Tag Archives: Carlsbad Caverns

July 5, 2013 · 5:35 am

Return to Carlsbad Caverns — Part 3

Bashful Elephant

Up until 1996 visitors had unfettered access to all the main cavern rooms. This changed because of vandalism, and since that time access to the four “Scenic Rooms” is strictly controlled. Tours to these four rooms are limited in numbers, escorted, and require reservations. By all means make sure that you reserve a spot on one of these tours or you’ll miss some of the most spectacular formations in Carlsbad.

Scenic Rooms Tour

Give yourself at least one full hour to stroll from the cavern entrance to the meeting point in the Big Room. We made it in from the Visitors Center in just over forty minutes, but I wouldn’t want to try that again. The trails are steep and at times slippery, and weekend crowds will block your way if you’re rushed for time.

Carlsbad Caverns 61

The four scenic rooms on this special tour are: The King’s Palace, The Papoose Room, The Queen’s Chamber, and The Green Lake Room.

Scenic Rooms Tour

Carlsbad Caverns 49

Still My Favorite Formation for Some Reason

Scenic Rooms Tour

Carlsbad Caverns 59

Carlsbad Caverns 56

Scenic Rooms Tour

Carlsbad Caverns 53

Carlsbad Caverns 55

Carlsbad Caverns 42

Scenic Rooms Tour

Carlsbad Caverns 57

Scenic Rooms Tour

Rock of Ages Closeup

Carlsbad Caverns 48

Scenic Rooms Tour

5 Comments

Filed under Photography, travel

Tagged as Canon G1 X, Carlsbad Caverns, Handheld Night Scene, R. Doug Wicker, travel

July 3, 2013 · 5:35 am

Return to Carlsbad Caverns — Part 2

Rock of Ages

As you’ll recall from Monday, we are this week taking a second look at Carlsbad Caverns. This time, however, we’re relying upon advances in digital photography to produce handheld images that were all but impossible just two years ago. Whereas my July 2011 photoblog on Carlsbad relied upon techniques for taking long exposures without a tripod, on this trip I instead relied upon the Handheld Night Scene mode built into the Canon G1 X.

Top of the Big Room — 255 feet (78 meters)

Most of today’s pictures are of the Big Room — the largest portion of the caverns. The hallmarks of the Big Room are the immense columns reaching high above the cavern trails and the “Top of the Cross,” the point on the ceiling of the cavern that is the highest above the Big Room floor. “Top of the Cross” is an intimidating 255 feet (78 meters) above, and one shudders when looking at photographs of the spelunkers who hung suspended beneath it during an expedition back in the 1970s.

Immense Column

As always, just click on any of the images below to bring up an album showing enlarged versions:

Carlsbad Caverns 27

Carlsbad Caverns 24

Carlsbad Caverns 37

Carlsbad Caverns 36

Carlsbad Caverns 30

Carlsbad Caverns 33

Carlsbad Caverns 25

Carlsbad Caverns 31

Twin Columns

Carlsbad Caverns 34

Carlsbad Caverns 35

Carlsbad Caverns 39

Carlsbad Caverns 32

Carlsbad Caverns 26

Carlsbad Caverns 28

Carlsbad Caverns 23

Carlsbad Caverns 29

1 Comment

Filed under Photography, Technology/New Stuff, travel

Tagged as Canon G1 X, Carlsbad Caverns, Handheld Night Scene, photography, R. Doug Wicker, travel

July 1, 2013 · 5:35 am

Return to Carlsbad Caverns — Part 1

Looking Back to the Cavern Entrance

It’s been almost two years since I authored my very popular blog So Easy Even a Caveman Can Photograph It—Carlsbad Caverns. That article — which was later “Freshly Pressed” by WordPress — described in great detail how to photograph Carlsbad Caverns without the use of a tripod by implementing many of the techniques I covered in Available Light Photography Without a Tripod.

Wire and Wood Ladder used by Early Explorers

Well, it’s amazing how much the technology in digital photography has advanced in so short a time. On our latest trip to Carlsbad Caverns I decided this time that I would rely upon the “Handheld Night Scene” mode on my newest travel camera, the Canon G1 x (a three-part review begins here: Canon G1 X Review—Part 1). Handheld Night Scene takes three rapid, sequential photographs at high ISO, and then internally combines those three images to create a relatively noise-free, stabilized JPEG image without the need for a tripod.

Still My Favorite Formation for Some Reason

How well does it work? Reasonably so. In particularly dark shooting situations any hand movement will result is some blurring, and when the photograph is later blown up to a 100% crop there is some digital noise evident. Still, images taken from ISO 3,200 all the way up to ISO 12,800 are better than many travel zooms can produce at even ISO 800. All in all I was quite impressed, but next trip I’ll probably take a GorillaPod all the same. That way I’ll be able to produce images at lower ISO with the ability of storing them in RAW format for later post-processing.

Carlsbad Caverns 20

So, for this week’s blog articles, I return you to Carlsbad Caverns with many images I was unable to capture during my previous visit because of equipment limitations.