Great White Shark Encounter

Isla Guadalupe, Mexico

Diving with the great white sharks of Isla Guadalupe, MX

JZ August 20, 2016

For the past several years, my buddy Ryan and I have been checking the Big Five sharks from our diving to-do list. The Big Five are the apex predator sharks: bull, great hammerhead, oceanic whitetip, tiger, and great white. With a quick trek to Isla Guadalupe, we checked the final one from our list: the great white. We dove with Nautilus aboard the Belle Amie, easily the most luxurious liveaboard dive boat we've encountered. This was the first time that we had been in dive cages (a requirement of the Mexican government). After years of diving outside of cages with the likes of tiger sharks and oceanic whitetips, the cages were rather anti-climactic. In hindsight, it would have been nice to begin our shark adventures with this trip, then work our way up to the tigers. Having said that, we still had a wonderful time. Enjoy a few photos from the weekend.

Gear used

camera: Sony RX-100 Mark 2
housing: Nauticam NA-RX100II
strobes: two Inon Z-240 Type 4
attachment lenses: Inon UWL-H100 28LD Wide Conversion Lens, Dome Lens Unit II for UWL-H100

Scuba diving in Bonaire

JZ July 6, 2016

I just returned from another incredible week of reef diving from Bonaire, a small Dutch island, located off the northwest coast of Venezuela and home of the healthiest coral reef in the Caribbean. This was the third time that I stayed at Captain Don's Habitat, an eco dive resort centrally located just north of Kralendijk, the island's capital. A tip of the hat to Rita with Maduro Dive Fanta-Seas for helping with the car rental, diving, and lodging arrangements (including securing a free room upgrade and a better dive package than I was able to find)! It was a great week of diving where we encountered everything from frogfish, to seahorses, to a school of squid. Here are a few photos from the trip, ranging from macro to ultra-wide. Enjoy. Gear used

camera: Sony RX-100 Mark 2
housing: Nauticam NA-RX100II
strobes: two Inon Z-240 Type 4
attachment lenses: Inon UWL-H100 28LD Wide Conversion Lens, Dome Lens Unit II for UWL-H100, Inon +6 diopter close-up lens

Diving with great hammerhead sharks

The M/V Spree, Bimini, The Bahamas

Diving with Great Hammerhead (and other) Sharks Aboard the M/V Spree

Jay Dryden February 10, 2015

A week aboard the M/V Spree spent diving with great hammerhead, tiger, lemon, and reef sharks.

Oceanic Whitetip Sharks

with Epic Diving — Cat Island, Bahamas

Diving with oceanic whitetip sharks

JZ April 30, 2014

This was my second trip with Eli Martinez of Shark Diver Magazine. This time, we headed to Cat Island, Bahamas and dove with Vincent and Deborah Canabal of Epic Diving.

Tiger Beach

Northern Bahamas. If you want to dive with a 1,500 pound tiger shark, then this is the place to do it.

Diving Tiger Beach

JZ October 30, 2013

This is where we enter the water

Lemon shark

Lemon shark in crepuscular rays of light

Ryan captures an image of Emma Tiger Shark, the queen of Tiger Beach

The invasive lionfish

Up close with a tiger shark. Note the white nictitating membrane at the bottom of the eye. When it covers the eye, things are about to get interesting.