hiya wa howa aswat

Two ferocious Great White Sharks attacked this poor unfortunate surfer and only his head was left floating in the surf at the notorious shark hot-spot of Sardinia Bay near Port Elizabeth in South Africa! It happened so quickly, said the photographer, that he was only able to get one picture before the water clouded and everything was obscured by blood!!!!

One of the lesser known hidden dangers of photography is letting other people caption your images and it may happen to you. These are Bottlenose Dolphins that joined the surfer in the waves and they all enjoyed sharing the moment in the surf. The surfer was behind the wave and too far off for him to show in the water.  Sometimes the incorrect caption is done deliberately to create interest and sell the picture more often. If it is in good taste I suppose it is all right – the income is always welcome.

Normally it is not so dramatic and you will see a boring  picture in a magazine taken in a boring town called Y labelled as having been taken in a town called Z and a boring  person will write to the editor telling him or her to get their facts right. After that the photographer, through no fault of himself (or herself), has to regain the editor’s confidence in order to ever sell a picture there again.

Funny how the first person to be blamed is always the photographer.  Hope it does not happen to you!


With apologies to the surfing community. Words and image copyright Luc Hosten and Pix