50 Years Behind The Caving Camera.
- Thread starter The Old Ruminator
- Start date
The Old Ruminator
Well-known member
Thanks Roger. You give me the will to continue.
Have been hunting around the house today and found it.
My first ever cave photograph about 1963. Taken in Holwell Cave where we could cycle up from Taunton.
We borrowed a camera and asked a man in a camera shop to set it up for flash photos. My friend Terry Robinson wearing a motor cycle helmet.
The first ever photos of me in a cave. Again at Holwell c 1963. My dad had a friend who knew a miner in South Wales. He got me this real miners helmet. Sadly no lamps yet. We used hand torches and candles to set up the photo.
One of my first Mendip trips at Cuckoo Cleeves about 1964/5.
Not much in the way of caving kit back then.
Have been hunting around the house today and found it.
My first ever cave photograph about 1963. Taken in Holwell Cave where we could cycle up from Taunton.
We borrowed a camera and asked a man in a camera shop to set it up for flash photos. My friend Terry Robinson wearing a motor cycle helmet.
The first ever photos of me in a cave. Again at Holwell c 1963. My dad had a friend who knew a miner in South Wales. He got me this real miners helmet. Sadly no lamps yet. We used hand torches and candles to set up the photo.
One of my first Mendip trips at Cuckoo Cleeves about 1964/5.
Not much in the way of caving kit back then.
The Old Ruminator
Well-known member
Back to the current Flickr uploads.
The available light theme. Some of these are on the Reservoir thread.
I tried to cover every bit of the Reservoir story. This meant following folk about and trying not to get in the way. The Sump series was terrible for photography. Wet atmosphere and mud. For my kind of on the move stuff the back scatter was awful. Still not all things are bad. It gave me the opportunity to do some available light shots capturing the Disto X laser beam. These are genuine not photo manipulations. You could only get the beam in a very damp atmosphere.
Andrew in the sump chamber ( Dingley Dell ).
Alison with the Disto X.
People are more interesting than rocks. Loads of my stuff is of people in unguarded moments. Again helmet light only and the acro prop has stopped Alison's lamp blasting out the image. With no flash the subject does not even know the photo has been taken. I like the sort of ethereal quality you get sometimes.
Following folks about on actual first time pushes is not always simple. This is the first ascent of Ascension.( Which I keep spelling incorrectly. ). Andrew Atkinson was lead climber with me and Alison in " support ". ( Ha Ha ). Ali and I were getting a bit flakey so she went down to get a ladder from the sump series. Here she is rolling it up half way up the climb with me tottering back on a ledge to take the photo. At the top we found big chambers and passage. Peter Glanvill was left raging at the bottom as we did not have enough ladder to drop down to him.
The second most expensive bit of kit I have is my Firefly 3 slave trigger. I dont use it often but by golly its worth it when I do. Its great for reverse lighting on back lit shots. I still use auto on the camera bearing in mind the slave flash will be about four times brighter than the on camera flash. This was the day of our Reservoir Christmas party. I learned with horror that Peter and Nigel were going up the rope in Topless Aven. It had been there a good few years. ( All of this before the mulled wine ). I just sat the slave flash near the bottom of the climb and fired away on auto.
When photography came about some said that it was the end of art. Not so as folk like Julia Margaret Cameron ( 1815 - 1879 ) proved with her fantastic portrait studies. Photography is art and the caver has a great head start as he begins with a totally blank canvas. ( Er its just all black )
The available light theme. Some of these are on the Reservoir thread.
I tried to cover every bit of the Reservoir story. This meant following folk about and trying not to get in the way. The Sump series was terrible for photography. Wet atmosphere and mud. For my kind of on the move stuff the back scatter was awful. Still not all things are bad. It gave me the opportunity to do some available light shots capturing the Disto X laser beam. These are genuine not photo manipulations. You could only get the beam in a very damp atmosphere.
Andrew in the sump chamber ( Dingley Dell ).
Alison with the Disto X.
People are more interesting than rocks. Loads of my stuff is of people in unguarded moments. Again helmet light only and the acro prop has stopped Alison's lamp blasting out the image. With no flash the subject does not even know the photo has been taken. I like the sort of ethereal quality you get sometimes.
Following folks about on actual first time pushes is not always simple. This is the first ascent of Ascension.( Which I keep spelling incorrectly. ). Andrew Atkinson was lead climber with me and Alison in " support ". ( Ha Ha ). Ali and I were getting a bit flakey so she went down to get a ladder from the sump series. Here she is rolling it up half way up the climb with me tottering back on a ledge to take the photo. At the top we found big chambers and passage. Peter Glanvill was left raging at the bottom as we did not have enough ladder to drop down to him.
The second most expensive bit of kit I have is my Firefly 3 slave trigger. I dont use it often but by golly its worth it when I do. Its great for reverse lighting on back lit shots. I still use auto on the camera bearing in mind the slave flash will be about four times brighter than the on camera flash. This was the day of our Reservoir Christmas party. I learned with horror that Peter and Nigel were going up the rope in Topless Aven. It had been there a good few years. ( All of this before the mulled wine ). I just sat the slave flash near the bottom of the climb and fired away on auto.
When photography came about some said that it was the end of art. Not so as folk like Julia Margaret Cameron ( 1815 - 1879 ) proved with her fantastic portrait studies. Photography is art and the caver has a great head start as he begins with a totally blank canvas. ( Er its just all black )
The Old Ruminator
Well-known member
Back to people. I was on a trip where a lovely young lady broke an arm. Everything was attended too correctly as we had a first aid kit and doctor to hand. I could see she was on the verge of shock but she smiled for the camera. I must admit I took a series of photos. This is the first time that this one has been published. I still feel a bit guilty about it all but as things were all well under control the photographer in me took over. She was very brave and got herself out of the cave with no fuss. I later took her flowers in hospital. She now as a metal plate in her arm. Anyway despite it all I just thought that this was a lovely photo.
This unpublished one shows me with camera talking to the casualty through a gap in boulders. Not the route out.
More of the series now on Flickr.
This unpublished one shows me with camera talking to the casualty through a gap in boulders. Not the route out.
More of the series now on Flickr.
The Old Ruminator
Well-known member
My love of people portraits. I got Photobox to do three big collages like this for the Mendip Cave Photography exhibition.
bograt
Active member
Super set OR, I have really been missing that muddy nose 
BTW, previous posts reminded me that about 15 years ago I purchased a second hand HP scanner with slide scanner attachment, 2 days digging to get to the scanner, 1 day digging to get to the software, its up and running now but still digging to find the copier attachment
Watch this space-------!!!
BTW, previous posts reminded me that about 15 years ago I purchased a second hand HP scanner with slide scanner attachment, 2 days digging to get to the scanner, 1 day digging to get to the software, its up and running now but still digging to find the copier attachment
Watch this space-------!!!
mrodoc
Well-known member
As you can see the OR is not in caving mode at present. He even asked me to take pictures for him the other day. Family crises have prevented me from obliging. I am scanning in Mr. Radon's photos and am up to to about 140 so if he ever uploads them more fun to be had! I did like those early shot's Nick. Better than my early attempts with the camera 'that photographed the moon' as you used to say. It was actually the 'camera from the nation that photographed the moon'. It was a Russian Cosmic - anyone remember those?
martinm
New member
No, but my first camera was a Zorki 4K rangefinder, it was great. (35mm.) And I photographed a wedding with a Zenith-80, another great value Russian Camera. (Medium format, back then.) Got great shots with them both. But have been digital since around 1998.
Memories though. Mel.
Memories though. Mel.
The Old Ruminator
Well-known member
Mr Radon has a treasure trove of stuff. Lots of me as I took lots of him. I tried in vain to sort them out last week but only managed to escape with the five boxes that Mr. O'Doc now has. You will hopefully get to see some here or on the Flickr thread. I shall be away for a while at the end of the month so my silence will not infer my passing.
The Old Ruminator
Well-known member
At least you are reading the post Fulk. I am not sure your grammatical analysis is entirely accurate though.
Infer.
deduce or conclude (something) from evidence and reasoning rather than from explicit statements.
Therefore.
As I prattle on so much a silence of several weeks duration could be seen as a huge anomaly within the normal run of events from which one could deduce or conclude that a catastrophic event had taken place.
Imply
indicate the truth or existence of (something) by suggestion rather than explicit reference.
No suggestion within the post.
That's it. I am off to Flickr. :blink:
Infer.
deduce or conclude (something) from evidence and reasoning rather than from explicit statements.
Therefore.
As I prattle on so much a silence of several weeks duration could be seen as a huge anomaly within the normal run of events from which one could deduce or conclude that a catastrophic event had taken place.
Imply
indicate the truth or existence of (something) by suggestion rather than explicit reference.
No suggestion within the post.
That's it. I am off to Flickr. :blink:
Spike
New member
The following section may cause offence to those of a non-grammatical bent...
[nsfw]Infer would be correct if your audience were it's subject e.g. You should not infer from my silence that I have passed on.
Since your silence is the subject of the word we're discussing, imply is correct as it would "indicate the truth or existence of (something) by suggestion rather than explicit reference" where the something is your passing. Your silence could not "deduce or conclude" anything
D'you see?[/nsfw]
Nice pictures anyway, particularly the second DistoX one...
RE Slide copying, I've been meaning to experiment with a jig for this - the Slide Copier bellows are great if you have a FF (35mm) DSLR, but for those of us with smaller pockets they're the wrong size. I found an online tutorial once about how to set one up for APS-C, wish I could find it again...
[nsfw]Infer would be correct if your audience were it's subject e.g. You should not infer from my silence that I have passed on.
Since your silence is the subject of the word we're discussing, imply is correct as it would "indicate the truth or existence of (something) by suggestion rather than explicit reference" where the something is your passing. Your silence could not "deduce or conclude" anything
D'you see?[/nsfw]
Nice pictures anyway, particularly the second DistoX one...
RE Slide copying, I've been meaning to experiment with a jig for this - the Slide Copier bellows are great if you have a FF (35mm) DSLR, but for those of us with smaller pockets they're the wrong size. I found an online tutorial once about how to set one up for APS-C, wish I could find it again...
The Old Ruminator
Well-known member
The Old Ruminator
Well-known member
Doing some early stuff. Oh Joy. A very early shot of Peter Glanvill hiding behind a rock in Baker's Pit August 1966.
That bedraggled caving urchin Pete Rose. Late 60's
When you could get him up. MUSS hut. Clapham.
Happy days !
That bedraggled caving urchin Pete Rose. Late 60's
When you could get him up. MUSS hut. Clapham.
Happy days !
The Old Ruminator
Well-known member
.probably not peter g. in bakers. too long ago to remember.
currently adding early at time of discovery shatter and withyhill photos to flikr. nearly up to 1200 images on line there now.
sad now to see the difference between then and now and i guess they show the value of original photos if you can bear to look 40 odd years later.
this one is of shatter cave discoverer ray saxton in the ring road.
same view 40 years later.
hope the photographer does not mind me pinching the latter.
withyhill lower stream passage at time of discovery. later the flood routes were blocked and this section is all silt covered now. it was pure, almost black rock
originally.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/96466079@N05/
currently adding early at time of discovery shatter and withyhill photos to flikr. nearly up to 1200 images on line there now.
sad now to see the difference between then and now and i guess they show the value of original photos if you can bear to look 40 odd years later.
this one is of shatter cave discoverer ray saxton in the ring road.
same view 40 years later.
hope the photographer does not mind me pinching the latter.
withyhill lower stream passage at time of discovery. later the flood routes were blocked and this section is all silt covered now. it was pure, almost black rock
originally.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/96466079@N05/
The Old Ruminator
Well-known member
Still re imaging and uploading early Withyhill and Shatter.
Came across this one. My wife in Festival Cave. She only ever went caving a couple of times.
Yup I still get that hard look now some 45 years later. I am still a selfish pig for breaking my arm in Reservoir. She cant drive you see.
Came across this one. My wife in Festival Cave. She only ever went caving a couple of times.
Yup I still get that hard look now some 45 years later. I am still a selfish pig for breaking my arm in Reservoir. She cant drive you see.