杏吧原创

(Image: Robbie Shone)

A GIGANTIC cave that has never seen the light of day is a tough photography target under clear conditions. But this one posed an extra challenge: it鈥檚 so large and isolated that it has its own weather 鈥� including clouds.

鈥淲eather makes its way in, but it can鈥檛 make its way out,鈥� says , who took this photo of Cloud Ladder Hall, part of China鈥檚 Er Wang Dong cave system. 鈥淚t just hangs in there.鈥�

While there are several openings to the outside world near the cave鈥檚 floor, there is only one near the top. That asymmetry traps enough humid air to fill the 6 million鈥揷ubic鈥搈etre chamber with clouds for most of the year. Cloud Ladder Hall is the second largest cavern in the world, beaten only by the Sarawak Chamber in Malaysia.

For this shot, Shone had three accomplices: one standing behind the frame with a large single-use flash bulb, one standing on the rock to the left shining a headlamp at the cave wall, and a third dangling from a rope hundreds of metres away. Although the shutter was open for only 30 seconds, the whole operation took four hours, with the team communicating via walkie-talkie because the echoes made shouting unworkable. 鈥淏efore you know it you鈥檙e in a maelstrom of noise,鈥� says Shone.

He sees caves as some of the last mysterious places on Earth. 鈥淢ore people have been to the moon than to some of these caves,鈥� he says. 鈥淓ach time we go into these caves and bring photographs or video back to the surface, it鈥檚 all new stuff we鈥檝e never seen before.鈥�

This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淐hance of clouds鈥�