The 2025 SWCC Photo Competition

Back in September 2024, a few of us entered the Hidden Earth photo salon. There were some beautiful images on display, and SWCC members had varying degrees of success. The salon lead to much discussion, which somehow lead to me being volunteered to organise one for just club members. Thank you Claire! Everyone was saying how much they enjoyed seeing the young cavers photography. They seemed to sum up real caving very well. It was decided to have a young members category at the SWCC version. SWCC is very lucky to have a number of exceptionally skilled photographers amongst the membership, and it can be a scary concept putting your photos taken on a phone or old pocket camera from a social trip on display next to a photo that took all day to take, with a literal tonne of equipment, not to mention considerable skill amassed over years. We decided to have 2 "old fart" categories - amateur and pro, hopefully to make entering a bit less intimidating.

Roll on to early March, and I was seriously wondering what I'd accidentally agreed to. I had zero actual entries, and a few promises....so I started sifting through my mildly chaotic filing system, that OneDrive kept trying to re-organise for me. Thankfully, come several days after the loose deadline, I somehow ended up with nearly 100 photos to arrange into a slideshow. Lightroom had an argument with my USB drive, which might have worked with the TV screen on the small common room. Getting the screen to connect to my USB defeated Graham, Brian and Dave, plus Amazon, who sent an entirely different connection lead to the one ordered. Getting the screen to connect to my laptop was somewhat complicated. Then as the final touches were being sorted, my hard drive decided it was all too much and died. The slideshow had to be made again from scratch from a very argumentative OneDrive, and was finally completed at 3.30am Saturday morning. I hoped!

Everyone who wanted to enter prints had complete nightmares! From printing places refusing to send prints to the right town, refusing to print to A4 and flat out refusing to print, it was a miracle we had any prints at all to look at. Members put in huge efforts to submit prints, and I was amazed how the display boards all filled up, and the photos looked great.

With all the tech gremlins going on, it was very nerve-wracking pressing the play button, but thankfully everything seemed to work OK in showing everyone all the photos to vote for. I was very relieved to not vote, as there were too many hard choices.

This blog brings you the top 3 photos from each category - brought to you 4 hard drives later....never again...until next time!

Young category

Gaping Gill by Liam Wright. This stunning image was taken on his phone, and was undeniably first place in the young members category, with almost everyone voting it into top spot. Liam's photo got the top score across all 3 categories. Well done Liam

2nd and 3rd place were hard fought for the young members, but Dylan Wase claimed 2nd with his beautiful image of the Courtesan in Agen Allwedd. If you haven't been, its stunning there, but involves the torture of Southern Stream in both directions (a sump prevents a round trip at the moment), some navigational challenges, a tight spot, and its really awkward to take photos of the amazing formations. Dylan did a fantastic job with this image.

And now, the 3rd places. For the young members, we have this beautiful image by Lizzie Caisley, taken on her expedition to Viet Nam last year. This was taken in Hang Va cave in Phong Na. These incredible tower formations are found in few places on earth and thankfully the cave is controlled access to protect them. Its unclear how these tower cones form, but it's thought to be layers of small calcite "rafts" which form on the surface of the water, subsequently sinking and stacking together, resulting in a unique pointed tower. They are a variety of heights, and maybe get to around hip height.

Amateur category

First place in the Amateur category goes to Helen Nightingale, with Snottite in a Lead Mine. The orange colours are very typical in old lead workings. The snottite drop is tiny, and on a bit of main passage everyone stomps past and never notices. The colours on the droplet is from a very thin biofilm, which is hard to see from some angles and light, but a beautiful iridescent purple from a different angle. This photo was taken with an old Nikon D90 DSLR.

2nd in the Amateur category was my "Copper Drop". I love the way calcite in copper mines gets stained with secondary mineralisation and leeching of the minerals in the mine. This may have been taken in Coniston, but I'm having technology nightmares , so I may have made that up! This was a phone macro shot, taken with a battered Huawei P20. If you want a cheap caving camera, I'd recommend one of these phones. They fit in the front of your oversuit really well.

Competition for places in the Amateur category was tightly fought, and 3rd place was a tie. Sarah Garlick has made an ugly concrete tube that many of us hate look beautiful, with this brilliantly lit image of the Cwm Dwr entrance. A fine example of what is possible with a basic phone and a boring bit of cave that many of us ignore.

Joint third is my macro of iridescent biofilm on a water drop. the drop appears to be partially covered with a very thin layer of calcite, which then has a biofilm growing over the top. the drop must cling to the rock for some time to allow the calcite and biofilm to accumulate. Jo White has had her arm twisted to do a talk about biofilms and other interesting cave sciencey stuff in the Long Common Room over the Easter weekend, so I may need to update this description after Easter. All I know is that cave biology produces some beautiful sights.

Pro category

In first place in the Pro Category was Mark Burkey, with Little Neath River Cave. Mark is an exceptionally talented cave photographer, and although photography has never been his normal day job, he's had his images published in numerous books, newspapers and magazines as well as in exhibitions. His photography has won awards at the Kendal Mountain Festival, and he is a judge for the Hidden Earth photo salon. Voters were not unanimous in the pro category, it was a tough class. This image took 1st in class by 1 point above 2nd place and 3 points above 3rd place.

2nd place in the Pro category was again Mark Burkey. His 2nd placed photo is in Ogof Gofan. This cave is on the Pembrokeshire coast, and a permit is needed to access it via the MOD firing range, but the planning required looks very well worth it and I need to make the effort to go see the place now I've seen this. Mark needs needs no further introduction, but if anyone would like to see more top class cave photos, have a look for his work on Flickr.

Our final 3rd place goes to Mark Burkey with this gorgeous image taken in Pant Mawr Pot. A classic cave that most of us will have visited, and perhaps stomped through to see the fine formations. Here Mark's fantastic composition showcases how beautiful the cave can be where there isn't so much big calcite to see.

Special mention has to go to Clarke Friend, with his entry of "Polar Bear" into the newly created "I didn't know there was a photo contest as I didn't read the newsletter, but can I show a photo anyway?" category. We all know cavers don't really do rules, so why not have such a beautiful bear included. Clarke says the weather conditions mean the water is often mirror flat, hence the wonderful reflection. I think we need a "Whose Rules is it Anyway?" category next time, so you can all submit whatever you choose, preferably with the most tortuous and entertaining story about how its related to caving, honest!

Congratulations go to everyone placed, and a thank you to the club for providing 2 free bed nights each as first prizes. We shall be printing out the first placed photos for display within the club soon. Further thanks and well done to everyone who entered, there was such variation, creativity and too many wonderful images to choose from. The other photos will all be featured in a blog coming soon..