Pipikin Pot Extreme Photo Trip

You know how cave photographs nearly always make it look fabulous? Formations hang from every place on the ceiling and floor. The caver stands in a grand cavern admiring the magnificent scene. Well there is another side to caving, which is rarely seen in photographs. My friend 'Beardy' was recently complaining at the lack of 'proper Yorkshire potholing' photographs on the internet, as he was trying to show some cavers from overseas what good sport the caves of Yorkshire offer. So we took him up on this, and invited him to join us for a photo trip down Pipikin Pot, a classic tight Yorkshire Pot.

The trip was a lot of fun (and mild pain in places!) and a good test of the robustness and easy of carrying of my photographic gear. I had to use all the flashguns on auto in order to limit their brightness, and even then I found pictures were burned out if I could not get at least 2 metres (~6ft) away from the subject. I definitely must adapt my slave units so I can fit them to different flashguns. I was able to take the pictures on the slowest film speed equivalent setting and darkest aperture, giving both low noise and excellent depth of field. In some pictures my cows tails (rope safety tethers attached to my harness) sneaked into the frame, and remained in focus despite me aiming at a subject up to 4 metres away.



Caroline (my wife) in a squeeze

Paul Swires 'Beardy' enjoying every moment of it!