Back in September 2024, a few of us entered the Hidden Earth photo salon. There were some beautiful images on display, and SWCC members had varying degrees of success. The salon lead to much discussion, which somehow lead to me being volunteered to org…
Wells and Mendip Museum plan to delve deep into the pioneering days of British caving in an exhibition that will run from 6th July to 7th September 2024. A new exhibition, Out of Time: Underground Mendip, will connect early 20th century quests for archaeological and geological knowledge with current environmental concerns. This exhibition connects the…
The latest edition of the BCRA’s Cave and Karst Science contains five main papers, and a photo feature. It begins, however, with tributes to David St. Pierre, John Wilcock and David William Gill. The editors write that, yet again, it is their sad privilege to introduce and present words of tribute and celebration dedicated to…
Most British cavers will be familiar with the work of Robbie Shone who has been photographing the world’s caves for the last 20 years or more. Now a selection of his pictures has been brought together in a large format book, showcasing his photographs and giving some insight into how he works. This is not…
Two cavers have snapped up some of the spotlight in a national writing and photography competition. Descent editor Chris Howes won the photography category and Chris Scaife was highly commended in the technical feature category in the annual contest run by the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild. It was a sixth award for Descent editor…
Descent 275 is now with us. Yet another issue compiled during this plague year, but still packed with interesting and informative material – and there is even news of new exploration in England! Newsdesk starts with an update on how the pandemic is affecting caving in the UK and cautiously welcomes the reopening of caves…
The internationally renowned Underground Worlds calendar for 2018 is now available from Wild Places Publishing, better known to most of us as the publishers of the cavers’ magazine, Descent. The calendar contains 12 beautifully printed A3 pages (plus the cover) featuring caves from around the world. Not only that, the final page has a bonus…
Caver and photographer Mark Burkey impressed the judges so much at the recent Mendip Cave Photography Exhibition and Competition that he swept up the prize for three winning entries. Mark has kindly taken the time to give us a behind the scenes look at his photographs, telling us something about them and how he takes…
Most British cavers, and many more around the world, will know or have heard of Robbie Shone and know his work. The National Geographic live site now features a lecture by Robbie, in which he reveals more about his career and showcases many of his superb shots. When we spoke to Robbie he explained “Last November…
Peter Glanvill has dug out some of his older photos to show the nature of cavers’ attire from the 1950s to the end of the 1970s. Although not an old photograph, we see here what cavers may have worn when the sport was in its infancy. Basically, you would be concerned to keep warm, and…
Welcome to our February Darkness Below photo salon. We hope you enjoy these, and please do keep sending us your photos to share. Duncan’s image was captured with just a Fuji X30 compact camera, handheld at 1/2s, f2.0 ISO 1600; the image stabilisation in modern cameras is absolutely amazing. He says: “I asked the group…
Darkness Below plans to run a monthly photo salon so that a selection of readers’ photos can be enjoyed by everyone. As a trial, here are a few that were sent in to us in the past few days. If you would like to see one or more of your photos included in a monthly…
