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I
was recently in Cuba (see “Jardines de la
Reina: Cuba’s pristine paradise” on Page 68)
leading a photo tour on a liveaboard. Since it
was summer and school was not in session,
my daughter, Alexa, was able to join me. It
was a great opportunity for us to spend some
quality time together doing what we love: scuba diving
and being around interesting marine animals.
One of the things I looked forward to was an
encounter with crocodiles in the mangroves that I’d
seen photographed by others. Dive operators have
been conducting such encounters for two decades, and
they have learned that divers can interact safely and
reliably with some of the subadult American crocodiles
(
Crocodylus acutus
).
The whole process was pretty interesting. We would
travel to a spot commonly visited by crocs, and the
guide would call out, “Niño, Niño!” The crocodile he
had in mind was obviously habituated to encounters
with snorkelers and rewarded with raw chicken for
good behavior. This is not to say the interaction is
guaranteed though — one day we got skunked. But
the second morning was quite productive. Niño came
swimming out to us, and we got in the water with
snorkels. I had a large housed camera and strobe that I
could put between the croc and me. My daughter had
her GoPro on a selfie stick that she could use to fend
off any approaches that were too close for comfort.
Throughout the 40-minute encounter we were
never alarmed; in fact, we were excited about our
good fortune to have been there at high tide (for
optimal water clarity) and about the crocodile’s
willingness to get close. The fact that this all
happened in a gorgeous mangrove and seagrass
environment made it all the more special — such
places are typically far more turbid. No one should
extrapolate from our good luck with this particular
crocodile that the more aggressive species in Australia
or Africa are approachable. While this particular
encounter was mellow and benign, snorkelers in Raja
Ampat, for instance, have been killed by crocodiles
inhabiting the blue water mangroves.
Photographer Dena Mintz captured the photo above
of me at work with my camera; because both the croc
and I were on roughly the same plane, the size reference
is pretty authentic. But as I maneuvered around the
front of the croc and got closer to its open mouth with
my extreme wide-angle lens, an optical phenomenon
called “perspective distortion” occurred. The object
in the foreground (the open mouth of the crocodile)
appeared unnaturally massive and intimidating relative
to Alexa swimming in the background. Shooters with
experience in wide-angle photography know about this
and can recognize it in photos, but the image provoked
strong reactions from some members of the public.
I distribute my images through a variety of stock
photography agents, and one works with mass media
in the UK and Australia. The crocodile shots went
viral. I’d like to think it’s because they turned out so
well, but in reading the comments I could see it was
mostly because so many people thought it was very
irresponsible for a father to expose his daughter to
such danger. Here are some examples
of the comments (from
grindtv.com/wildlife/daughter-swims-dangerously-close-crocodile-father-
takes-photos-video
):
14
|
FALL 2016
FROM THE SAFETY STOP
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
PERSPECTIVE DISTORTION
By Stephen Frink
These two photos were taken nearly simultaneously, both with full-frame
fisheye lenses. For the photo on the left, the camera’s dome port was within
4 inches of the crocodile’s teeth. For the photo on the right, the shooter was
4 feet away from the action, which significantly altered the perspective.
FEAR AND LOATHING IN SOCIAL MEDIA
DENA MINTZ
STEPHEN FRINK