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You don't need to travel far to see some spectacular things. All of these pictures are all taken within an hour of my home.

All of these pictures were taken in Shatter Cave in Fairy Cave Quarry, Mendip, Somerset with the exception of the moth which was taken at old mine workings at a surface location at Charterhouse.

Shatter cave is extremely well decorated with many fine stalactites, stalagmites and curtains within a number of easily accessible chambers and passages. Which makes it an ideal cave for taking photographs of cave formations

Stalactites are those that hang from the ceiling of the cave, and Stalagmites (C - for ceiling, G - for ground), whereas curtains are generally along a sloping edge and look just like you would imagine from the name. in the US these are called Draperies because that's what they call curtains over there.

Because of the ease of accessing the site it is gated with a leader system in place so I have pleasure in thanking Robin and Tav for arranging and leading the trip respectively.

The cave is formed in the Carboniferous Limestone of the Mendip, The structure is a series of upfolds (anticlines) that have the limestone on their north and south sides with older rocks in the middle.


The moth is a Herald Moth (Scoliopteryx libatrix) which commonly overwinters in a cave environment and would just be starting to come out of hibernation at the time this was taken which was spring.

The pictures are all taken with a Olympus E-500 E-series camera with a 14-42mm kit lens carried into the cave in a Pelicase which is waterproof and rugged. It has been padded with foam to absorb shocks

They are lit with a single FL-36 Flashgun directly connected to the camera via a spiral CB-05 camera flash extension cable which is the simplest means of synching a flashgun 

The photographs were taken on a trip organized by the International Society for Speleological Art (ISSA) with assistance from other members of the team in holding flashguns and/or as models

For more information on cave geology and cave formations please take a look at the Cave Geology page

For more information on caving please take a look at the links page