Weekly Photo Challenge: Inside
This week’s challenge has given me a great opportunity to travel back in time to 1994. These were part of my days at art college when I was blissfully shut away inside the darkroom, experimenting with abstract photography.
The Black & White photographs were originally shot on Ilford HP5 400 ISO film on my old Praktica, inside the Earth! I don’t think that I would dare to take a modern DSLR underground with me. Too much sensitive technology that could be damaged! The Praktica was such a robust SLR, it really did me proud. I still have it although it’s been a few years since I last used it.
In my teenage years I enjoyed caving, among other outdoor activities, and a bunch of us regularly went to the Mendip Hills in Somerset. These images are from GB Cave, a locked cave (entrance only with the Charterhouse caving club) that is well known for a large Gorge passage, made by an underground river, with a rock bridge that leads into the vast Main Chamber. The impressive stalagmite and stalactite structures here are all part of the largest continuous void under the Mendips.
All these photos are lit only by torches and our head lamps. I loved the way the light glistened on the damp surfaces of the calcite formations. I really felt like I had stepped into the very bowels of the earth! The structures are so organic and fluid that I came to see the caves as a living, breathing entity. The Earth is as beautiful on the inside as it is on the surface!
Taking One Day At A Time 
Thank you for taking us to “travel back in time to 1994”! So very amazing!
Thanks Amy! People often think that caving is just about crawling through muddy tunnels and feeling claustrophobic but the reality is quite different. It is hard going! Climbing, hiking, abseiling, it’s like an extreme assault course 😉 I was quite fit back then.
You’re such an adventurer. Sarah!
I was! Illness has rather clipped my wings but I still love to be outdoors doing as much as I possibly can 🙂
I try to be outdoors when I get a chance 🙂 But, I haven’t tried caving, I doubt I have the physical condition…
Some caves, like Cheddar Gorge, have been made more accessible for tourism so you get an idea of what’s beneath our feet. Caving, like climbing, does take a fair bit of fitness and I got into trouble when my health started failing!
Fascinating images!!
Thanks Susan 🙂 Caves really are truly fascinating! Wish I could still do it. Always wanted to go to the caves in Belize!
Braver than me Sarah – I have an aversion to being underground. Nice to see your Praktica mentioned too – my first serious camera.
Some people may have said stupid rather than brave but I just love to explore! I’m so glad that I had the opportunity to do things like caving. Impossible now sadly but at least I can say that I truly explored the earth and I’ll always have my precious photos 🙂 That Praktica was really great! It was my dad’s originally and he passed it on to me for my artwork.
Wonderful photos of an amazing space Sarah….and is that you in the photos grinning wildly?
I do love caves and these look like brilliant ones to have explored….thank goodness you did this while you could, great memories and pictures to treasure 🙂
Ah, yes, the mad grinning one 😉 That’s me! I’m still like that today 🙂 It’s extraordinary to think it was 20yrs ago. I was already quite ill although no one knew what was wrong with me. I got so thin with the Crohn’s that I got into trouble on a later caving trip as I got too cold! The lads almost had to carry me out. We couldn’t work out why I’d had such trouble at the time but a year later when I was diagnosed all sorts of things started making sense! There’s so much I miss but I’m so glad that I did all these things. I have such fantastic memories of doing all sorts of crazy outdoor stuff 🙂 Life is for living!!