The Varone Cave

[Roberto Frieri]

Some shots from my last portfolio dedicated to the natural cave of Varone, a place in Trentino (Italy), near Garda Lake.
The portfolio is made of 10 images: http://www.robertofrieri.net/varonecave.html

M8 + Super-Elmar 3.8/18
Capture One 6 Pro

[Jeremy Roussak]

I like the first. The second has too much "hand of Man" and seems unfocussed at the top. The third doesn't grab my attention.

Jeremy

[jule]

I really like the first one Roberto. I think the texture in the shadows is really interesting and the horizontal texture in the rock in the light areas as well. I find there is a good balance between light and dark across the whole image. I find myself following the light and wanting to see behind the rim of the dark ledge...and I think it would work really well being printed huge on a wall so the viewer felt like they could be encapsulated by it.

Thank you for posting.
Julie 

[RSL]

They're all good, Roberto. I especially like #2 where the hand of man gets you around the corner without falling to your death. I probably ought to go up to Cave of the Winds here in Manitou Springs, Colorado, this summer and do a similar series there.

[wolfnowl]

I really like the lighting in the first, and also the gargoyle-like face just above middle centre.

Russ - don't forget 'Wind Cave' in SD while you're at it!

Mike.

[Bruce Cox]

The first one is great.  In the third one, you organize well the complexity of the wall into three vertical sections with the exception of the lower lefthand corner, which goes diagonal and, for me, brakes the theme.  If it were cropped or otherwise minimized...

Bruce

[RSL]

Russ - don't forget 'Wind Cave' in SD while you're at it!

Mike.

I might get up to SD this summer, Mike, but I probably won't. I was stationed in Rapid City for a couple years back in the fifties, and even owned a house there, so it would be an interesting trip. But the beauty of Cave of the Winds is that it's right here in my home town of Manitou Springs. I even know the people who run it.

For generations, local kids went into a local cave called Huckey's Cove. Actually, it's a branch of Cave of the Winds, but I'm not sure the local kids knew that. Back in the early eighties a brother-in-law visited us -- a guy who's a geophysicist, who's been in a lot of caves, and who once even spent a winter in the Antarctic. Definitely not a wimp. Our boys told him about Huckey's Cove, which they'd visited many times, and he did a cave crawl with them. When they came back my BIL's eyes were big, and he was sweating. Evidently the cave really is something. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on whether you're a local kid) a decade or so ago Cave of the Winds finally decided the liability was too much and sealed the entrance to Huckey's. This was after a guy from Fort Carson went in, got lost, and finally, believe it or not, burned his clothes to stay warm, and died in there.

[Roberto Frieri]

Thank you very much for all your comments, suggestions and feedback.
Unfortunately I was able to take only few pictures inside the cave.
My camera and lenses are not tropicalized and there was so much water falling all around me.