Abandoned mines in Japan

Mine for the extraction of cadmium ore existed in Kamioka at the end of the 19th century until the end of the 1980s. Then they were closed and handed over to scientists. Vcledstvie sufficiently large depths of the mines than a kilometer away, they become an ideal platform for the construction of underground observatories to monitor the neutrinos.

However, a large underground area is still not occupied by anyone, in the depths of the mountain water dripping, stretch endless rails rusting old railmotor cars and drills. In the daytime the area is patrolled and maintained periodically, but after a day not a soul there.

I've been looking for the entrance, and found quite by accident, when coming out of the forest onto the road suddenly saw about a hundred meters in front of him something a little blue, like the silhouette of a man. The camera was zachehlon so that larger picture it was not possible to climb over him in a backpack not like so I quietly went to the silhouette. He really looked like a man, but for some too short and did not move.

Branch - I thought, when silhouette dramatically stirred and got up once the cocoa guard. "Oh-yo" - I said, and abruptly put into the woods, stepping back. The guard, not even turning back, went to his car, well, I had to return to the "base" to bypass, during which I came across on the desired entry into the mine. So what if it was not a guard, this would not have been a report.

Finding the entrance, I went in immediately, but after first returned to the "base", where a snack, rested and left extra stuff, and with the first stars came to the fore on underground exploration and adventure. From the entrance to the tunnel was laid uzkoleykoy, and after a hundred meters branched. First, it was decided to go to the left, as in the side branches are often found abandoned technique navrode rail car or drilling-loading machines. Adit was quite picturesque - beautiful arch support, arch lined sheets, thick boas pipe thread rail and railway signaling lamps.

Sometimes it takes a trapezoidal or even triangular shape.

photograph with front illumination rather boring, more precisely, the photos come out flat and boring. For some variety, I started a game of shadows, when the torch is not in the center of the gallery, and on the floor or wall, creating enough relief. But it is quite gray, as with the light to play, the light should be placed.

Traditional move - use the backlight when the man with the flashlight hidden behind a turn or a thread of a major subject and shine because of it. In this case, the center of the picture remains dark, but there is an interesting game of reflections on the ceiling and walls, amplified in the case of abundant moisture.

Even more interesting results are obtained by dual lights, when the end of the shooting scene is backlit given the short backlighting foreground into focus the central part. However, such things hard enough to shoot alone in one frame. Even for scenes with backlighting, I had to put a ten-second (maximum for Panasonic) and the timer before he twang, to run for the subject, in order to shine out.

For scenes with double illumination needed even more - namely, turn off the backlight, and return to the camera to illuminate the foreground. In the darkness, coming back is unreal, therefore, I used a very small flashlight to light the way back. As examples show pictures taken from one point in the front and backlit - feel the difference. Pictures with the double coverage I will show below.

and tunnels in the meantime ended by going to multiple rooms and walled outputs. Here, for the heavy "safe deposit" gate, was a warehouse of explosives.

Adit is significantly increased in a section becoming passable for wheeled transport.

Continuing to move forward and leaving behind almost two kilometers, I came to a huge underground hall - a pit-stop for a variety of mining equipment. At its center stood the body of the drilling machine Tamrock Minimatic HS 205D with dismantled working bodies.

On the far side of the room slept more live equipment, including a jeep Toyota Hilux 4 WD beaten with sad snout.

On both sides of the hall are auxiliary facilities, such as a warehouse of spare parts and oils, Electrical Equipment, sinks and toilets for the workers. In electrohardware piled a mountain of Canadian miner Lantern explosion-proof release mid-90s, charging consoles for them, spare batteries and bulbs.

For hall horizontal gallery moved into a vertical spiral path leading both downwards and upwards. These mines have a depth of 1300 meters, so to explore that path had neither the time nor the light, and I went back to the very first fork, picked the right branch. Everything here is reminiscent of the adit, explore first, and soon I come to a new fork where I tried the technique of double illumination. Went pale and ugly - of course, such things should be done in pairs or multiple exposure, or at least with radiospuskom shutter.

Despite the fact that the tunnels diverged, then they were joined by a series of underground rooms one more pit stop, also filled with appliances, central among which is motor-cart. I offer two photographs backlit and double-backlit, over which I have slightly mocked.

Visible in the background is something white with red eyes - it is quite modern and working quad bike, unfortunately, turned out to be without the ignition key in the lock. It is a pity, of course, or I would ride on it. In this part of the tunnel on fire work light and worked in the heater monteryatnike. At this stage, it knocked five o'clock stay under the ground, and I decided to fold, finally finding a little drill and rail equipment.