(Trends Wide) — An expert photographer has captured an unexpected and last-minute entry to a surfing contest: a great white shark, eerily close to a surfer.
The great white shark starred in a real “photobomb”: the need to “sneak” into a photograph.
Jordan Anast, a photographer from California, was taking pictures of the San Onofre Surf Club Contest when he captured the shocking image of the shark, apparently just feet away from surfer Tyler Warren, who was in the foreground.
Anast took the remarkable photograph on October 22 around 11 a.m., he told Trends Wide. At first, she didn’t realize what exactly she had captured. Before, she had captured dolphins swimming in the water and, from a distance, the animal appeared to be just another dolphin, she said.
“I didn’t know until I looked closely and saw the shape of the fins,” he explained. Then she “realized it was a great white shark.”
However, he said he was not alarmed by the discovery: “They are always out there, everywhere in California,” he said.
Anast captured a total of six images of the leaping great white shark, he said. He attributed the unique photography to a combination of luck and his 400-millimeter telephoto lens, which he normally uses to photograph sporting events from great distances.
The photo’s popularity online has been “insane,” he said. “Today was the craziest day of all. It doesn’t stop spreading. [La foto] Has a life of its own”.
Great white sharks are found off the coast of the United States, although the exact population in US waters is unknown, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Sharks can measure up to 21 feet as adults (six and a half meters) and weigh more than 4,000 pounds (about 1,800 kilograms).
Sharks are considered a “vulnerable” species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and are internationally protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora.