Sunguramy, fotògrafa

Presentem una selecció d’imatges d’aquesta simpàtica espeleòloga americana “amb corbes”, l’Amy Hinkle (Sunguramy), de la que els nostres lectors recordaran l’article sobre l’arnès i el punt de gravetat (http://espeleobloc.blogspot.com.es/2013/01/arnes-i-punt-de-gravetat.html).

Aprofitem per incloure una desenfadada “autobiografia”, que presento en el seu ric llenguatge original, ja que no m’he atrevit a traduir-ho, per no perdre la seva espontaneïtat:

“I am just a person who enjoys many things about life and seeing beauty in the everyday world that most seem to miss.

Why the name Sunguramy? is something I get asked...well "sungura" is Kiswahili for "rabbit" and rabbits have been a part of my life since I was 5 years old, plus I like how it sounds (the "u" has a long sound, more like "oo" in English) however Sungura was already used online a lot, s I added the "my" so the last three letters were my name, Amy. I pronounce "Sunguramy" like "Soon-gour-ah-mae".

I have always enjoyed photography...I remember begging for a camera when I was young and getting a Polaroid for Christmas that year. Remember those things? I kinda still wish I had it. A few Christmases later my parents got me a simple Nikon P&S camera, this is still back in the film days. Actually, as I look back through old negatives and prints I got some pretty nifty shots back then.
Life changes and school started demanding my time and I forgot a lot about the artsy side of myself, delving into science. I found it again when I realized I was actually decent at computer graphics and started working as an in-house designer for the biotech company I was employed at as a researcher! I really wanted to get back into photography though, and finally, Christmas of 2009, family came through again and got this poor graduate student a dSLR (Nikon D60). I realllly like my camera and, still being poor as science research sadly doesn't pay well as grant funding is at such a low and I'm lucky to just have a job, make do usually with ebay finds of "for parts or repair" lenses or reallllly old glass. Luckily for me, the best thing I was told when I got my camera is "use it on manual only so you learn it"...and that's what I did, so it's what I'm used to now. Not autofocusing, not being able to use the "computer" of the camera to do things, is fine with me! If it mounts, I'm good!

I went into my first cave on June 16th, 2010. Instantly fell in love. No way am I risking my dSLR underground though, the environments of caves naturally are camera's worst enemy. Doesn't matter if you keep it in an otterbox or pelican case, have to take it out...and then it gets exposed to dust, mud, humidity, water, etc etc. no matter how careful you are.

So I started my cave photography with a Nikon P60 I acquired on ebay for cheap, which has a manual setting (which, is kinda laughable I'll admit, but something at least). I hate heavy packs and carrying a lot of stuff underground, so my setup is simple. Camera, and my helmet light, and recently added flash gun. Usually I lightpaint, put the camera on 10 second time delay, set it on a rock or prop it up on my cavepack, paint with the light on my helmet. I'll be the first to admit this does limit me in my photos but the flash gun has helped in some shots getting more light.

On a recent trip, my P60 died. It lasted for about ten months, not bad for a cave camera! I'm not sure what killed it either, the software to take the photos seemed to not initialize, it would turn on and mechanically function properly, I could use the playback mode, just none of the actual take-photo modes. Luckily I was able to stop by Unclaimed Baggage and sift through their cameras, and ended up with the MUCH better Panasonic Lumix LX3 for $100. (Oh yeah I can find deals!) As of October 2011, that is now my cave camera.”

Gràcies Amy per mostrar-nos les teves boniques imatges!