This September, my wife and I moved to Florida, the shark attack capital of the world. In case you haven’t seen any of those viral wildlife videos from Florida on your social media feed, let me tell you this: Florida is indeed a paradise for crazy wildlife encounters and home to the weirdest human beings on planet Earth at the same time.

After the big move happened, we settled in Saint Pete Beach, near Tampa. At that point, I hadn’t been diving for a while, so we decided it was time to get our dive equipment wet. 

What would be a better place to ease my hunger for shark diving than Jupiter, Florida?

Why Jupiter is a shark diving hotspot

Jupiter is strategically located at the intersection of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico and is along the migration routes of several shark species. 

Seasonal movements bring sharks to the area for activities such as feeding, mating, and giving birth.

October and November are a bit in between two seasons as the summer sharks are all gone, marking the beginning of the winter season. 

Usually, the summer brings dusky and silky sharks, while the winter brings the bigger bull sharks, tigers, and occasional hammerheads. Thankfully, lemon sharks are pretty much present all year round.

Snooty the Lemon Shark

I heard countless stories and saw many photos of a quite friendly, resident female lemon shark, named by the locals as ‘Snooty.’ Snooty has a jaw deformation that locals speculate was a birth defect - giving her a permanent smile.

Over the years, she has earned celebrity status and became the most photographed shark in our oceans.

That being said, I had high hopes and expectations to leave Jupiter with great shark photos and add new species to my existing photo collection (including Oceanic Blacktips), not to mention having the chance to photograph the biggest celebrity shark on the planet.

Dive operators in Jupiter, Florida

Out of many operators, we chose to go with Salty Divers.

Their meeting point was at Burnt Reynolds Park, and we stayed in a La Quinta Inn just a few minute's drive away from the park. After loading our gear on the boat and signing the usual waiver, we were on our way to the open ocean to begin our first dive day.

Shark Diving in Jupiter

It was a sunny Saturday. However, there was a storm a few days prior to our arrival, and the first few meters on the water's surface had an oily texture and greenish color. Underneath, the visibility was poor as well. We had such conditions over the whole weekend.

As for shark activity, we did not have the chance to meet Snooty or many other sharks. Over the two days, we only had a few individual lemon sharks coming around.

Well, I guess sometimes, less is more.

On our first dive, we had a curious lemon shark from the very beginning. I went for some feeding shots, which were really cool to showcase in sequence and gave us a great opportunity to see the shark’s physical features.

For these types of shots, I position myself next to the feeder. Usually, the sharks circle around, and the feeder attracts them with a piece of fish. I use the back button focus, and once the shark is on the course, all I do is wait for the moment and press the shutter for continuous shooting.

These photos are super cool, but I had something else in mind. I’d prefer to capture pelagic ocean wildlife without framing divers as it truly reflects their grace in their own habitat, as it is meant to be.

The best way to take shark portraits on baited dives is to position yourself in the opposite direction of the baitball and wait for a shark to swim by on the outer side of the circle we form around the baitball.

I always make sure that I don’t have any divers below to avoid bubbles in the background. I usually go for sunburst/sunball shots if visibility allows, as it requires small apertures otherwise, the photo will be overexposed.

In this case, there wasn’t enough ambient light to play with due to the limitations to visibility.

I waited until the shark got really close to me, and only then I fired my shutter while trying to focus on the eye. I like how the shark was accompanied by a small fish.

Although the conditions were far from superior, the blue and green background gave the photo a more dramatic look.

All in all, we had so much fun, and we left Jupiter with great photographs despite the poor conditions. We can’t wait to go back and try another season, and who knows, we might get to meet with Snooty too.