"A Hobbyi ..." a Carlsbad Caverns National Park Travel Page by kymbanm

The gift shop has a nice selection of photos by PROFESSIONALS! (gasp)

You can purchase wonderful pictures on postcards, in books, or posters, or even matted prints for framing.

Hobby snapshots are tricky and difficult. As a result, you may return home to find you have nothing that captures the feeling of being in those wonderful surroundings.

So, just in case, pick up a couple of postcards to stack the deck in your favor :)

I am only an amateur photgrapher, so if you are more knowledgeable than I - please feel free to share. But, I thought sharing what I learned during my jaunt into the bowels of the earth might help someone else .....

I use a digital camera, my companions used 35mm. They ran out of film, and my battery died :) So please remember to charge your camera and bring lots of extra film!

Standard flash photography doesn't work well in the caverns. It tends to wash out the the amazing colors and textures of the formations.

Going without flash doesn't work w/out a tripod. The shutter speed is too slow for handheld work - the picture blurs :(

This particular feature was well lit, and with the flash it washed completely out. Here was my attempt at no flash ..... ugh - you still get the feel of the colors, but way to blurry to use.

The compromise I found was putting my little camera on an alternate flash setting ... the one for red eye reduction. Since the flash is timed to go off BEFORE the shutter mechanism opens, you get the benefit of some light, without interfering w/ the image you are trying to capture.

I hope you find these tips helpful, I've copied some of them into the Warnings and Dangers tip section - so you can save them to your travel guide if you wish.

Regardless, ENJOY your time at Carlsbad Caverns! It's a blast :)