First, a little coda to my White Shark cage dive trip. The yellow buoy above is property of the National Institute of Water and Atmosphere. My best buddy Mike works for them, helping protect NZ's marine fish stocks. A few days ago an old documentary making friend of mine, Radio New Zealand National's Alison Ballance showed her partner my blog. His name is Malcolm Francis and he works for NIWA too. The buoy in the picture is part of a study he's undertaking of white sharks.
Malcolm got in touch and asked if I could show him any pictures of the tags on the sharks we saw. See that one on the shark below - just in front of the dorsal fin? I sent Malcolm a few topside pictures that show the colour banding, and despite the rippling effect of the water, he got a few useful data points for his study. Malcolm let me know two of the sharks we saw are: Blue-red-red, a 3.3 m male tagged 2 April at Herekopare Is and Black-black-red, a 2.8 m male, tagged 29 March at Edwards Island. So in our tiny way, we helped further our knowledge of these magnificent fish.
Second, it's kind of fitting, when a picture I took while making a documentary about shark attacks got me into this whole photography thing in the first place. TV tends merely to demonise sharks - that's how it attracts an audience. It's good to add something actually useful to the pot, even if it's one datum of info. I've come a long way in a short space of time though, thanks to that shot.
Thirdly, it's winter here in NZ, not just climatically, but there's a winter of the soul here for a lot of folks, with the economy, the ChCh earthquake, and the Highlanders' fall from form in the Rugby Super 15 competition. My good friend Reatha, who moved her photography business to Wellington is feeling a little chill herself. She was doing gangbusters down here, but despite her excellent Retro-style wedding, portrait and family photography (she's all class - shoots film on Hasselblad and Holga), Wellington is a little slow to discover her. That's no surprise, it's not exactly wedding season, but it's time to book that spring or summer shoot now. Do me (and yourself) a favour. If you or anyone you know in the upper South Island or Lower North Island is looking to get some stylish engagement, wedding, family or portrait pictures done, check out her excellent work here, give her a call or refer your friends to her. You won't be sorry.
Clive you are such a sweatheart posting this for me. I only just noticed. I was looking through my stats going why are people coming here from Clive's site. :)
ReplyDeleteI love your shark pictures, and I'm deeply jealous they are so amazing. Just the chance to be in the water with these incredible creatures must have been breath taking. You Rock!