The family and I decided to take a road trip to explore a little portion of New Mexico. Our first stop was Carlsbad Caverns National Park. I have never been in a cave much less tried to photograph one. But I was really looking forward to the challenge.
First a little information about our trip to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We arrived promptly at 7:45am in anticipation of the cave opening at 8am. After arriving we stood in a short line for tickets and found out the cave opened at 8:30am. We killed time by checking out the displays in the visitor center. At 8:20 we headed to the natural opening. There are two entrances into the cave, one natural and one via an elevator. Our plan was to hike in and ride the elevator out. We arrived at the natural entrance and waited for the entrance gate to open. The gate opened, the park ranger gave a short speech and we headed out on our own into the cave.
The entire path through the cave is paved and easily hiked. You descend approximately 700 feet into the cave winding through passages and large rooms. The path is well lit and there are no issues seeing where you need to go. After about 1.25 miles of descending you end up in the "Big Room". And it is another 1.25 miles of hiking around the big room. We hiked it all. It was obvious right away that I was overdressed. The cave is a constant 56 degrees and is very humid. After 15 minutes I shed my long sleeve shirt and wished I had worn shorts.
The views during the entire hike are amazing. The photos in this blog are all from various points in the Big Room. The first thing you notice hiking into and through the cave is the cave's size. The cave is huge! It is awe-inspiring how large the cave is and when you start thinking about the fact you are 700 feet below the surface it gets even more awesome. Everywhere you look there are colors, stalactites, stalagmites, columns, curtains, and pools of water. It is truly amazing. In total we spent about 3.5 hours in the cave. The hike may not take you that long, but I had a camera and was stopping all the time to shoot photos.
Taking photos in a cave is not an easy task. Even though the cave is lit, the light is very low for taking photos. The big challenge is getting focus. Autofocus was basically useless so I ended up focusing manually for almost every shot. Another challenge is people using a camera flash while you are taking a long exposure. So patience is a requirement. But do know you have all the time in the world because the light never changes and rocks do not move.
In order to get the most detail from both the dark areas and light areas, HDR is almost mandatory. All the photos in this blog are a combination of five photos each. This allowed me to get the details in the deep shadows without blowing out the lighted areas. So a tripod is an absolute necessity. Fortunately the Park Service allows tripods in the cave and the path is wide enough to set up. But you do need to be mindful of other people.
After circumnavigating the Big Room we hopped on the elevator for the short 700 foot ride up to the surface. If you want to visit something really special you should plan to put Carlsbad Caverns on your list. It is truly an amazing adventure.