The Bat Cave

[Andrew McLachlan]

Just returned from the Caribbean island of Cayman Brac in the Cayman Islands. Cayman Brac is a tiny island, which is 12 miles long and 1.5 miles wide with super friendly folks and delicious conch chowder...can't wait to go back next year. A limestone bluff runs through the island and meet the sea at the eastern tip of the island, within this limestone bluff there lies approximately 170 caves and my guide as explored about 90% of them. Many years ago they were used as refuge from hurricanes. This particular cave, which is called the Bat Cave was located alongside the road a stone's throw from the villa I was renting. I love the way the rock looks as though it is flowing.

Nikon D800
Nikon 18-35mm lens @ 18mm
ISO 100
f16 @ 2.5 seconds

Look forward to comments.

137995

[dankearl]

Nice abstract, Andrew.
The shapes and subtle color is very nice.

[David Stephens]

Should the stalactites be vertical? Also, there seems to be distortion from the ultra wide angle and tilting the sensor up. Did you correct for that? It just looks to me that the sides are leaning in.

I love the colors. If it were mine, I'd do like at 2:1 or 5:2 crop taking out much of that top layer of rock and emphasizing the stalactites and colors.

[David Kenny]

Sounds like you had a nice trip. I like the colors and the abstract feel to it. As the others have mentioned I would of focused more on the stalactite formation and less on the upper area (roof?) of the cave.

[Jay Gould]

Hello Andrew, I think too much is presented. There is a story worth developing in the bottom half of this capture.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Andrew - nice pastel palette. I agree with the others that the upper portion doesn't have as much interest and would consider a pano crop as an alternative.

TFS,
Rachel

[Andrew McLachlan]

Thanks folks much appreciated...I have several various compositions of this cave and some with much less on top...will post soon.

David, yes technically they should be vertical, but I was using a wide angle lens pointed upwards and I do not get too concerned about distortion and such with these lenses...I tend to let it be another creative element to use in the image design...hope that makes sense.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice detail, subtle colour variances and textures here Andrew.
Jay has a point, I wonder if you have a frame with more at the bottom - might be worth doing a "vertorama" stitch to have both top and bottom potential utilised?
I would think about toning down midtone brightness somewhat, I think it will add more local contrast and tonal depth overall.

[andresleon]

It's a very interesting image. The colors and the tones are subtle and give the image a pleasing sense. My only concern is that it seems to have been over-sharpened.