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During 2017’s Hurricane Harvey, a photograph of a shark swimming down a flooded street in Houston was posted on Twitter—and retweeted thousands of times. Around that time, National Geographic photographer Thomas Peschak received an email with the words, “Guess who’s back?”
Peschak knows that great white shark well. He photographed it 15 years ago following scientist Trey Snow in a bright yellow kayak off South Africa. Ever since then, people have been photoshopping the shark into their pictures to fake scary scenes.
Like many photographs that capture our attention, Peschak's original shot of the shark resulted from a combination of ingenuity, patience, and serendipity. (See “14 Not-Fake Shark Pictures From a Real Nat Geo Photographer.”)
In 2003 marine scientist Michael Scholl of the White Shark Trust had alerted Peschak to an unusually large number of sharks cruising the southernmost shoreline of South Africa.
The pair tried following the sharks in a research boat, but found the engine noise altered the sharks’ behavior. Then Peschak had an idea. He had recently purchased a sea kayak, which would be less disruptive to...
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