sharks

A quick-thinking drone photographer alerted authorities after spotting a great white shark swimming close to the water's edge, potentially saving lives.

Photographer Euan Rannachan shares what it's like to photograph majestic and dangerous sharks up-close, including an encounter with Brutus, a 1,500-pound great white shark.

How would you feel if you were standing at the stern of the boat as twenty 10-foot lemon sharks circle at the surface in front of you and in the depths below an even larger tiger shark cruises the algal reefs? Would you make that jump into the water, with nothing between you and these apex predators? Would you keep your calm?

National Geographic contributing photographer Laurent Ballesta was diving in the waters of French Polynesia when he finally saw a sight that he had been working for the last four years to capture: a shark feeding frenzy in the midst of breeding groupers.

Upon first glance, photographer Benjamin Von Wong's latest work looks like a Photoshop composite that shows a model swimming with sharks below the sea. But what you see is the real deal: Von Wong did actually tie down a model underwater with sharks swimming around, all for a series of surreal (but very real) portraits.

How far would you go for the perfect wildlife photo? Would you sit on a rotting whale carcass in the midst of great white shark feeding frenzy? Well, that's exactly what one scientist photographer does in the clip above, which aired back in 2008 on the Discovery Channel.

Underwater photographer Aaron Gekoski was recently on an outing to photograph one of the largest migrations in the world's oceans, but the project was hampered by unfavorable conditions. Instead of writing the trip off as a failure, however, Gekoski and his buddy decided to tackle a different photo project instead: selfies with sharks.

Shark Week, Discovery Channel's very own opiate for the masses that seems to be about as addictive to people as crack, is only a couple of days away. And during that week, renowned celebrity photographer and gutsy #cagefree shark photographer Michael Muller will be running Discovery's Instagram from Mexico, snapping and uploading the kinds of toothy photos shark week addicts can never get enough of.

So, before we let loose the terror and adrenaline, let's meet this talented photographer who brought studio quality lighting conditions to the underwater world of sharks, and left the cage behind.

Marine biologist turned photographer Thomas Peschak spent some time documenting the remote atolls of Bassas de India and Europa, known to be home of some of the most beautiful seascapes in the world.

While doing so, cameraman Dan Beecham and writer Sunnye Collins created a behind the scenes video showing how Peschak went about capturing the beautiful scenery.

The photograph above may look like some kind of imaginary scene conjured up by a Photoshop wizard, but it's an actual photograph showing a real model swimming with a real whale shark.

Photographers Shawn Heinrichs and Kristian Schmidt carried out the "revolutionary fashion shoot" recently off the coast of the Philippines, creating a set of fashion photos that are unlike any we've seen before.

Hong Kong-based photographer Alexander Safonov shoots incredible underwater photographs showing scenes teeming with marine life.

National Geographic photographer and filmmakers do some pretty crazy stuff and use some pretty crazy gear in order to capture the perfect shot. They're the type of people who see a large shark and, instead of fleeing the scene, think to themselves, "we should attach a camera to that thing." And then they actually do it.

Mounting cameras on sharks is risky business, though, and the video above shows just how dangerous it can be. In it, marine biologist Greg Marshall tells of his first attempt at deploying his camera onto the back of a large shark back in 1992. It didn't go according to plan.

If the movie Jaws gave you nightmares, then you're probably not well-suited to do the kind of photography that photographer Michael Muller spends his free time doing. Muller dives into the ocean and snaps close-up portraits of deadly sharks, often without a cage for protection. The video above is a short feature on Muller's pastime by the TV show "Last Call With Carson Daly."

Photographing apex predators on land is one thing, but do it in the ocean and it's an entirely different ball game. This behind-the-scenes video follows underwater photographer Marc Montocchio of 36North on a trip he took to the island of Saint Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. His goal was to capture a photograph of a free swimming blue marlin, which required the fishermen helping him to "fish" with a lure and no hook.

Everyone knows you shouldn't leave DSLRs unattended in public places on land, but did you know that the same is true for when you're shooting on the ocean floor? In the video above, one unlucky diver leaves his DSLR rig sitting on the ocean floor while swimming with sharks, only to have a klepto tiger shark swipe it and swim away.