My name is Charles and for the last 20 years I have worked my passion into an extraordinary
job. As an underwater photographer, and boat skipper, I spend most of my days out at sea
around the beautiful Cornish coast.
As a photojournalist, used to travel the world, mainly taking photographs underwater. But
it was on an assignment to the Galapagos Islands, three decades ago, that my life changed when
I started photographing sharks.
When you are there, it is just absolutely eye watering, something you just can't see
on land. And it really got me interested in sharks. Igniting a passion.
So back in the UK I bought a boat and devoted
my time to finding and photographing the variety of shocks found here, including the basking
shark. We got some fantastic results.
This is the mid-or late 90s. People didn't really appreciate you could see these in UK
waters. Ever since then I've gained a bit of a reputation in this neck of the woods.
I'm now known as The Shark Guy. But why Cornwall? Because it is one of the best places in the
UK for shark spotting. About 20 species live in our waters of the year-round, with it rising
to 40 if you count migratory visitors.
But there is one shark that arrives here between June and October and I am particularly obsessed
with it. The blue shark! In late spring, they travelled thousands of miles across the Atlantic
to our shores.
This gives me plenty of opportunity to add to my library and hopefully sell some of the
images. They are excellent swimmers, quick in the water and agile.
And if you take a few precautions, you can
swim with them. They live in open waters, so we have to heads 12 miles
offshore to find them.
The kind of shots I try to take our pure natural history shots, unnusual angles.
But first I need to bring them to me. So I put out a preprepared mixture of mackerel & sardines into the water,
which we call chum.
Then it's the waiting game. Sometimes it's minutes, sometimes much longer. Today it has
been three hours, when finally the first dorsal fin appears.
It's following the yellow one. Being one of the few shark species that migrate together,
there are likely to be many more nearby. Others start appearing.
Time to get in. Once I get into the water, you can see just how beautifully blue these
sharks are. It's amazing. We've got about three or four sharks.
They are just constantly coming up to the
camera. Although blue sharks attacking humans is incredibly rare, I do need to know how
to safely share the water with them.
However, they are just as curious about us as they -- we are about them. There is a shark just here.
Having this many sharks around the boat is fantastic and it has made the wait so
much worthwhile.
They can live for up to 20 years and grow to four metres in length, more than twice the size
of me. I've got a thick one over here now. They hang around the boat for a while before
finally losing interest.
We've been in the water now for about two hours. Did we get the shots? Well, you have
to wait until we get back on dry land to find out. And with the photos uploaded, it's
time to take a look at what I've taken.
They are quite bold, coming up to the camera.
This is the same shark, spun around. You get this beautiful blue shading. I like taking
natural light shots.
If you point the camera down, switch off the strobe, it gels into a pastel shade of lavenders
And I do have a particular favourite. A selfie.
I turn the camera around and hope for the best. This one kind of worked, proves I was
there on the day. What a fantastic day out with the Cornish blues.