Shared Moment: Graceful Glider

The fluid beauty of an apex predator

• Photograph by Renee Capozzola
• PhotoZone
• Aug 01, 2020

STANDING IN A SHALLOW LAGOON off Mo’orea in French Polynesia, photographer Renee Capozzola waited, hoping to capture an image of a blacktip reef shark at sunset. The fates aligned as this fluid beauty swam close to her camera, which was half submerged in the water to capture this over-under portrait. “I got lucky,” she admits, though her luck took careful planning. A shark lover by nature, Capozzola strives to show these top-tier predators in a gentle light that will inspire sympathy and “raise awareness for protection.” If an image is beautiful and nonthreatening, she says, “people respond.”

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