IN TOO DEEP...again

The annual sardine run along South Africa's east coast is a thrill and a challenge for underwater photographers, especially if you throw birds and inclement weather into the mix.

- SEAN THACKWRAY

I have previously lamented in African Birdlife (see the November/ December 2022 issue) how magazines make difficult things look easy: ‘10 easy steps to losing weight’, ‘How to save your marriage’, ‘Photographing birds underwater’. National Geographic certainly made the last one look easy. I tried to emulate Greg Lecoeur, its 2016 Nature Photographer of the Year, and failed. Now, with more experience under my belt, I was ready to capture what had eluded me the first time – a glorious photograph of a gannet, underwater, catching a fish. Remembering that a week hadn’t been long enough for my previous attempt to photograph gannets caught up in the annual sardine run, I paid for two weeks on the dive boat. I was going back to Hole in the Wall on the Wild Coast, and this year things were going to be different.

Apart from photographing gannets, one of my aims for this sardine run was to sit at the back of the boat where the pros usually hang out. But Andy Coetzee, who was in charge of the dive operation, had already allocated these seats to two cinematographers. I suppose there was nowhere else to put their enormous cameras, so I figured I’d just sit next to them with my Tupperware underwater rig and take notes.

The first day was glorious. Not only was the ocean like a lake, but I was able to share the experience with my son, who had come along for the first week. As we marvelled at the gannets skimming along just inches above the surface, I commented that this somehow felt like the calm before a storm. Of course, I jinxed it. That night it started to rain.