Stock Photo Gallery: Blue Shark Underwater Photographs
Underwater stock photos of Blue Sharks (Prionace glauca)
I’ve updated my collection of blue shark underwater photos. Most of these blue shark photographs were taking freediving (breathhold diving) with a few friends in the open ocean near San Diego or just below the border in Mexico. In days gone by, a small bucket of chum would bring in 5-20 blue sharks, sometimes more, and they were big beautiful sharks, sleek and long and graceful. Longliners and the fishing industry has decimated the blue shark (Prionace glauca) population in the eastern Pacific (along with many other shark species) and today a bucket of chum might attract a few sharks which will typically be small. Some of the best days of my life have been spent swimming around a small boat under the hot California sun, in clean blue offshore water, trying to keep track of the sharks swimming around and frame up a few good images. Life is good! Thanks for looking. Click the image below to see my gallery of blue shark photos.
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| Blue shark, Baja California. Species: Blue shark, Prionace glauca |
Leopard Shark Photos, Triakis semifasciata
Stock photographs of leopard sharks, Triakis semifasciata.
I’ve been diving in the kelp forest for about 20 years, yet have never been able to get a decent photo of a leopard shark (Triakis semifasciata) in the wild. I’ve seen them many times, but never had a good opportunity for a photo. Leopard sharks are relatively harmless coastal sharks, often found in shallow water in kelp forests or over sand flats. They exhibit a beautiful spotted pattern which provides excellent camoflage, in seaweed especially. However, leopard sharks are timid, and do not typically approach people or divers. The best place that I know of to see leopard sharks is directly in front of the Marine Room restaurant in La Jolla, in shallow water (4′-8′ deep), in summer, since they congregate there en masse. I take my daughters there sometimes to snorkel and look at the leopard sharks. But the water clarity there is poor, making good picture taking difficult. Another good place is the front side of Catalina Island, in summer, in coves and shallow areas.
Monday, about an hour before we had to leave San Clemente Island and return home, I had a 4′ long leopard shark surprise me by appearing out of nowhere and swimming right in front of my camera. I didn’t have to do a thing except depress the shutter. Click. Finally got a shot of a leopard shark. This was only about 2-3′ deep, and was shot with a 15mm fisheye lens with the shark about 18″ away from the camera.
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| A leopard shark, swimming through the shallows waters of a California reef, underwater. Image ID: 25417 Species: Leopard shark, Triakis semifasciata Location: San Clemente Island, California, USA |
In the past I have shot some nice portraits of leopard sharks, but in a tank so its not quite the same thing!
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| Leopard shark swims through a kelp forest. Image ID: 14028 Species: Leopard shark, Triakis semifasciata |
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| Leopard shark swims through a kelp forest. Image ID: 14932 Species: Leopard shark, Triakis semifasciata |
Hammerhead Shark Cover Photo, Physiological and Biochemical Zoology
The latest issue of Physiological and Biochemical Zoology uses a hammerhead shark photo of mine on the cover to accompany the article Temporal Resolution and Spectral Sensitivity of the Visual System of Three Coastal Shark Species from Different Light Environments (McComb, Frank, Hueter and Kajiura). This is at least the fourth hammerhead shark photo of mine that has been used for the cover of a peer-reviewed scientific journal, previous examples being the cover of Zoology, the cover of the Journal of Morphology and the cover of Ecology Letters. I’ve had a couple of other marine photos on academic journal covers as well, including the cover of Nature. The folks at such brainiac journals have much better minds than I, so if they like my photos I must be doing ok!

Hammerhead shark cover photo, Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, March/April 2010
See lots more scalloped hammerhead photos (Sphyrna lewini). The above photograph was taken underwater at Wolf Island in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, one of the finest places in the world to see scalloped hammerhead sharks.
Tiger Shark Pictures (Galeocerdo cuvier)
My tiger shark pictures (Galeocerdo cuvier) are now on Photoshelter (in addition to the tiger shark photos on this website). These were also taken on the same trip with Skip, Ken Howard, Keith Grundy and Jim Abernethy. These tiger sharks were the reason I wanted to go on the trip. They are really impressive fish, capable predators and in control of their surroundings. It was a real pleasure spending hours in the water with them swimming around us. Tiger sharks are typically about 11′ - 17′ in length (3.25-4.25m) and weigh in at 800-1400 lb (375-640 kg), although the largest recorded was 24′ (7.25m) long and weighed 1900 lb (900kg). Tiger sharks tend to be solitary hunters, but we sometimes had 3 or 4 simultaneously because we were baiting them.
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Tiger Shark Pictures - Images by Phillip Colla |
You can also see a tiger shark photo slideshow in case the one above does not appear in your feed reader.
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| Tiger shark. Image ID: 10648 Species: Tiger shark, Galeocerdo cuvier Location: Bahamas View this Image in Google Earth! |
Keywords: tiger shark, picture, photo, Galeocerdo cuvier, underwater, stock photo, image, photograph.
Caribbean Reef Shark Pictures (Carcharhinus perezi)
My Caribbean reef shark pictures (Carcharhinus perezi) are now on Photoshelter (in addition to the Caribbean reef shark photos on this website). These were also taken on the same trip with Skip, Ken Howard, Keith Grundy and Jim Abernethy. These dives were a lot of fun. Jim took down a few milk crates filled with fish heads, put them on the bottom, and within a few minutes the place was crawling with reef sharks. I sat on one of the milk crates, and waited for the sharks to swim right up the chum line toward me. When one got close enough to fill the frame in my wide lens !!POW!! I’d nail him in the face with some strobe light. Nothing simpler. After a while reef sharks were bouncing off my shoulders and I couldn’t keep my eyes on all of them at once. OK, that was a little nervous. My strobes were unable to keep up with the speed at which I was firing off frame. I can’t wait to do it again.
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Caribbean Reef Shark Pictures - Images by Phillip Colla |
You can also see a Caribbean reef shark photo slideshow in case the one above does not appear in your feed reader.
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| Caribbean reef shark, ampullae of Lorenzini visible on snout. Image ID: 10550 Species: Caribbean reef shark, Carcharhinus perezi Location: Bahamas View this Image in Google Earth! |
Keywords: caribbean reef shark, picture, photo, Carcharhinus perezi, underwater, stock photo, image, photograph.
Lemon Shark Pictures (Negaprion brevirostris)
My lemon shark pictures (Negaprion brevirostris) are now on Photoshelter (in addition to the lemon shark photos on this website). I spent about 10 days in the Bahamas with Skip, Ken Howard, Keith Grundy and Jim Abernethy to shoot a few different kinds of sharks. When we got to the tiger shark spot, we found more lemon sharks than tigers, about 2:1 or 3:1 (although there we still plenty of tigers however!). When there wasn’t a tiger shark in view, there was always a lemon shark or two. The lemons were bigger than I remember (I’d seen lemon sharks before on a handful of dolphin trips to the same area), about 8′ to 11′ feet in length. And they were very accomodating, coming right up to the dome port on my water camera housing. It was really fun and easy photography of a reasonably large and charismatic creature. I hope to find time to do it again.
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Lemon Shark Pictures - Images by Phillip Colla |
You can also see a lemon shark photo slideshow in case the one above does not appear in your feed reader.
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| Lemon shark with live sharksuckers. Image ID: 10752 Species: Lemon shark, Negaprion brevirostris, Echeneis naucrates Location: Bahamas View this Image in Google Earth! |
Keywords: lemon shark, picture, photo, Negaprion brevirostris, underwater, stock photo, image, photograph.
Bull Shark Pictures (Carcharhinus leucas)
My bull shark pictures (Carcharhinus leucas) are now on Photoshelter (in addition to the bull shark photos on this website). These underwater photos were taken in the Bahamas. And if you are curious, the answer is “yes”; the bull shark is one of the more dangerous sharks in the world and responsible for more than its share of attacks. Its a very “twitchy” shark. Even Kanye knows how formidable bull sharks are: “Yo great white, I know you are eating that elephant seal and ima let you finish, but the bull shark is the most dangerousest shark of all time, all time!”
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Bull Shark Pictures - Images by Phillip Colla |
You can also see a bull shark photo slideshow in case the one above does not appear in your feed reader.
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| Bull shark. Image ID: 12718 Species: Bull shark, Carcharhinus leucas Location: Great Isaac Island, Bahamas View this Image in Google Earth! |
Keywords: bull shark, picture, photo, Carcharhinus leucas, underwater, stock photo, image, photograph.
Great White Shark Photo on National Geographic’s NG Channel
The National Geographic Channel recently produced the television documentary “Great White Odyssey”, and choose one of my great white shark photos (Carcharodon carcharias) to use as the main background to the web page publicizing the program. Here is a link to NG Channel’s page for the Great White Odyssey. The original image was made in September 2008 at Guadalupe Island, Mexico aboard my favorite dive and adventure boat, the Horizon out of San Diego.
I was fortunate to have another credit for the National Geographic Society (in the magazine) recently.
Great White Shark Photos
This great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) was photographed at Guadalupe Island, Mexico. I think I have made about 15 trips to the island, a mix of open-water diving trips and shark cage photography trips. I am hoping to get down there again for scuba diving, freediving and just plain exploration (no sharking or cages) with Skip in Summer 2010. More details about Skip’s return trip to the island will be sent out soon to those who have accompanied Skip and me on past trips to Guadalupe and elsewhere. See some past blog posts about Guadalupe Island if you are interested in the island.
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| A great white shark swims through the clear waters of Isla Guadalupe, far offshore of the Pacific Coast of Mexico’s Baja California. Guadalupe Island is host to a concentration of large great white sharks, which visit the island to feed on pinnipeds and use it as a staging area before journeying farther into the Pacific ocean. Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico. Image: 19465 Common name: Great white shark Species: Carcharodon carcharias Location: Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico View this Image in Google Earth! |
Guadalupe 2008: Great White Shark Portrait, Horizontal
This is one of my favorites from this year’s trip on the M/V Horizon to photograph great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) at Guadalupe Island.
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| Great white shark, underwater. Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico. Image: 21346 Species: Carcharodon carcharias Location: Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico View this Image in Google Earth! |
Shark Diving resources: Horizon Charters and SharkDiver.com. Also, be sure to check out our hundreds of additional Guadalupe Island photos and photos of great white sharks.
Guadalupe 2008: Great White Shark Face
Here is the face of a great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias). Check out the detail in the shark’s eye, he is looking straight back into the camera. This was shot with a 24mm lens, full frame sensor, no crop. Pretty tight.
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| Great white shark, underwater. Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico. Image: 21347 Species: Carcharodon carcharias Location: Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico View this Image in Google Earth! |
Shark Diving resources: Horizon Charters and SharkDiver.com.
Be sure to check out our hundreds of additional Guadalupe Island photos and photos of great white sharks.
Guadalupe 2008: Satellite Tags on a Great White Shark
Many of the great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) at Guadalupe Island are known to researchers and appear in the white shark ID database. Some of the sharks have even been “tagged” and now sport small pop-up satellite transmitter tags that collect data about the shark’s environment and behavior, eventually transmitting the data via satellite back to researchers. Shown below are a pair of satellite tags, located just below the dorsal fin of a great white shark:
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| Two satellite tags, below dorsal fin of great white shark. The tags record the sharks movements, relaying data to researchers via satellite. Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico. Image: 21391 Species: Carcharodon carcharias Location: Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico View this Image in Google Earth! |
Shark Diving resources: Horizon Charters and SharkDiver.com.
Be sure to check out our hundreds of additional Guadalupe Island photos and great white shark photos.
Vertical Photo of Great White Shark
When a Guadalupe Island great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) first approaches the boat, it is often deep. If there are divers in the cage they typically get a look at the shark as it swims slowly beneath the boat. It seems the shark is surveying things before making a decision to move shallower and approach the boat and cages more closely. Occasionally a shark rises from the deep suddenly, straight up, leveling out only when it reaches or breaks the surface. That’s what this male white shark did. (You can tell he is a male by his two claspers visible on his ventral surface.)
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| Great white shark, underwater. Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico. Image: 21362 Species: Carcharodon carcharias Location: Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico View this Image in Google Earth! |
Shark Diving resources: Horizon Charters and SharkDiver.com.
Be sure to check out our hundreds of additional Guadalupe Island photos and photos of great white sharks.
Guadalupe 2008: Morning Routine
Each day on a Horizon Charters great white shark trip to Guadalupe Island starts with the crew lowering the huge aluminum cages into the water as guests enjoy breakfast and the morning calm. Often a shark will show up circling the boat and inspecting the cages before any divers have even had a chance to enter the water. Check out how flat the water is in these photos. The shark diving location, near the lighthouse in a broad protected bight at the north end of the island, is typically flat calm and sunny with blue water.
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| Lowering a shark cage into the water alongside M/V Horizon. Large, strong aluminum cages protect divers while they are in the water viewing sharks. Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico. Image: 21380 Location: Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico View this Image in Google Earth! |
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| Shark cages in water, astern of M/V Horizon. Large, strong aluminum cages protect divers while they are in the water viewing sharks. Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico. Image: 21370 Location: Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico View this Image in Google Earth! |
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| Great white shark, dorsal fin extended out of the water as it swims near the surface. Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico. Image: 21353 Species: Carcharodon carcharias Location: Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico View this Image in Google Earth! |
Shark Diving resources: Horizon Charters and SharkDiver.com.
Be sure to check out our hundreds of additional Guadalupe Island photos and great white shark photos.
Photo of a White Pointer Shark
This great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) had a particularly pointy look to him, really streamlined and sleek, with little beady black eyes. When you see a white shark in person its no wonder they are known as white pointers down under.
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| A great white shark swims through the clear waters of Isla Guadalupe, far offshore of the Pacific Coast of Mexico’s Baja California. Guadalupe Island is host to a concentration of large great white sharks, which visit the island to feed on pinnipeds and use it as a staging area before journeying farther into the Pacific ocean. Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico. Image: 19465 Species: Carcharodon carcharias Location: Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico View this Image in Google Earth! |
Great White Shark Eyes The Camera
This is my favorite shot from my Shark Diver trip last week on the liveaboard boat Horizon to see great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) at Guadalupe Island. One shark in particular took to circling the boat clockwise and would pass very close to the starboard side cage. As it did so, I managed to get some close photographs with good detail of its eye, gills and the ampullae of Lorenzini on its snout.
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| A great white shark swims toward the photographer. Perhaps the shark is considering him as possible prey? The photographer, a “shark diver” is safely situated in a sturdy metal cage. The best location in the world to “shark dive” to view great white sharks is Mexico’s Guadalupe Island. Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico. Image: 19457 Species: Carcharodon carcharias Location: Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico View this Image in Google Earth! |
Here are all of the photos from the trip.
See also: great white shark photos, Guadalupe Island, Isla Guadalupe, Carcharodon carcharias photos.
Photo of a Great White Shark Dorsal Fin
This is the dorsal fin of a great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) at Guadalupe Island, sticking above the water as the shark cruises at the surface.
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| Dorsal fin of a great white shark breaks the surface as the shark swims just below. Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico. Image: 19493 Species: Carcharodon carcharias Location: Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico View this Image in Google Earth! |
See also: great white shark photos, Guadalupe Island, Isla Guadalupe, Carcharodon carcharias photos.
Great White Shark Photo
I was pretty lucky to get this photo. This is a great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) that I photographed at Guadalupe Island while I was on a Shark Diver trip last week on the liveaboard boat Horizon. This one, a medium size (e.g, 12-13′) male, surprised us all. We were cooling our heels in the cage during a five minute lull, a rarity on this trip as virtually every minute we had at least one shark visible underwater. I happened to be staring off the port stern corner of the boat when suddenly this shark came streaking in from the edge of the visibility, took a huge bite at the bait and missed. I have never seen a shark swim so fast in my life. What motivated him to approach like that was a mystery. Typically the sharks at Guadalupe swim rather slowly around the boat, accelerating only with two or three final thrusts of their tails to take the bait. But this guy was going full steam the entire time, even as he disappeared into the gloom on the starboard side of the boat. His momentum carried him in front of the cage with his mouth still agape, which was awefully impressive. When I returned onto the deck later, the crew even commented how they were caught offguard by his rocket approach and how he left a pressure wave on the surface as he pumped his tail below. That such a large creature could move through the water with such speed was a real eye opener for me.
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| A great white shark opens it mouth just before it attacks its prey with a crippling, powerful bite. After the prey has been disabled, the shark will often wait for it to weaken from blood loss before resuming the attack. If the shark looses a tooth in the course of the bite, a replacement just behind it will move forward to take its place. Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico. Image: 19452 Species: Carcharodon carcharias Location: Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico View this Image in Google Earth! |
See also: great white shark photos, Guadalupe Island, Isla Guadalupe, Carcharodon carcharias photos.
Shredder
This is “Shredder”, aka “Scar”, a great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) often seen at Guadalupe Island. In 2003 Shredder bit the anchor line of the Ocean Odyssey clean through, severing the boat from its anchor. He is named for his shredded dorsal fin. Shredder is about 13-14 feet long. Note that in this photograph he is sporting three satellite tags on his left flank just below his dorsal fin. They are covered with algae but are probably still operational. These tags collect information about his diving habits and water temperature and transmit this information to a satellite for use by researchers.
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| A great white shark swims through the clear waters of Isla Guadalupe, far offshore of the Pacific Coast of Mexico’s Baja California. Guadalupe Island is host to a concentration of large great white sharks, which visit the island to feed on pinnipeds and use it as a staging area before journeying farther into the Pacific ocean. Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico. Image: 19470 Species: Carcharodon carcharias Location: Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico View this Image in Google Earth! |
See more photos of great white sharks.
Guadalupe White Shark Trip 2007
Just back from a quick trip to Guadalupe Island to photograph great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias). I had heard that this season has been a particularly good one for white sharks at Guadalupe, and I managed to get a few days off to get down there for a look on my favorite dive boat, the Horizon out of San Diego. (Patric Douglas at Shark Diver runs a series of trips each fall aboard the Horizon to see white sharks at Guadalupe.) Guadalupe is my favorite island, I love the place. I think I have made 15 trips to the island now, most for diving but at least five for white shark photography. I am always looking for an excuse to visit Isla Guadalupe as it never fails to offer up something extraordinary. This time was no exception. During three days at the island and about 18 hours in the cage, I saw probably 15 different white sharks ranging from about 8 feet to 13 feet or more in length, a mix of males and females, some I had seen and photographed before and some that were new to me and perhaps new to the white shark photo identification project. We’ll see on the latter once I submit the images to the researchers. We had only about one hour total where there were no sharks around the boat. We often had two at the boat, and on a few occasions had four within sight at once and six at the boat during a dive. There are a lot of white sharks at the north end of the island right now and from the sounds of it there have been for at least a month. It will take me a few weeks to sort through the 1700+ photos that I shot, select the keepers and get them processed for the web. Since I was using a new camera housing and lens, I was not entirely certain of how sharp the combo was so I pulled a few shots up on the computer between dives on the first day to check sharpness and exposure. Here is one:
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| A great white shark swims through the clear waters of Isla Guadalupe, far offshore of the Pacific Coast of Mexico’s Baja California. Guadalupe Island is host to a concentration of large great white sharks, which visit the island to feed on pinnipeds and use it as a staging area before journeying farther into the Pacific ocean. Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico. Image: 19473 Species: Carcharodon carcharias Location: Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe), Baja California, Mexico View this Image in Google Earth! |
See more great white shark photos.
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Updated: June 18, 2013





































