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New cave found in Vietnam: "A skyscraper could fit"

ngm.nationalgeographic.com

51–52 of 52 posts

Re: New cave found in Vietnam: "A skyscraper could fit"

#51
post #8

I wonder how they took the pictures. Was there enough light in the cave thru some holes in the ceiling? Did they install huge lamps or did they use a very long exposure (seems unlikely by looking at the people). either way stunning and surreal photographs!

You can see hotspots by each person in some of the pictures, along with other hotspots to the sides. Likely each person had a remote-controlled slave flash, and they positioned other such units for fill.

In particular, note the shot of the row of people under the low ceiling. Each person has a hotspot that illuminates the ceiling and silhouettes them; the person is in between the bulb and the camera. In other words, the lights are all oriented the same way, which suggests to me they were set for the shot, rather than being the chance arrangement of the cavers' utility lights at that moment.

They might have used long exposures, but the people aren't blurred, so the exposures can't have been all that long.

Then again, flash would probably be murder on the eyes for cavers, so maybe these were less-bright-than-flash lamps, with a slightly-long exposure.

Re: New cave found in Vietnam: "A skyscraper could fit"

#52
post #25

It's almost painful to see them drilling holes into the rock face. I understand the need but a part of me wants to get all greenpeace and kick the human invaders out.

Yes, it was a sour-face moment when I saw that. In fact I came back to HN to see if anyone else saw it. The hidden majesty and serenity of nature, suddenly revealed, is defiled by our invasive devices.

And yet that majesty and serenity only really exist when we can see it and access it. As others have said it would be bad to turn it into a theme park but simple exploration demands some "invasive" measures.
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