In the nearly 40 years since the premiere of “Jaws,” defenders of the great white shark have tried diligently to repair the animal’s reputation. The sharks are not all that hungry for humans, scientists say; seals are their preferred prey. One way great whites capture them is by breaching. Michael Muller, a photographer, used waterproof strobe lights he designed himself and a boat dragging a seal decoy to get a rare photo of a shark breaching at night. Muller, who traveled to False Bay, South Africa, to photograph sharks for a book coming out in 2015 from Taschen, said waiting for a shark in the dark is an intense experience. “They come up like a missile, knock the seal to shock it and then they bite it,” he says. “There’s no noise, no warning. I’m sitting there for hours on end looking through my lens, and then all of a sudden the shark appears." Julie Bosman

Length of a great white shark: Up to 20 feet

Weight: Up to two tons

Speed a great white can reach while breaching: 40 m.p.h.

Fatal shark attacks on humans between 2006 and 2013 in the United States: 3