My Favourite Photographs

[The Old Ruminator]

Big with bulbs. Pre digital images of big spaces.

Time Machine. Daren Cilau.



Agen Allwedd

Barons Chamber.











Ogof Craig a Fynnon



The Cathedral, Box Mine



Daren Cilau.



Jigsaw.



Epocalypse  Way.



Lamb and Fox Chamber, Draenen.



Lancaster Hole.




Like I said you can knock spots off these now with digital. Some of these old slides have deteriorated and lost contrast. I suppose we were lucky to get anything acceptable back then. Same with the kit. Home made wet suits. Evosik and taped seams. Crikey what a job . Nife or Edison Cells usually unreliable as the cables deteriorated without you knowing. Pre wet suit it was begging for oily boiler suits at the local garage as they lasted longer. Ladders for all of the pitches. Ey up. Six in the bed and bucket and chucket at the bottom of the garden. All character building.

 

[Fulk]

Good morning, TOR, I took the liberty of dragging your Lancaster Hole picture onto my desktop and 'tweaking' it up a bit; note absence of scratches. I think it's an improvement; I guess the question is 'Can you be bothered to work on all your old snaps, and why?

Cheers, Fulk.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Hi Fulk. Quite a differance. I wont say that I cannot be bothered but as you see my time spent editing is fairly minimal. I have quite a few hobbies other than caving so would rather be doing things like that  than sit at a computer. I did much of that sort of thing when I had a broken arm. There is then the question about how true you want to be with your subject. Not in cases like this so much as work there is remedial. I see modern photos on Facebook in all sorts of garish modes using a multidue of apps. ( horrble abbreviation ). Some current caving images too are stretched beyond reality with editing, stitching and Lord knows what. I still prefer to work on what I call the " moment " so the image is how I experienced it at the time. As we saw earlier about computational in camera editing it might be that we move even further from the " truth ". The New Scientist article was called      " Dont Believe Your Eyes ". Despite cave photography become ever more easy it does not mean that we shall see more of it here.

 

[Fulk]

I don't normally spend long on editing pictures, but I do find that the 'highlights/shadows' is often a very good quick fix.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Of course the remedial editing is only part of the game. The slides have to be scanned and the final image uploaded here by my preferred route through Photobucket now costing me ?100 pa. Photobucket is still " edgy " and I have to refresh the page quite often then get irritable and pack it in.

So today I am out for a nice long walk. Time for a couple more I suppose.


Eclectic.

Father and son at Windy Junction Ogof Draenen.



Same father as above ( Trevor Knief ) near Valentine's Chamber Daren Cilau.



Manor Farm two weeks after discovery ( I was there then ) with Ted Popham.



Agen Allwedd near Cascade Passage.



Off now for a long walk -------

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Sad days. These lovely folk died relatively young.










Sometimes fate does not allow you to fulfil lifes's potential. It can be cut cruelly short . Best to live life to the full as much as you can. I guess that now in my 70's I have been a very lucky man.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

You can only counter that post with a bit of madness.

I took the wife's umbrella in for this portrait in The Frozen Deep. Sadly it did not survive the trip.



Sometimes you wonder why you bother.



An excellant selfie ruined.



Ummm --



Ummm rather more so.



You will get through that ruddy squeeze.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

It is best to sneak up on Photobucket early in the morning. ( At least before nurse comes around with the meds )

I shall be in WA much of April so will get on with a bit more before then.


Puddles.


WL Cave.



Within the puddle. Hooray for a waterproof camera.









Quite difficult getting the water surface on the thirds line and having the angle to pick up the reflection. Do mutiple shots slightly changing the angle each time though , of course, you wont see the view finder. If in doubt re conservation use a selfie stick with the camera on timer.

The bubble in a bubble.



Ahh Photobucket has found me out and wants refreshing. I cant be bothered now.

 

[Roger W]

Some  super shots there, OR.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Thanks Roger. The problem is where do I stop ? Anyway here are some odds and ends from my pre digital wanderings.

The Gnome Garden, Slaughter Stream Cave.



Straw Chamber, Lancaster Hole with Ted Popham.



St Cuthberts 2 about 1974.



Lost in OFD about 1970.



Kingsdale Master Cave late 60's



Queen Victoria in Stoke Lane Slocker.



The Nunnery. Ogof Draenan.



The Beehive, Lamb Leer about 1970.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Interlude


Diving eclipsed my passion for caving for 25 years. Actually the two are quite the same in a way though diving is far more expensive and you can die in more horrible ways.
My area was wreck research working closely with the Admiralty here in Taunton . I still work on wrecksite the data base for the worlds shipwrecks. In those 25 years I identified a great many wrecks from liners ( Edam II, Aeneas  ) to warships ( HMS Ullswater ). The latter took years to find. That is a very satisfactory part of diving but using mixed gasses at great depths the most dangerous. We lost around ten of our large select group some were very close friends.

Me kitted up for solo diving.



Some of us had a quick ride home.



Some of us got seriously " bent ".



Some of got famous for a while. Yup. I turned down Richard and Judy.



Some liked to collect scrap. This is a telemotor. My long term diving partner Alan Dunster who died on HMS Warrior.



Back from an 80m dive miles off Plymouth. I did identify that one.



So as its my post I can say I miss you folks,

Alan, Alan D, Stuart, My dear friend " Chesh " ( we were going to write a book-- one day ) ,Barry , Keith M. and Roger ( we both dived Heliair %,14 02 %33 Helium.)

You have no mates at 90 metres.

Anyway as I am now sobbing over the keyboard its back to caving.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

One final one.

You can be a tiny speck in a rough sea. I know.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Green Lake Chamber with added underwater lighting. ( Carefully placed ).



Me with the lovely Miranda K. TV presenter. Filming for The One Show in The Frozen Deep.



I feel better now but have to go to hoover the bedrooms.

 

[Laurie]

Thanks Roger. The problem is where do I stop ?

Please don't, your photos are about as close as I get to caving these days.
One of the last of my rare cave photos was the Beehive taken on what was probably the last 'official' trip down Lamb Leer about 15 to 18 years ago.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Ok Laurie.

I reckon I could do at least 500 without repetition but will probably die before then.

So for you another three from Lamb Leer.








Its easy to forget how rare pre digital  caving images are. Only a handful of cavers in the 60's and 70's bothered to lug all the gear about. Some did focus on pure photography. For some of us it was by the way. The trip came first and mostly the others on the trip were not to cooperative.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Club Huts.

Never did like 'em much.  All that farting and snoring.


I did apologise after though.

MUSS hut Clapham c 1971. Pete Rose.




Ahh. Our old Cerberus cottage now a ruin.



Trevor Khief cooking breakfast at CSS Whitewalls.



Evening at Whitewalls.



With Portsmouth Polytechnic C C at Horton c 1971. I was too dim to be a Uni student but they kindly adopted me.



SWCC about 1970.







Stuck in the mud near Lost John's c 1971.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Photographers. Part One.

Well er me this one by Pete Rose.

Often with big tin box. ( Ex army ammo box )

Agen Allwedd.



Daren Cilau



White Company



Daren Cilau.



Agen Allwedd



My tripod was a ball and socket screwed to the tin lid. Shutter cable release for brief time exposure.



The doubled size ammo box in Daren Cilau.



Urchin Oxbow, Daren.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

Shatter Cave.


1st May 1969

Will put up the images and follow with the text.













God Photobucket is ruddy tempremental tonight. I shall persevere.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

No thats it. I cant stand Photobox any more tonight. Text follows.

 

[The Old Ruminator]

On the 8th April 1969 Saxton and Conway were spuddling about at the base of the quarry face and discovered a draughting hole. This was cleared and they entered some big chambers smelling of diesel oil. The following evening CSS members explored the new cave to halt at a choke beyond what we now know as Erratic Rift. On April 15th a party from the quarry company, the River Authority and the CSS visited the cave. Willie Stanton passed the choke to enter another large chamber ( Tor Chamber ). The following day a party from other Mendip clubs explored the cave as far as Pillar Chamber to be halted by a sqeeze beyond. It was on that trip that the superb crystal floor was walked on leaving those muddy prints you see in the image. The squeeze was passed soon afterwards to discover most of the rest of the cave.
Conway and Saxton surely saved the cave as we know it as the shot holes were already completed down into Diesel Chamber. The diesel is poured into the shot holes as part of the blasting proceedure. The original entrance remains but it is an artificial hole into the side of a small chamber above the active streamway. ( Viagara Rift ). The original conduit ran from Balch Cave into WL Cave then into Shatter. WL Cave was joined to Shatter Cave in embarrassing circumstances by a certain Chipchase and Rose before the Shatter survey was completed. Without the partial destruction of Balch Cave WL and Shatter would not have been linked by that route as WL was completely concealed by stal flow in Crystal Chamber. Consideration was given to re establishing the original route into Shatter via WL Cave but it would have meant traffic through Pink Pool Chamber. A more interesting trip though. The name Shatter Cave was a temporary name but it never got amended. I still do not like it.

So. In April it is Shatter Cave's 50th birthday.

The images above feature Ray Saxton with his trusty hammer and were the first set of photos taken in the cave.