Things that go boom

captnemo

Here's one of my favourite pics from a recent trip to Grutas de Bustamante (formerly known as palmito) in Mexico. I was quite happy to get a shot that showed just some of the grand scale of this cave. The really interesting thing about this shot though is because of the equipment I was using- old M5 flash bulbs. These are used in cave photography because they provide a lot of light from a pretty small package. Since these are no longer manufactured we have to get them from whoever still has some in their garage/basement. This may contribute to part of this story- note the silhouette in the forground, bottom left- thats Bob who was kind enough to hold a flash gun for me. The shower of sparks in front of him is what happens when a bulb has gotten old and possibly had moisture damage- It Explodes! and quite loudly I should add. This happened twice on this trip and both times Bob was the unfortunate person holding the flashgun, luckily no one was hurt and we cleaned up all the pieces of broken bulb before we left.

redleash

Wonderful image and a neat story--glad Bob wasn't hurt. We have some caves around the Hill Country but I don't know if they allow photos. Looks like a specialized area of the craft and I like your result!

captnemo

redleash wrote:

Wonderful image and a neat story--glad Bob wasn't hurt. We have some caves around the Hill Country but I don't know if they allow photos. Looks like a specialized area of the craft and I like your result!

You're not too far from one of my favourite show caves- caverns of Sonora. They have a strict no jackets backpacks or bags policy. The delicate formations are so close to the trail that a careless bag swinging around could do terrible damage. But they will let you hand carry a camera and flash, or you can even arrange for a special photo tour which costs quite a bit but would be very worthwhile. I took several pictures there as well but haven't finished going through them yet.

redleash

captnemo - Thanks for the info. I will have to check it out and try some shots. I've been in Natural Bridge Caverns once--it was amazing!

Jack'll do

This is really a fabulous shot. Reminds me of a movie I saw not too long ago in which NY City was covered in ice. This looks like the interior of a grand cathedral covered in ice. The painted ceiling upper left and the towering pipe organ in the center. Thanks for sharing.

captnemo

Jack'll do wrote:

This is really a fabulous shot. Reminds me of a movie I saw not too long ago in which NY City was covered in ice. This looks like the interior of a grand cathedral covered in ice. The painted ceiling upper left and the towering pipe organ in the center. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks, We were very fortunate in that Pete Strickland had arranged for this trip a few years back with the Mayor of Bustamante as they may no longer allow people to go beyond the newly built tour trails after this unless they are involved with specific research or mapping projects. We were around an hours climb down a break down pile from the trail to where this picture was taken and I got a lot of neat pictures in the red room which is currently considered the end of the cave. All told we were in the cave for a good 8-10 hours a really good day.

UmmmHowsThat

The absolute beauty of that space is unbelievable! What a well-lit shot, too.

captnemo

UmmmHowsThat wrote:

The absolute beauty of that space is unbelievable! What a well-lit shot, too.

Thanks, I was really happy this came out, made hauling all the extra gear- flash bulbs, flash guns etc worth while.