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PICTURE GALLERIES
A selection of caving pictures...
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GALLERIES
The
photographer in action...
Almost all pictures have been made by me: Paul De Bie.
In the past (1985-2003), with a simple Pentax reflex camera and a 28
mm wide angle lens. Most of the slides were lit using "M3" magnesium
flashbulbs and
Kodak Ektachrome 160T film. All close-ups (e.g. the
cave pearls pictures) were lit using electronic flashes.
Since 2003 I only use digital equipment and electronic
flashes. I'm faithful to Canon and recently I replaced my
good old Canon Powershot G6 with a G11 model. For reasons of
weight and volume, I prefer not to use digital reflex
cameras. Also, the underground environment is extremely
hostile to your equipment (water, mud, dust, shocks) and
using an expensive reflex seems like a waste to me.
Thanks
goes to...
 Many people! All alone you cannot make any decent cave
pictures. You need people to help you, to carry stuff, to
use the flashlights. You need photo models, and above all:
you need people that are prepared to wait patiently while
you are making your photos! I express my gratitude to all
people who helped me, my caving friends and team mates from SC Avalon.
Then, I want to express my gratitude to many people or
caving clubs that have showed us around the caves they
have discovered and manage, for the time they took and for
their confidence.
But one person I am especially grateful: my partner
and wife Annette Van
Houtte. An exceptionally talented and
passionate speleologist, who has followed me in each caving
trip I ever made, no matter how deep and difficult it was.
And most of the time, she had to carry my flashlights
around! You will see here on many of my pictures.
Thanks, dear!
The galleries
In many cases, the name or location of the cave is not
mentioned. The pictures here are shown for esthetical or
educational reasons, so the exact location of the cave is
irrelevant. Also, it could be the cause of additional
visits or damage to the cave, and in many cases, the cavers
or clubs who manage caves do explicitly prefer that name and
location of the cave is not made public.
Use of my pictures
My pictures have been used to illustrate books,
calendars, websites, folders, posters and so on.
Depending on the purpose (commercial or not) I might or I
might not do this for free. Of course the pictures here on
the website are very reduced and compressed versions of the
originals. If you want to use, or buy pictures, please
ask me. If you use any of my pictures for commercial or
professional means, then I will most certainly sue you. All
pictures are copyrighted.
GO TO THE
PICTURE GALLERIES
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