Smile and say...shark!

It is a picture perfect Sunday. Four weeks of classes have come to this. My classmates and I are excited. Our second and final open-water dive is at Veterans Reef, 14 nautical miles northwest of Clearwater Pass in the Gulf of Mexico. Pass this test and we are Scuba certified.

The previous week's dive in the crystal clear fresh water of the Rainbow River spoiled us. Visibility isn't nearly as good in the Gulf, maybe 10 feet at best when 40 feet below the surface. But I decided to bring my little digital point-and-shoot camera anyway, a Canon G9 in an underwater housing, just in case there is a chance to document this experience.

We swim around the artificial reef, a submerged airplane wing, looking at the coral growing on its surface, the fish hanging out in recesses, the sand dollars on the sandy bottom. We pause at the end to practice skills learned during class -- regulator recovery, clearing water from our masks and what to do if someone gives the "out of air" signal. While waiting my turn, I snap some fun shots of the seascape and my classmates.

Then underwater photographer and videographer Bela Molnar, who was documenting our dives for Bill Jackson's, motioned us together for a group shot.

[Photo by Bela Molnar, Special to the Times]

As someone who spends most of her days behind the camera, I know the photographer is almost never in any photos. I thought it would be fun for Bela to have some pictures of himself hard at work, so as we came together, I raised my camera and fired off a couple of frames.

It's not until I'm home hours later, looking at my images for the first time, that I see it. Lurking behind Bela is the shadowy but unmistakable outline of a shark.

I immediately email the photo to Bela, who laughs, "oh, you didn't see it?" He tells me there were actually three sharks hanging around the reef, a big one and two that were smaller. He said nothing during the dive because he didn't want to freak us out.

The camera saw something I missed. And for once, I'm glad. [MELISSA LYTTLE, Times]

READ MELISSA'S STORY ABOUT BECOMING A CERTIFIED SCUBA DIVER