Caves are not the easiest places in which to take photos. That makes this remarkable photo by Drew Hopper all the more special.
Located in Northern Thailand in the Mae Hong Son region, 'The Lod' as locals call it, is a natural limestone cave system within an enormous river tunnel and three higher dry caverns featuring world-class passages. The walls are covered in spectacular formations and towering 20-metre columns. It's also one of few places in Thailand where "ecotourism" is a working reality. The local ethnic Shan community provides their knowledge and expertise in services such as guided tours and bamboo rafting.
It would have to be one of the most incredible and unique places I have ever adventured to and photographed. I can easily say it was the highlight from my time backpacking in Thailand, if not all of Southeast Asia. The first day I went on a guided tour, but I wasn't able to capture anything special. I felt rushed by the other tourists in our group. The upside of the tour was getting familiar with the terrain and establishing a rough idea of where the light fell. During the tour I noticed a vantage point in a cavern and I decided to revisit it the following day. I waited until about two hours before sunset before heading off into the cave, scrambling up the steep stairs to the cavern that overlooked the cave entrance. It was perfect, but the scene lacked a sense of scale. Fortunately two kayakers then appeared from inside the cave.
I kept shooting as they made their way down the river, bracketing multiple exposures to make sure I captured the dynamic range in such harsh conditions. In the end I ended up with thousands of frames, but all I needed was two exposures to capture the tricky dynamic range. I underexposed for the exterior of the cave to capture the rays of light beaming down into the river and overexposed to capture the interior cave which was in shadow.
Canon EOS 5D MK II, 16-35mm @ 35mm, f/10 @ 1/4s–5 sec, ISO 100, tripod and circular polariser.