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**1. Beginner Tip - **Perfect your diving and free-diving skills. Struggling underwater in front of a shy giant will ruin any great opportunity, so honing your trim and buoyancy skills will increase success. When free diving with large animals in blue water, physical fitness is key. Dragging a bulky housing as you dive repeatedly will make you really tired if you’re not in good shape.
**2. Intermediate Tip - **Study your subject. Learning animal behaviors is important to maximize photo opportunities and ensure your safety. If you know that sharks approach from down-current, you can position yourself more effectively. A little homework will pay off.
**3. Advanced Tip - **Analyze the mood. Learn to sense an animal’s mood and predict its next move. For a shy cetacean, approach slowly, swim parallel, and pretend you are not interested. Float motionless until it approaches you, or do some acrobatic moves to stimulate its curiosity.
**4. Fill up that log book - **Photographers should be comfortable divers. If you struggle to maneuver, you will not only distract the animal and miss an opportunity to shoot, but you can also end up in a bad situation.”
**5. Stay calm - **An erratic heart rate will disturb your electromagnetic field, simulating wounded prey.
**6. Shoot from below - **By getting under your subject and shooting upward, you give the impression that the subject is larger than it really is.
Love diving with the ocean's biggest animals? Check out our 36 Best Big Animals Dives!
