Tiger Snake Canyon canyoning

This past weekend I was invited to go canyoneering in the Blue Mountains. This canyonering trip was organized by the outdoor club from the  University of Sydney. Our destination was Tiger Snake Canyon. I was told this is a dry canyon meaning there would be no swimming. But on the first rope drop my camera was tucked into my dry bag because we had to jump from a ledge into a shallow pool. What dry really means when canyoning in New South Wales is there was still plenty of water in the canyon just no swimming or extended time spent in the water. 

 

What follows is a series of photos from the days trip. I decided to improved the miserable light in the canyon by using a collaspable soft box. The softbox was a curious thing to squeeze through the passages.

The softbox light seems to have done the trick to help fill in the really awful shadows you have when shooting in dark canyons with only a dim overhead light. The reason I decided to hassle with a light box is I hate the harsh shadow that happens on surrounding walls when you use just a normal flash head. Also the razor edge shadow cast under the helmet when using a strobe is reduced using the softbox.

It was a great day out and I want to thank the folks from the outdoor club for letting me tag along for the day.  I look forward to when winter is over and we can try exploring some of the really, really wet canyons.

  
   

     

 
 

  
  
 
 

 
 

Comments

[Jürgen Weginger]

Hi,
I really enjoy your images of Outdoor action.
Your Canyoning pictures are great and they are inspire me for my work.
Which Softbox do you use?

Greetings from Austria

Jürgen

[Bill]

I used a lastolite ezyup softbox. I put a link to their web site in the blog on the word softbox. My flash is a Nikon sb-900 attached with a ttl cord to the camera. My flash settings were set to manual not ttl. I used ISO 800-1000 on a D-300s. Lens was a 16-35 f4. shutter spped ranged from 1/8 to 1/60 sec. f 4-5.6.

[Bill]

Jeff asked me if the softbox blocks the optical sensor on the flash. This is my answer.

The softbox does block the optical sensor. I use the flash on manual settings, but you could use ttl with a ttl cord like I do. I just shoot on manual use a predetermined distance usually about 5 feet and preset the camera and flash and use the zoom to adjust framing. I do this because I don't want the technology of ttl to waste any of my shots because I am holding the box the wrong direction like at my feet and the ttl blows out the forground.

The lastolite compacts with a twisting motion, similar to a round light reflector, to about 6 in across and 4 inches deep and has a plastic flash holder. I retro fit the nikon ttl shoe onto the lastolite braket with a 1/4 inch threaded thing I borrowed from one of my bogen clamps.

It's that easy and works very well.

p.s. the bracket holds to the box in a flimsy manner so I just have a single zip tie attaching the braket loosely to the box to insure my softbox does not fly away or float away.