Photographing in the final stretch

Having Ora cave come up as an NG photo of the day last week reminded me of that long, hard expedition to Papua New Guinea. Exploring any cave is hard, big river caves are among the hardest. Not only are you fighting white water and gravity and darkness but also the constant roar of the river is deafening. Dave Nixon is heading back upstream from the end of the cave. At least we called it the end. It was the place that white water rapids began slapping the ceiling and further exploration was closely aligned with certain death. I remember all of us heading down to the last rock we could hold on to and looking around a corner at the maelstrom. No way to go on, certain death around the corner...

Staying motivated after that point was so hard. There were still weeks to go and our major objective was finished. It was hard not to just pack up and go home. But we didn't pack up, we kept going. The expediting kept finding new caves and we kept making pictures. 

It is a good thing too because some of the best photographs came from a cave explored in the last days of the expedition. 

It is a lesson I remember, no matter how you feel in the field, keep working.

 

Stephen Alvarez

Sewanee, TN

Comments

[Em @ The Philippines]

I wonder if you did some photoshop on the photos. Anyway they look great. I also want to learn photography I just need the budget to buy a professional camera.