Shark attack survivor becomes shark photographer

HONOLULU, HI. (NBC, KYMA) - A shark attack survivor finds purpose through underwater shark photography.

In 1997, Mike Coots suffered a brutal shark attack while bodyboarding at a Kauai beach.

It severed his right leg, but it also put him on the path to his true calling, underwater photography.

"I think I'm very fortunate. I don't have flashbacks. I don't have bad dreams and life's been absolutely incredible since that morning", said Coots.

Now at 46, Coots has made a career of taking underwater portraits of sharks, the aquatic animals that Hollywood depicts only as man eating predators.

He views them in a very different light.

His fascination with photographing sharks began about 15 years ago he got in the water with a go pro camera and started shooting.

Since then, he has traveled the globe in search of different shark species to photograph.

He estimates he's taken thousands of portraits of them, applying the same techniques he learned while studying portraiture in college the images are visually stunning.