There’s no telling where our passions will take us in life, or the unexpected ways they might intersect with each other. But, on rare occasions, everything just seems to come together and work out perfectly, and you have to take a moment to appreciate how special that is.
Just check out how it happened for one dedicated photographer who managed to get the shot of a lifetime.
Euan Rannachan is an artist with his fingers in many mediums, from painting and drawing to filmmaking and photography.
Even if you haven’t seen his Instagram , you might have seen some of Euan’s art before without even realizing it.
In addition to his many artistic pursuits, he does corporate photography for both Clorox and the NHL’s San Jose Sharks.
It’s actually quite appropriate that he would work with the Sharks because sharks are one of his passions.
In fact, a fair amount of Euan’s camera time is spent underwater, in a cage, with sharks circling around him.
Hey, art sometimes demands risks. If you want to get interesting shots, you have to be willing to go where the interesting shots are. So, that’s where Euan goes.
Needless to say, that dedication has often paid off.
Working with a team of shark wranglers, Euan has grabbed many amazing shots of the toothy terrors below the surface.
However, there’s one shot that every underwater photographer must have on their bucket list.
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Of course, it’s Roger Kastel’s iconic ‘Jaws’ poster shot.
Well, maybe not with an unsuspecting victim floating on the surface, but you get the idea. And Euan? Well, on a trip to the west coast of Mexico, he got it. He got the shot.
Yeah he did.
As he recalled in an interview with The Daily Mail , Euan and his crew had been following the 17-foot great white shark around for a while.
“The shark in my image is a female and her name is Squirrel,” he said.
“We’d been with her for a while. We have these people on the boat called shark wranglers and they throw these two-foot chunks of tuna to get the shark closer to the surface.”
Euan credits his crew for helping capture this incredible image.
“The shark wranglers played an important and dangerous part on the acquisition of this amazing picture,” he said. “A guy named Crazy Luis stood up on the boat to bring the shark to us when we sat on the surface in the shark cage.
Yes, this story involves a shark named Squirrel and a guy named Crazy Luis. Can’t make this stuff up.
“Sometimes when the wranglers play with the sharks, they get pissed off and dive down under the boat and the bait so they can come rocketing up and get it.”
“That’s exactly what Squirrel was doing here.”
“She was fed up probably messing around on the surface and dived back down under the boat. It was really deep there but the water clarity was amazing.”
Euan says that he knew he’d gotten the perfect shot right away, and that it immediately made him the envy of underwater photographers.
“It’s one of those shots, I’ve had close to it, but as soon as I took it, I came out of the water and showed my buddy who had been after that shot for years and he wasn’t too thrilled,” he told LADBible .
I mean, it’s hard to blame him for being jealous.
You can check out more of Euan’s work on Instagram and on his web page, EuanArt .
h/t The Daily Mail , LADBible
