These photos of gypsum and helectite formations were taken in Breezeway cave, near Manitou Springs in Colorado. It was a lot of work getting them - not only is there a lot of crawling (past fragile formations) and some climb-downs, but also a clean area where we must take off all dirty/muddy clothes, boots and gear to pass over a pristine pool area, only to put everything back on and continue on the other side.
To protect the camera I made a custom foam enclosure (out of sleeping pad foam), which I then put in a waterproof bag and put that into the cave pack. Not only would a pelican case that size be out of my price range, but I'm pretty sure it would not fit through some of the restrictions I had to pass through, and they can be much more damaging to the cave.
These were all taken with a Linhof Technika using either a Schneider 75mm SA or 150mm Symmar at f/22 or f/32. Lighting was done with two older Sunpak flashes. Since the camera had to be on tripod and I had a person helping me, I would open the shutter just long enough to manually fire the flashes (enough times to get the correct exposure) and then close it.
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