9 months of planning. We did it !! The Grand Cave, Dunkerry

amcinroy · 22-06-2008 9:50am #1

What an adventure !!!

Firstly my big thanks to Iain Miller, my guide for the day. What a man. Balls of steel !!! You should have seen him literally taking off to launch the boat over the swell. And thanks to Cathal for taking an outstanding set of images of our day. You can see them in his over on PI thread. Brilliant.
http://www.photographyireland.net/viewtopic.php?t=18755

And my guide has written up the trip report onto the Colmcille climbers website. He tells quite a story.
http://www.pete-smith.co.uk/dynamic/log_details.php?i=364

So here it is. The interior of Dunkerry cave on the Runkerry cave. Almost certainly Ireland's biggest sea cave and never photographed before from the inside.

This is just a quick first draft so bear with me as I work on it. I still have a lot to do.

This is a 4 exposure HDR shot on a tiny ledge that I had to climb up to some 8 foot above the boat. I appologise if you wanted to see more of the cave. That was just not possible in the situation.

Dink · 22-06-2008 10:26am

Delighted!! Well done.

oshead · 22-06-2008 11:21am

Thats fantastic. Being the first to photograph the interior of the cave must have been a real thrill. Well done!

Dave OS

MooseJam · 22-06-2008 12:08pm

you should of told yer man to get out of shot

amcinroy · 22-06-2008 10:44pm

Thanks guys,

Moosejam, the joy of HDR is that only 1 of the exposures had him in it.

Here's the alternative blend.

MartMax · 22-06-2008 10:48pm

well done! looking forward to see the final results...

thebaz · 22-06-2008 10:54pm

mart_max wrote: »

well done! looking forward to see the final results...

+1

well done , i take it nothing went too wrong ?

great sense of achievement

amcinroy · 22-06-2008 11:08pm

Baz,

Thankfully, everything went perfectly, but I was still almost in tears with fear. My cool headed guide kept me going on and on into the darkness. What don't see in these photos is the swell and the noise. These are the frightening bits. The swell in the channel approaching the cave was 6-8 feet !!

When it was all over he said to me.

"We did everything by the textbook (pausing)......... if the textbook existed"

I'll never be back, that's for sure. We got 50m into the cave and stared on into the darkness. Even Iain had a hint of fear in his eyes. It is said in the legends that it runs for 2 miles into the earth. If it really does, I doubt any man will ever get there.

23-06-2008 2:11am

Fantastic stuff Andy,great to hear you finally got in there! I don't want to give you any ideas!...But...would an experienced sea kayaker have any chance of getting in there or would that be certain suicide?

JMcL · 23-06-2008 7:40am

Well done Andy, looking forward to having a look at Cathals photos and the write up.

I'd leave the guy in the inflatable (I guess this is Iain) in the shot for a sense of scale

Cabaal · 23-06-2008 8:00am

as always fantastic story and photos,

amcinroy · 23-06-2008 8:30am

Thanks guys,

Inibaz, a skilled kayaker could certainly get to the point that we were at. But I suspect that they wouldn't be able to get out of their kayak to make an HDR photograph on a tripod the way we did.

As to whether a kayaker could go deeper, quite possibly. I suspect as it narrows down it would get very dangerous though.

MooseJam · 23-06-2008 11:24am

very nice, I like the second one a lot more

Balfey1972 · 24-06-2008 12:26pm

Andy you are a legend. Love the shot. Thats dedication for you.

amcinroy · 24-06-2008 12:33pm

Thanks guys,

We made page 5 of the Irish news today !!!

Headline: "First photos of legendary cave caught on a budget"
A Scottish-born photographer has become the first person to capture Ireland's largest cave on camera - by using a £40 dinghy bought in discount supermarket Lidl.

Also, the full story is now up on my webpage
http://www.andymcinroy.com/5port5.htm

9 months of planning. We did it !! The Grand Cave, Dunkerry

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