He’s gonna need a bigger camera.
Photographer and entrepreneur Euan Rannachan has made a business out of his admiration for sharks and has earned himself a reputation for getting up-close shots of — and sometimes in — the predators.
“I have been fascinated by apex predators all my life including sharks. I had always wanted to cage dive with them and after my first trip [in 2016], I knew it was something I needed to do a lot more of,” the London-born creator of the Guadalupe-based Be A Shark travel adventure company told Caters News. “I can tell you once you do it for the first time, you honestly don’t want to get out.”
While diving in waters infested with “some of the biggest Great White Sharks in the world,” the 36-year-old California resident not only shows customers the beauty of the beasts, but he photographs the creatures so landlubbers can also know their power.
“Helping to educate people now on the fact sharks are not the man-eating monsters they get portrayed as has become part of my life’s work,” he said. “My photos help with that but there really is no substitute to actually seeing the sharks with your own eyes. I call it the rewiring of your brain takes place and you realize they are not there to get you.”
While many people call him “crazy or brave” for constantly getting so close to the notorious sea-dwellers, Rannachan says the experience is actually extremely peaceful for him.
“It is difficult to describe just how calming the cage can be at times,” he said. “You can’t go and hang out with a tiger in its home and come out completely fine, but that’s exactly what you can do with these amazing fish.”
This is despite not always knowing when a shark is approaching.
“Sometimes you don’t get the luxury of seeing the giant shark coming. These animals are so stealthy,” he said. In cases when he does see them coming, the first thing he does is check to see if they’re preparing to attack.
“When a white shark is preparing to attack the bait you can sometimes tell with the way they slightly change the way they are swimming and the shape they put their fins in,” he explained. “If they seem like they are spooling up for a fast approach I am usually getting my spot ready in the cage to track them all the way through their movement. If they are coming at a lazy speed, I get to take my time and try and create art as they approach using the light or other objects to my advantage to try and show the scale.”
Sometimes, he’s able to maneuver GoPros into their mouths and back out. His only limitations when photographing from the cage, he added, are “if it gets too cold or I run out of battery, or card space.”
