Luray Caverns

Caves are so much easier to get around in when someone has installed stairs, paved walkways, handrails, and already carefully lit everything to aide in photography. Teenaged tour guides in polo shirts to point out interesting formations were an added bonus. I learned several interesting things. Chief among them, the light in luray caverns is so bright that moss is growing on many of the formations. It looks extremely unattractive and is very hard to remove.

I wonder if they used germicidal UV lamps if the moss would die back. If they employed fans and unshielded lamps, the ozone from the lamps would likely make it to places where the light wouldn't reach. If the lamps were on a timer, the could turn off a few hours before the caverns opened, allowing the ozone to either react away or be blown out. Does ozone bleach limestone?

For those of a technical bent, I note that I would not have been able to so easily take these pictures with my old  Sony DSC-P73, a camera that I lugged through many caves over the years. I kept it in a pelican case, and used it's 30 second exposure setting, a manual flash, and Packrats collection of extremely bright lamps to illuminate. Out of 20 or 30 photos, one or two would come out. It was tough, but what I had. Even in well lit rooms (lots of lanterns and lights), the low ISO and small aperture ensured blurry photos. It was just how I had to do things.

So I was quite surprised when these came out so well. Large sensors, high ISO, image stabilization, and f/2 can really work in your favor. The battery died about half way through the tour. A good things, in retrospect. Otherwise, I'd have too many techinically fine cave photos to sort. I'm pretty sure the s90/s95 are the least obtrusive pocket camera in existence. If the image looks bad, it's genuinely the photographers fault.