A winning image is usually created by
the combination of a concept, understanding the
techniques required to transform the concept
into the desired image and executing those
techniques. Certainly that is the case with the
photograph of a lemon shark at sunset that
accompanies this piece.
 The
Concept
The concept was to photograph a lemon shark near the
surface while capturing mood-creating shafts of
sunlight in the background. Lemon sharks have
dramatic faces and I wanted viewers to be drawn to
the shark's mouth and
teeth, so strobes would be needed to light the
animal's underside. I
wanted to show the shark's
entire body, but didn't
want the shark to occupy the entire frame. I wanted
to save room for the shafts of sunlight and hues of
the water near the surface. I figured they
would help turn "just
another shark picture"
into an especially pleasing photograph.
The Techniques
As sunset neared, the sky along the western horizon
was cloud-free so there was a good chance I
would see shimmering shafts of sunlight in the water
near the surface. Capturing those shafts of light
in my image requires a fast shutter speed, so I
decided to "lock in"
my shutter speed by selecting the
Shutter Priority shooting mode and selecting the
fastest possible shutter speed my camera allows
when using strobes, 1/250th of a second. In the
Shutter Priority mode the ISO and shutter speed
remain constant, and when I trip the shutter, the
camera automatically adjusts the aperture (F-stop)
to
properly expose the background. I used Matrix
Metering to be sure the light meter reading took the
water, not just the shark?s body, into account.
To properly expose the shark with my strobes
I would first need to know the F-stop as determined
by my light meter reading. When provided with the
F-stop, I could determine how close I needed to be
to the shark with my strobes.
I selected a zoom lens so I could alter my
composition as the lemon shark approached.
Executing The Shot
The biggest challenge was getting just the right
distance from the shark when I liked the way the
shark and the rest of the image was composed. My
light meter gave me an aperture of F-4.8, a
relatively large lens opening. Using F-4.8 allowed
me to use one-quarter power on my strobes to
correctly expose a shark that was about 4 feet (1.2
m) away. The low power setting also meant my
strobes could recycle quickly, allowing me to shoot
several frames while the shark was about 4 feet
(1.2 m) from me. Once I had established all of my
settings, the idea was to be just a few feet (a
meter or so) below the surface, look for a shark
that was approaching from the west, take a meter
reading, note the aperture so I knew my desired
strobes-to-shark distance, compose, focus and shoot
as many shots as I could while giving my strobes
enough time to recycle between shots. In the end I
had several nice frames to choose from, with this
one being my favorite.
|
