Issue 306: behind the cover

Judith Calford in Caverna do Morro Preto, PETAR, Brazil.

Cave photography overseas, at the other end of an international flight, has the extra complication of limitations in the equipment that can be taken with you – especially batteries, but also increasingly when having to meet weight and size restrictions. Added to that …

This image was shot in Caverna do Morro Preto, in the Brazilian caving region of PETAR near São Paulo, after the conclusion of the 10th International Congress of Speleology during the summer of 2025. It was almost the final photo of a dedicated, week-long cave photography trip in the company of friends and was taken with the help of Judith Calford (the caver shown here) and Tiço, our guide. The visit had additional difficulties: I had lost a crown and the remains of the tooth had carved enough of a hole in my cheek, which in turn had swollen my throat, that I had problems talking (never mind yelling), while Tiço spoke Portuguese and no English and I knew zero Portuguese. Instructions for where to hold and aim flashguns were reduced to hand signals and frustrations, though Tiço was nevertheless very willing and helpful.

I could see images everywhere in this stunning cave, but our time was limited and everything had to be done at speed; most photographs (including this one) were set up and taken within a few minutes before moving on. Tiço ended his tour with this side passage, a wonderful location that, with an extreme wide-angle zoom lens set at 14mm, left the spectacular banding in the walls soaring overhead. As ever, I am incredibly grateful to my two helpers and those who organised the trip, without whom this photo would never have been created – despite the struggles.

My normal caving camera is a Canon 5D Mark IV with a 16-35mm lens, but humidity had finally taken its toll and the camera failed two shots into the trip. Luckily, I also had my surface camera with me in a sealed pouch, so it was pressed into service for the rest of the day. The technical info is therefore a Canon R5 Mark II and an RF14-35mm lens at f5.6 and ISO 400. The main flash is the backlight, a Godox AD200, while the front light was a Godox TT600 zoomed to match a 200mm lens – this made it very directional and able to pick out the caver without unduly affecting the surrounding backlit walls. Both were triggered by radio slaves.

Chris Howes