didn’t get round to making a thread last week on this..

http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2012/s3586406.htm

Shark filming pioneer dies in Sydney

transcript and audio available online:

http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/vale-ron-taylor-shark-filmmaker-dies.htm

Vale Ron Taylor: shark filmmaker dies

LEGENDARY SHARK EXPERT and Australian Geographic Lifetime of Conservation awardee, Ron Taylor has died at age 78.

Ron Taylor – who had battled myeloid leukaemia – began his love affair with the ocean in the 1950s, when he regularly spearfished. However, his interest in spearfishing was almost equalled by his love of underwater photography. He won his first award for photography was in 1962, when the Encyclopaedia Britannica recognised his film, Playing With Sharks.

In 1963, Ron and his wife Valerie produced their first major underwater film, Shark Hunters, which was shot in black and white and sold to Australian and American television. Ron and Valerie produced a library of spectacular underwater action footage used by many film directors for projects such as Blue Water, White Death, Blue Lagoon, and, most famously, Jaws.

During the filming of Blue Water, White Death, the couple left the safety of their cage and swum among dozens of sharks feeding on a whale corpse. The amazing documentary footage shows Ron, Valerie and the rest of the team in amongst the horde, becoming one of the pack. Valerie recalled that time, saying they had to teach the sharks respect in “a few frantic minutes.”

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