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<title>CUCC Expedition Handbook: Photography</title>
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<h2 id="tophead">CUCC Expedition Handbook</h2>
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<h1>Photography</h1>
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<p>Seeing all these excellent (and otherwise) photos on the website may have
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inspired you to say "How can I take photos like that?" or maybe "What a load of
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crap, I bet I can do better than that". Either way, it is a sad fact that
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CUCC's photography today is about as good as its surveying 10 years ago.
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Writing "how to do it" guides and ranting at people seems to have caused a lot
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of progress on the surveying front, so we clearly need such a guide for expo
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photography.</p>
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<p>However, as yet, no one has volunteered to write one, probably because
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no-one is really qualified to do so... So this document is just an outline
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of (a) what has been done up to now and (b) what needs doing in the future
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without much (c) how to do it.</p>
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<h3>What has been done up to now ?</h3>
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<p>Many people take cameras to expedition, a few make it up to Top Camp, and
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a very few get underground, where the equipment may or may not work, people
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may or may not cooperate or get too cold and photographers may persist or
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give up. Hence there are plenty of photos of Base Camp, festering, dead cars
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etc., quite a lot of the walk in, Top Camp, the plateau, a fair number of
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entrances, and a very few good underground shots.</p>
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<p>Getting a collection of photos together to make an "expedition slide set"
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has taken years, and is still not really satisfactory. There must be some
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more good pictures out there ? August 1996 saw the first 99 slides (they
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missed one) put onto Photo-CD, and a start made in getting these onto the
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website. This is proving quite hard work, because digitisation is not very
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tolerant of poor exposure, especially different exposure across the photo.
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Correcting this is pretty time-consuming, though it can reveal unexpected
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detail that was never really visible in slide shows.</p>
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<p>Quite a bit of "notebook" photography has been done with a video camera
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and digitiser card. This is a handy way of getting quick pictures of
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entrances and approach routes (and much cheaper than Photo-CD, if you have the
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equipment), but the quality leaves a certain amount to be desired (it would
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be improved by a slightly less cheapo video digitiser). Some pictures are
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also here courtesy of video of postcard-sized prints.</p>
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<p>For 1997, a 2700 dpi transparency scanner should ensure that your
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photos will make it to the web site quickly, without having to wait
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to make up a set of 100 for a Photo-CD :-) Experience has also shown that
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the final results are somewhat better as we have more control at the
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scanning stage. See the <a href="../1623/161/pixlw.htm">Lost World</a>
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virtual tour.</p>
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<p>Since the above paragraphs were written, there has been a vast increase in
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the prevalence of digital cameras. Unfortunately as these are even more
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expensive than their film counterparts people are exceedingly unwilling to take
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them underground. Hence underground photography has been rather thin on the
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ground of late; we desperately need more photos of the further reaches of
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Steinbrückenhöhle, for example.</p>
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<h3>What needs doing in the future ?</h3>
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<p>A number of photographs specifically illustrating topics in the Expedition
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Handbook would be useful. We would prefer that this involved a practice rescue
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in Yorkshire rather than a real one in Austria. Likewise, a bit of photography
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during a practice survey trip would be good. Another topic, on which we have
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neither words nor pictures, would be expedition rigging.</p>
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<p>Almost every entrance needs documenting photographically, to make it
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easier to find and identify. Some aerial photos would really help here. As a
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temporary measure, there are various photos taken from the Bräuning
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Wall. With a bit of surface-survey visualisation software, these may even
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get a few entrances marked...</p>
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<p>The major need is for quality underground photographs. Of the couple of
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score or so representing the 21.5km of Kaninchenhöhle, almost all had
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to have quite a lot of hacking about to make them look acceptable on the
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medium of the computer screen, though this has become rather easier now
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we have access to a transparency scanner. In particular we are short of
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pictures of the following:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Vertical France</li>
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<li>Left Hand Route</li>
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<li>Garden Party</li>
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<li>Powerstation</li>
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<li>Drunk and Stupid</li>
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<li>Dreamtime</li>
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<li>Limo series, Gnome, Vestabule etc. etc.</li>
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<li>Flapjack, Flat Battery, Gob on You etc.</li>
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<li>Siberia, Leadmine, Maze</li>
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<li>Interview Blues</li>
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<li>Fine Clean Rock, Henri's Cat</li>
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<li>Bottomless Pit, Hammeroids and other verticals</li>
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<li>Alternative Universe, Dr. Snuggles etc.</li>
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<li>Forbidden Land</li>
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</ul>
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<p>and we could do with rather more of</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Right Hand Route</li>
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<li>Puerile Humour</li>
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<li>Flat France (nearer France than Brownie's Cunt)</li>
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<li> ... and almost everywhere else</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Photos showing approach routes would be useful, as would photos taken
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(and carefully documented) during surface surveys.</p>
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<h3>How to do it ?</h3>
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<p>Scenario: Photographer gathers together all the equipment needed for a trip.
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Three photographers and several helpers have volunteered. Photographer comes
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back late and knackered from one trip - postpones the photographic trip.
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Weather is crap - no one goes up to Top Camp, another postponement. One of the
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photographers has to go home - hands all gear to another. Expo dinner - no one
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doing anything. Finally the trip is on. Photographer at Top Camp religiously
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tests all the equipment - it works perfectly.</p>
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<p>Dodging showers, the team heads up to and into the cave. Through Triassic
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Park and to the scene of the first photo. All flash equipment fails to go off.
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Change connectors. Fails. Use slaves. Fails repeatedly until second
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photographer fires an electronic flash at the roof to see how high it is -
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slaves fire bulb flashes in dazzling coruscation of light - no cameras with
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shutters open. Try again, bulbs fail to fire. After about an hour and a half,
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everyone freezing and irate, give up and move to another site. Similar
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performance, but with a stronger, colder draught. Cave now floods as
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mega-thunderstorm occurs on surface. Party retreat along Triassic Park,
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pausing for one or two more attempts. Exit, apparently after total failure.</p>
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<p>In fact, the second photographer, who hasn't had his gear out of its ammo
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can since his previous expedition photographic trip three years earlier, does
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turn out to have a few usable shots.</p>
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<p>This is probably how <b>not</b> to do it, though it does illustrate the
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problems. Can anybody write something more positive?</p>
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<hr />
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<h3>More hints'n'tips, mainly on what not to do.</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>Don't use flash on camera, except a small flash used to fire slaves on
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bigger flashes off-camera. Frontal lighting produces no shadows, so the
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picture is flat and hard-to-understand. Also produces bright "red eye" in
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cavers whose faces appear on the photo.</li>
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<li>Do use a tripod - the heavier the better for photography, but worse
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for caving with. Tiny pocket tripods are great for allowing cameras
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topple off boulders and into the all-pervading mud, but crap for getting
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your eye anywhere near the viewfinder.</li>
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<li>Do use slaves. I don't mean people who will take orders (though they
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certainly help - we call them "minions"). A slave is a small electronic
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gadget which will fire one flash gun when another goes off. They are
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triggered by the fast rising edge of light level produced by an electronic
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flash, and will not go off in response to daylight, or a headlight flashing
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across them. You can use several to ensure that all the flashes go off at the
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same time, thus avoiding the problem that a caver has moved between two
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manual firings of a flashgun, producing a "ghost" image.</li>
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<li>Do use multiple flashes, but don't go over the top. Cavers see the cave
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partly by their own head lamp, and partly by the lamps of others, so a
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photo with multiple light sources looks "natural". However, with too many
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lights, the result is a confusing mess. Two or three flashes are enough,
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except in large chambers, where each flash is far enough apart to be clearly
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seen as a separate caver/light patch.</li>
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<li>Don't have more than two photographers working at once. Two cameras on
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tripods using the same flashes is good economy, but more just reduces the
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chances of the picture being taken in a finite time.</li>
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<li>Don't use big flashes close to large boulders or to walls. To avoid
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burning out the highlights and leaving deep shadows, try to get flashes
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positioned so everything they illuminate is more-or-less the same distance
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away. Often this means having your caver with his flash perched on a large
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boulder, or hanging in the middle of a shaft.</li>
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<li>To project light along a passage, or up a shaft, without burning out
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the nearby walls, put a "funnel" of aluminium foil (shiny side in) over
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the flashgun. This tends to change the effective guide number, so it's
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worth doing some experiments in the UK first!</li>
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<li>People can relate to photos looking straight up a shaft, but ones looking
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straight down don't seem to work as well. Better if possible to get off to
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one side and have a shot looking diagonally up or down.</li>
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<li>Beware of posed action shots. Practice the timing and have them actually
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moving when the flash fires, otherwise they look awkward and off-balance.</li>
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<li>Photography rarely combines well with exploration - the trip just gets
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slowed up too much with both bolting and photography and everyone gets cold.
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However, quick snapshots at pitch heads or at the exits from crawls can
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work if the photographer is fairly well practised. Similarly, photography
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doesn't combine well with surveying, as both activities are slow-moving and
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result in lots of people generating great clouds of steam.</li>
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<li>Solo cave photography is possible, but like solo surveying, is time
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consuming and frustrating. Photos with no people lack scale and are generally
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a waste of effort.</li>
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<li>Photography against the light can be very creative, but is also more
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prone to cocks-up. Don't let the camera "see" the flash directly. A flash
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hidden from the camera by a caver makes a good silhouette, but exposure is
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difficult to calculate except by experience (ie. lots of failed shots).
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A flash hidden round a bend, and reflecting off wet walls can also be very
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good. However, this doesn't work as well when everything is more-or-less
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muddy.</li>
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<li>Take notes. When starting underground photography, some shots work well,
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whilst others fail. If you don't record what you did, you'll never know why.
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Once you can avoid those shots which produced crap results, you have more
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practice refining the good shots, and people will be more willing to come
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on photo trips with you.</li>
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</ul>
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<hr />
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<h3>Choice of gear</h3>
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<p>Just a few brief notes:</p>
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<p><b>Camera:</b> preferably use a robust camera with minimal electronics
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(the most sophisticated of metering is useless in the dark :-) For black and
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white work, many prefer 2¼" square format (120) film, often using an
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old folding camera. For colour, 35mm is almost universal. If you want an SLR,
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the old Zenith ones can stand being dropped a considerable distance in an
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ammo can. They also fulfil the final criterion on cost: don't take a camera
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underground unless you can afford to write it off.</p>
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<p>Some cavers in recent years have had some success with pocket-size digital
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cameras. These are much more delicate than a film camera, but vastly smaller
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and lighter and easier to carry around. It seems unlikely that these will
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supplant film cameras for 'artistic' photography with fifteen different
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flashguns in enormous chambers, but they have the vast advantage of allowing
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you to see on the spot if you've taken a completely blank exposure. They are
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probably ideally suited to 'notebook' style photography, just photographing
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anything you find without worrying overmuch about quality: any photos are
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better than no photos.</p>
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<p><b>Flash:</b> You can get more light from a bulb flash than electronic,
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and they are less sensitive to damp, though still far from wholly reliable.
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Bulbs cost a lot more per flash than an electronic gun, and are less reliable
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as the master flash for setting off slave units. Some slave units also fail
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to fire bulb flashes, or can even be damaged by them. And finally, it is
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getting hard to obtain flashbulbs as they are widely regarded as obsolete.</p>
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<p><b>Film:</b> If possible, use more light, rather than faster film. In big
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passage or chambers, this may not be feasible. 400 ASA film is fine for
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postcard sized prints, but dreadfully grainy for enlargements, for
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projection, or to be scanned for the website. The best results for scanning
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seem to come from 100 ASA negative film - go for amateur films, which have
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more exposure latitude, cope with a greater contrast range in the subject,
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and are invariably cheaper than professional emulsions. 64 or 100 ASA seems
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to be about right for slides.</p>
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<p><b>Protection:</b> the classic is the ex-military ammunition tin or
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"ammo-can". There are two sizes useful for photography, 3½" and 6".
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The latter are really heavy and clumsy to carry, whilst the former are a very
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tight or impossible fit for most SLRs with the lens on (and carrying a
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camera with the lens off is asking for shit inside). Whichever is used,
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the inside should be padded with old karrimat or something similar. Don't
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rely on the little metal handle - these have been known to pop their spot
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welds - use some chunky nylon tape, especially in vertical cave.</p>
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<p>One alternative is the Peli or Otter polycarbonate case (the Peli ones are
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famously guaranteed against all damage except shark attacks, bear attacks and
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children under 5). These appear to be genuinely indestructible and much lighter
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than ammo cans, but they are expensive. <a href="../sponsr.htm">Sponsorship</a>
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from Peli in 2004 might bring a few more into circulation.</p>
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<p>Another option is the plastic "BDH" or "Daren" drum. These are lighter, have
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less awkward corners to catch in crawls, but are more difficult to fit
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rectangular objects into. They are also slightly more prone to fall over, and
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the lids are more easily mislaid. "Rocket" tubes are similar.</p>
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<hr />
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<ul id="links">
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<li><a href="index.htm">Expedition Handbook</a>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="survey/index.htm">Surveying guide</a> - Overview</li>
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<li><a href="look4.htm">Prospecting guide</a> – Overview</li>
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<li><a href="rescue.htm">Rescue guide</a></li>
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<li><a href="rigit.htm">Rigging guide</a></li>
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<li>Photography guide</li>
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</ul></li>
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<li><a href="../infodx.htm">Index to info/topics pages</a></li>
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<li><a href="../indxal.htm">Full Index to area 1623</a>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="../areas.htm">Area/subarea descriptions</a></li>
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</ul></li>
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<li><a href="../index.htm">Back to Expedition Intro page</a></li>
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<li><a href="../../index.htm">Back to CUCC Home page</a></li>
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</ul>
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