charlespaul

Hi All,

I finally managed to go to mystery caves and niagara caves.

I have uploaded the photos to my portfolio. Here is the link.

http://www.photo.net/photos/CharlesPaul

Ok, here are my findings/learnings.

Mystery Caves

All of you were right - The lighting is bad. It was a guided tour. So I did not have enough time to setup a tripod and basically take my time to take the photos.

Secondly in mystery caves, they do not allow you to carry your backpack and so I could not carry my lenses. I just had my F100, a 35mm-70mm and a flash. Most of the photos are taken on an aperture setting of f/8, on a Portra 800 film, and all photos are taken handheld.

The worst part about the mystery caves is that the lightings are set on timers, so even if you want to stay back a little longer(after the group has left) to take photos, the lights automatically go off.

Niagara Caves

This cave is around 40 miles from Mystery caves.

The photos were taken on F100, 35mm - 70mm and portra 800 film. One thing I learnt in this cave is that one really needs a wide angle zoom lens. I really missed my wideangle. You need atleast a 24mm, because unlike the mystery caves, the niagara cave is deep with a lot of rock formations.

Please do take a look at the phots and let me know how they look. This was a first experience for me, but I plan to try out more caves(maybe even go back) and learn more.

One thing you will notice in these photos is that the depth is not all that good - infact it is pretty bad. So you actually need to take these photos on a tripod and moreover you need a lot of time to compose the image (which the authorities dont give yOu :-))) ).

Thanks All!

Thanks Phil! And I really like the photo that you uploaded. Nice detail on the shadows.

I was supposed to go this weekend, but could not make it cause my friend, assistant(I pay her $10 for every outing :-))) ) fell sick. Also the weather was not all that favourable. But maybe I will go there this weekend. Thanks all for your responses.

Thanks All!

Michael I have a Vivitar 285 flash.

I was thinking about B&W film. I have two Fuji Neopan 1600. How about that?

Hi All,

I plan to visit Mystery Cave/Forestville, down south of minnesota. I plan to take cave photographs during

the trip. Any suggestions?

I use film cameras (F100 and FM10), what I really want to know is which is the best film that I can use for

this purpose. How about Kodak 400 UC?

Thank You!

Thanks all.

How about Universal Color, New Hope?

Michael I do agree that Nat Cam is fiendishly expensive. I went to the Nat Cam store in downtown yesterday. They said that they do not process any films, but they get sent out to their store in Golden Valley. Also, he did mention that some of the films(like the Kodak B&W T-Max, I guess) get sent out to some store in New Hope. So I am guessing Universal Color.

Anyway Peter, Jeff I will try the places that you mentioned.

Michael, could you tell me any of the Mail-order labs that I can send out my film to be processed? In one of the forums I did see someone mention A&I and Dale Labs. Are they good? Thanks!

Hi All, Thanks for your response.

What about Universal color, New Hope, MN? Yesterday when i dropped by at National Camera, downtown, they said that they do not process rolls here, but have them sent out to their store in Golden Valley. And Michael, I must agree, my first impression of Natcam is indeed friendishly expensive. They also mentioned that some of the rolls get sent out to New Hope - So I am guessing Universal color.

Peter, Jeff, I will try the ones that you mentioned.

Michael, I have asked you this question in a different post :-) , could you tell me any of the mail-order labs that I could get my rolls sent out.

Thanks Guys!

Hi,

Just yesterday I went to National Camera, in downtown minneapolis. The store there does not process films. They get it sent out to their store in Golden Valley, MN. Also he did mention that some of the films (such as the Kodak T-Max) get sent out to a store in New Hope, MN - I am guessing Universal Color.

Michael, I never knew you could send out film rolls to be processed. Could you tell me of any mail-order labs that I can have rolls sent out to. Thanks!

Hi All,

Does anybody know the best place to get films developed in the Minneapolis

region? I normally get my films developed at Sams Club or Walgreens or Ritz

Camera or Walmart and I am not happy with the results. And they cost somewhere

between $4.00 to $10.00 a roll. Also they do not process films other than the

normal 35mm ones(I guess the C-41 process only). Cause none of them were able

to process films like Fuji Neopan or Kodak T-Max.

Thanks!