Blue Sharks - Michael S. Nolan Photography

These beautiful open ocean sharks are long, slender, and very graceful. Their deep blue bodies are almost metallic on top, with white counter shading below. In the late 1980’s I could count on seeing almost 100 of these beautiful sharks in the waters between San Diego and San Clemente Island. Working with Bob Cranston, we would chum blues in from miles around in the deep water off San Clemente Island. It was normally only a matter of minutes until the first shark showed up after putting frozen mackerel in the water! We would often have over 50 sharks around us as we dove and photographed these amazing creatures!

These images are from very early in my career as a photographer. I was very lucky to have met Bob on these trips, as he had the unenviable job of wearing the mail suit and keeping any would-be aggressors at bay while I shot away. In order to get really clear images of the Blues I would shoot with a 15mm lens, as close as possible to the approaching shark. Bob would be right behind me, waiting until my strobe fired, before gently tapping the shark on its snout to deter its approach. It was a modified game of “chicken” and I often wondered just what might happen if my strobe malfunctioned and Bob waited just a little too long! Of course this event thankfully never happened.
Thanks Bob!

TIPS FOR BLUE SHARK PHOTOGRAPHS: I debated very long and hard about including these images on this website. Blue Sharks have become very scarce since the late 1980’s, primarily due to their over-fishing. It is hard to find this many animals anymore. The other argument against showing these images was the methodology of getting them. Just as I do not agree with filming captive animals, photographing animals in a set up environment is not a thing I do anymore. Since these trips I have seen many, many sharks of many different species, but without chumming to keep them in, it is a rare shark that will hang around to have its photo taken! These trips were a wonderful introduction to both sharks and Bob, and I certainly don’t regret coming to know a little about either!