The Old Ruminator
Well-known member
Pete Rose traversing in Daren Cilau. We have been friends for 50 years.He is a strange old git now but I value that friendship.
50 Years Behind The Caving Camera.
- Thread starter The Old Ruminator
- Start date
The Old Ruminator
Well-known member
Variations of a theme and over time.
At discovery and maybe the very first photo.
et al.
At discovery and maybe the very first photo.
et al.
The Old Ruminator
Well-known member
Just reached 1400 uploads mostly single handed. :-[
https://www.flickr.com/photos/96466079@N05/
Trying to strangle Peter Glanvill 1992. Nothing changes.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/96466079@N05/
Trying to strangle Peter Glanvill 1992. Nothing changes.
The Old Ruminator
Well-known member
I can hardly take photos of me strangling you. Yes A few of me from the past with MR R's permission and not ,as you say , with my name on. Please present yourself for more strangulation. :tease:
So rule one. Never take it seriously.
So rule one. Never take it seriously.
The Old Ruminator
Well-known member
Always interesting to see how others work.
If I ever get back I am thinking of getting a DSLR. I like the look of the Canon 100 D which is one of the smallest DSLR'S on the market. Anyway I have a load of Canon lenses so I am stuck with that format.
http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/reviews/dslrs/canon-eos-100d-review
If I ever get back I am thinking of getting a DSLR. I like the look of the Canon 100 D which is one of the smallest DSLR'S on the market. Anyway I have a load of Canon lenses so I am stuck with that format.
http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/reviews/dslrs/canon-eos-100d-review
The Old Ruminator
Well-known member
Sod it. As its Black Friday I have ordered the 100 D from amazon. 
The Old Ruminator
Well-known member
no caps its easier. thanks roger. I get more sympathy from you than i get from the wife.
i would like to add up a favourite photo from time to time and relate any story behind it.
i do like this one as it embodies all of what i set out to do at reservoir. that is cover every stage of the exploration actually as it happened.oh by the way the reservoir stuff is currently going onto the flickr photo stream. they are in two blocks. some i did early on with two good hands and the current batch with one hand. the latter have less text but quite a few are un published - if you can believe that. anyway its all something to do in my sorry state.
forget technical excellence as it does not work with my journalistic approach.
the photo shows nigel drilling a line belay point for his first climb up skyfall aven. he is no climber and was quite nervous about the whole thing. the photographers position could not have been worse. no room. people trying to work and the aven pouring water.
now i can let you into a secret. back then only skinny folk could get in there so i let alison have the camera set up on i auto. please dont let mr o doc know.
a good batch of photos came out. most had to be photoshopped and this one has been cropped by 50 per cent to concentrate on the un posed subject.
i felt i auto with no flash had more chance of defeating the back scatter. for those technically minded here are the specs.
my old tg 620.
1-13 sec at f3.9 the camera cranking the iso up to 1600.
so that begs the question.
whose copyright. mine or alisons.
does it really matter anyway.
nigel reached a hole in the roof he could not get across to. andrew atkinson finished the climb later but the hole proved to be too small.
the wretched sqeeze below the climb has been made ruminator size now.
nigel, ali and john cooper were on the climbing trip while i waited below the squeeze. john operated the life line.
john had a broken stalagmite dropped on him for his kindness.
the current sky fall dig is pushing upwards adjacent to the aven further into the fault.
work continues.
i would like to add up a favourite photo from time to time and relate any story behind it.
i do like this one as it embodies all of what i set out to do at reservoir. that is cover every stage of the exploration actually as it happened.oh by the way the reservoir stuff is currently going onto the flickr photo stream. they are in two blocks. some i did early on with two good hands and the current batch with one hand. the latter have less text but quite a few are un published - if you can believe that. anyway its all something to do in my sorry state.
forget technical excellence as it does not work with my journalistic approach.
the photo shows nigel drilling a line belay point for his first climb up skyfall aven. he is no climber and was quite nervous about the whole thing. the photographers position could not have been worse. no room. people trying to work and the aven pouring water.
now i can let you into a secret. back then only skinny folk could get in there so i let alison have the camera set up on i auto. please dont let mr o doc know.
a good batch of photos came out. most had to be photoshopped and this one has been cropped by 50 per cent to concentrate on the un posed subject.
i felt i auto with no flash had more chance of defeating the back scatter. for those technically minded here are the specs.
my old tg 620.
1-13 sec at f3.9 the camera cranking the iso up to 1600.
so that begs the question.
whose copyright. mine or alisons.
does it really matter anyway.
nigel reached a hole in the roof he could not get across to. andrew atkinson finished the climb later but the hole proved to be too small.
the wretched sqeeze below the climb has been made ruminator size now.
nigel, ali and john cooper were on the climbing trip while i waited below the squeeze. john operated the life line.
john had a broken stalagmite dropped on him for his kindness.
the current sky fall dig is pushing upwards adjacent to the aven further into the fault.
work continues.
The Old Ruminator
Well-known member
I was very pleased with this one as it gave me a club magazine cover shot. I had put off a trip to upper flood for ages mostly due to mr o docs mutterings about having to strip off after getting stuck in the boulder choke. well then the wretched hernia came along so i asked the very kindly mr christopher - here i save his blushes with a pseudonym ish - to sort out a simple trip just for me .the plan was that anytime i had enough we came out. i envisaged that to be somewhere in the boulder choke. we agreed on a no photo trip with an estimate for getting to neverland and back in seven hours. on hearing that nigel said he would come along and so did mr o doc with his camera. uh uh no camera mr o doc co he huffily cancelled off. well you cant keep a photographer down so i sneaked in my little tg 2 plus a slave fired flash in my small pelicase which mr christopher kindly carried. well we made it to neverland due mainly to the patience and advice of kind mr c. here i discovered that boots and top suits came off and i had socks not wet suit boots.oooo lots of hobbling about amongst the pretties. i sort of envisaged this shot with the slave and was just about to ask nigel to sort out things when he grabbed the slave saying he knew what to do and marched off. the whole set up and shot took about 30 seconds. you have to be lucky sometimes .i got a reasonable photo set soon seen by mr o doc -- more mutterings. in the end the whole trip took six hours.
Programme auto with on camera flash.
1-30th second at pre set 400 iso.
Programme auto with on camera flash.
1-30th second at pre set 400 iso.
The Old Ruminator
Well-known member
sometimes you have to question yourself and wonder how ethical, unkind or unfair you have been. this poor lady had her radius split lengthways by a falling pointed rock. i actually have a photo of it in situ with nigel looking horrified. ahh how we forget.
the accident happened and she was so brave. never uttered a word or sound of complaint on the long trip back to the surface. i guess i felt bad about the photos at the time as they never got aired anywhere. this is one of the unpublished ones from the set. i have only showed one other.
now after almost the same thing happening to me i realise what an awful baby i was. moaning and screeching all the way out of the cave. pitiful. i was captivated by her attempt at smiling and the two medics created a perfect frame. again forget photographic perfection. hardly applicable in this case. the moment is what counts and it can never be repeated.
she was in hospital for a while and had the radius plated. i dont think they had seen an injury quite like that before.i did visit with a bunch of flowers. last i heard she is fine now and back caving in her home country in eastern europe.
tg 620. programme auto. 1- 30th at 3.9f with iso preset at 400. scurion headlamp to illuminate subject as flash distance on medics.
as i said i guess we photographers owe it to our subjects to show them in good light. i guess i fail there from time to time. its easy to be unflattering and folk sometimes see themselves differently in an image than others do. i rarely do posed shots so that its far easier for me to slip up.
the accident happened and she was so brave. never uttered a word or sound of complaint on the long trip back to the surface. i guess i felt bad about the photos at the time as they never got aired anywhere. this is one of the unpublished ones from the set. i have only showed one other.
now after almost the same thing happening to me i realise what an awful baby i was. moaning and screeching all the way out of the cave. pitiful. i was captivated by her attempt at smiling and the two medics created a perfect frame. again forget photographic perfection. hardly applicable in this case. the moment is what counts and it can never be repeated.
she was in hospital for a while and had the radius plated. i dont think they had seen an injury quite like that before.i did visit with a bunch of flowers. last i heard she is fine now and back caving in her home country in eastern europe.
tg 620. programme auto. 1- 30th at 3.9f with iso preset at 400. scurion headlamp to illuminate subject as flash distance on medics.
as i said i guess we photographers owe it to our subjects to show them in good light. i guess i fail there from time to time. its easy to be unflattering and folk sometimes see themselves differently in an image than others do. i rarely do posed shots so that its far easier for me to slip up.
The Old Ruminator
Well-known member
thanks mm.
despite all of this i am keen to get back. the new camera might arrive today which by the way is our grandson's first birthday.
so as this is my thread or so here is a photo taken at the party. the lighting was strong through the window so i used the reflection off the wrapping paper on i auto which opens up the stop rather than engage the flash. i think flash fill would have ruined what turned into quite a soft image.
tg2. f2 100th sec at 100 iso.
despite all of this i am keen to get back. the new camera might arrive today which by the way is our grandson's first birthday.
so as this is my thread or so here is a photo taken at the party. the lighting was strong through the window so i used the reflection off the wrapping paper on i auto which opens up the stop rather than engage the flash. i think flash fill would have ruined what turned into quite a soft image.
tg2. f2 100th sec at 100 iso.
The Old Ruminator
Well-known member
New Canon camera has arrived.
The Old Ruminator
Well-known member
Still uploading reservoir stuff. some on this post you may have seen before but coming across ones like this again reminds me why i dont do many posed shots. you really dont need to ask when you see one like this. just grab it while you can before the balance is gone. we have nigel at the top drilling holes for the cave retaping. then you have ali doing i dont know what nicely lit by chris bindings lamp below. at the bottom is john cooper doing his own thing. the cave was originally taped with standard orange tape until i decided it look horrible in photos. i suggested we use white farm electric fencing tape which to my surprise they agreed to. in total we used 1500 m of white tape but the less visited high country is still mostly orange. of course taping may be a controversial issue but faced with 3,000 square metres of virgin chamber floor we had to do something.
approaching 1700 uploads on flickr now. whether this serves any useful purpose in life i really dont know. just lets say i feel its something useful to do just sat around at home.
TG620 programme auto. 3.9f one 30th sec at 400 iso
basically switching between p. auto and i auto is all you need to do for simple shots. the black background of the chamber helps the image.
the composition reminded me of that classic world war two image of hoisting the flag on Iwo Jima though i seem to remember that was posed.
approaching 1700 uploads on flickr now. whether this serves any useful purpose in life i really dont know. just lets say i feel its something useful to do just sat around at home.
TG620 programme auto. 3.9f one 30th sec at 400 iso
basically switching between p. auto and i auto is all you need to do for simple shots. the black background of the chamber helps the image.
the composition reminded me of that classic world war two image of hoisting the flag on Iwo Jima though i seem to remember that was posed.
The Old Ruminator
Well-known member
its really what i always say. photography does not have to be hard at all. there is a heck of a lot you can do with the two autos or sub programmes. add to that a bit of understanding about editing and you are there. it also helps to try to see things differently . break the so called rules and see what happens. i get quite a few decent cave photos by pure luck alone. take enough and something has to work.seeing an image in your mind before taking a photo helps too. loads of photos look wrong because of poor composition . mid point horizons rarely work and thats where the rule of thirds come in. really all i ever want to do is not sound pompous about the whole thing but to encourage more folk to take cave photos and post them up somewhere. i got a lot of stick coming here with loads of photos but stuck it out because one or two folk were kind and encouraging. caves are fragile environments and even in controlled situations there is deterioration. seen over 50 years that is very apparent. ok in some cases i find it depressing. perhaps its easier not to see how things were. if people are not aware of such things though there is no hope of stopping it. reservoir hole was formed some 300, 000 years ago.its been totally untouched up to the last three years. thats why we made an effort of recording everything though with the fast pace of discovery the journalistic photo approach was the only way to do it. the professional guys are on the case now but nowhere near covering it all.
The Old Ruminator
Well-known member
AT the risk of boring everyone to death and bear in mind I have all the time in the world --
Three from todays upload.
This one shows the value of my Scurion headlamp. I find I use it most of the time. Almost without thinking about it now.
Just love macro as you can mess about for ages. This one is unpublished. Works best with a black background and use a bit of stiff card to pre focus on. A macro ring flash would be best for lighting but I get by with a video lamp or Scurion off to the side. You rarely get way without cropping and having a high res original means that you can zoom in more with a crop. Water proof tough cameras give you the option of underwater macro. Some cameras give you super macro but the depth of field will only be a mm or two.
This foggy one of Alison surveying Skyfall gave me the creeps. She is standing exactly where I was when my arm was broken recently. Nigel is nearing the top of the climb to enter an ascending rift up to the dig. The boulder fell beyond where Nigel is to hit me directly below. Quite a way down. Three weeks back today. Ruddy cast is getting heavy.
Three from todays upload.
This one shows the value of my Scurion headlamp. I find I use it most of the time. Almost without thinking about it now.
Just love macro as you can mess about for ages. This one is unpublished. Works best with a black background and use a bit of stiff card to pre focus on. A macro ring flash would be best for lighting but I get by with a video lamp or Scurion off to the side. You rarely get way without cropping and having a high res original means that you can zoom in more with a crop. Water proof tough cameras give you the option of underwater macro. Some cameras give you super macro but the depth of field will only be a mm or two.
This foggy one of Alison surveying Skyfall gave me the creeps. She is standing exactly where I was when my arm was broken recently. Nigel is nearing the top of the climb to enter an ascending rift up to the dig. The boulder fell beyond where Nigel is to hit me directly below. Quite a way down. Three weeks back today. Ruddy cast is getting heavy.
