In 1985 I went to my first national conference of the National Speleological Society, which was held in Tularosa, New Mexico. I only went for the last few days and during the final weekend helped out with some cleanup activities in Endless Cave. The task I helped with was using a very mild acid solution to remove graffiti from cave formations. After the cleanup activity, I was able to spend some time exploring the cave and photograph it.
The War Club Room was once flooded about half way up which caused the color contrast between the upper and lower halves of the room. The standing water is also responsible for the stalagmites standing on the floor to be covered in what's called popcorn formations.
For this photograph I had the camera on a tripod with the shutter open. I then manually fired an off-camera flash to the side of the camera to provide some relief through side lighting. Composing a photograph underground is a very difficult exercise because I can only use a flashlight to see what I'm doing. Photograph by Rick Scott.
Updated: 23 July 2002