look at you, even above water! Contrary to most people’s idea of white sharks, food does not solely motivate them. Sometimes ignoring a bait completely and often hanging around a boat or a cage for long periods when there is no bait in the water at all. I have filmed sharks swimming a circle around the cage pooing the whole way around, perhaps signalling their opinion of what’s inside the cage!

For me, white sharks are without a doubt are one of the most impressive, addictive and beautiful creatures I have had the privilege of filming underwater. I hope they are always around to give us that reality check on how puny and insignificant humans are when compared to a creature that has dominated its environment for hundreds of millions of years!