John Chandler posted this image on the Wetpixel Facebook group. It is perhaps a salutary reminder that good technique can often create images when ambient conditions make this difficult or impossible to do conventionally. John entitled the image “Dragging the Shutter” which is also how he managed to capture it.

The technique involves slowing the shutter speed and opening the aperture of your camera sufficiently so that the background is exposed “correctly” while allowing the strobes to light the foreground. John has used this creatively to capture the distorted view of the shark.

He took the image with a Nikonos V using the Nikonos SB101 UW Flash and a 15mm WA lens. Film was Fujichrome Velvia (which he loved back then). The image was captured in 2000 in the caves just off Makaha Beach on Oahu in Hawaii.