Interview Podcast and my first cave trip since lock-down!

I am delighted to release a link for a podcast interview I did last week for Irish Photography Podcast, Ireland’s leading photography channel. I was interviewed by hosts Darren J. Spoonley and Diarmuid O’ Donovan, both top photographers, and it went live shortly after. If you would like to hear it, follow the link below and also follow IPP as it features many fine photography interviews and discussions. It is available at:

https://theirishphotographypodcast.podbean.com/e/special-guest-robert-mulraney-deep-into-irish-caves/

Also, I had my first cave trip since lock-down recently. I visited one of my favourites caves Pollskeheenarinky Cave in Tipperary. I have added a couple of new photos and updated the text. Hope you enjoy!

Two new pages, June 2020

Just a quick write-up to highlight that over the last month I have added two new short cave pages:

–Poll Gonzo in County Clare; and

–Carrowmore Caverns in County Sligo.

The entrance to Carrowmore Caverns

I hope you enjoy and stay tuned as my next upload with be on a much greater scale, featuring many photos from Indian caves!

Oweynagat: The Cave of Cats, Roscommon

These photos are from a trip to Oweynagat Cave in County Roscommon last summer. It is somewhat a different theme from usual as this cave is of much archaeological and folkloric significance. I hope you enjoy!

Click here to go to the page

A Selection of Recent Photos

It’s been a while since I made any updates but I have not been inactive, all the opposite I have visited a large number of caves over July and August and thus taken on a few more projects! The following photos come from such caves, hopefully I will have more to show soon.

Peter Bryant’s Bullock Hole. Unfortunately I had some epic gear failure here (as well as in Cascades) so I was unable to light up the massive chamber to the extent I wanted. However, my flashbulb guns are being operated upon and I hope to return soon and finish the job:

Peter Bryant’s Bullock Hole

A flying visit to Pollnagossan produced this photo, of which I am quite pleased. I have updated the page also:

Trench Hall, Pollnagossan

I have also added a new entry for Pigeon Pot and updated Boho. Other caves visited such Cascades and Peter Bryant’s Bullock Hole will have to wait to get their own entries until I have more to show!

Pigeon Pot

Boho Cave

I have numerous photos of Cascades Rising from two trips but I will create a page for it only when I take more photos that do justice to it’s final and beautiful stretch:

A Swim in Arch Cave, Co. Fermanagh.

I have added a new page of photos from a trip to Arch Cave in County Fermanagh.

Follow the link here to see the article

Beginnings…

I have always enjoyed taking photos and continue to take my camera with me most places I go. When I started caving it seemed natural to take my camera into caves as well, where I soon found it difficult to get decent photos. My first shots were on a manual compact camera using it’s built-in flash and displayed the typical cave photo scenario ‐ lots of black spaces, bad focus and, most frustratingly, air moisture filling the entire frame. A good example of one of my very first cave photos follows, and this is of the ones I chose not to delete!:

Pollnagollum (Of The Boats), November 2012. Taken on Canon Powershot with inbuilt flash.

I have made improvements by taking more lighting equipment underground, using a DSLR camera and transporting it all in waterproof boxes. Nearly all the gear I use for cave photography is second hand and bought cheap. Taking better cave photos does require familiarisation with certain technical aspects associated with flash photography, but for the most part it is relatively straight forward and the biggest difficulties are met in lugging gear around underground and cleaning it all after the trip!

Pollnagollum (Of The Boats), June 2014. Taken on Canon 450D with one flashbulb and one off‐camera electronic flash.

More photos from Pollnagollum (Of the Boats) can be seen here.