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The Texas Hill Country has some truly amazing caves and caverns. The Hill Country itself is a beautiful place in its on right, especially in the Spring, when wildflowers are ubiquitous. But the beauty of the Hill Country is not just skin deep. There are numerous caves and caverns in this region, each one of which is a wonderland in its own right. Among those, there are seven "show caves": Cascade Caverns and Cave Without A Name in Boerne, Caverns of Sonora in Sonora, Inner Space Caverns in Georgetown, Longhorn Caverns in Burnet, Natural Bridge Caverns in New Braunfels and Wonder World Cave in San Marcos. These caverns are developed for tourism, usually with easy-to-access passage ways and dramatical lighting, not to mention guided tours as well. There are also more than 20 other caves and caverns that are either not open to public or not easily accessible.
Some caves (Natural Bridge, Wonder World) allow tripods, some don't. In either case I wouldn't use films that are too slow because of the dim light in these places. I usually use ISO 400 films (rated at ISO 320) or pushed one stop (rated at ISO 640). Print films are indispensable in these situations especially where tripods are banned --- if the lighting conditions are so poor that even with the fastest film and largest aperture you still can't get enough exposure handholding the camera, you can just underexpose the film by 1/2 to 1 stop and print films will still give you semi-decent to quite-alright pictures. Besides, inside these caves, even though the light is dim, contrast can be high in some places as areas close to the light source are much brighter than those far away from it. With the narrow latitude of slide films it is very difficult or even impossible to get the most desirable results. Flashes are useful, needless to say, but I am usually reluctant to use them because although they help reveal details better, they tend to destroy the dim, mysterious atmosphere inside the caves. I have not tried tungsten films, but I have been wanting to do so.
As far as lens selections, the most useful lens is undoubtedly the Canon EF 28-135mm F/3.5-5.6 "IS" USM lens. The "Image Stabilizer" feature of this lens has proven to be a life saver, I can routinely get 1/10 or even 1/4 sec. at 28mm and 1/30 to 1/15 sec. at 135mm handheld --- truly amazing, indeed! The focal range is fantastic too --- from the awe-inspiring sweeping perspective at 28mm to the detail-revealing close-ups at 135mm, this lens gives you a great deal of flexibility and picture-taking opportunities. Although I have to point out that the barrel distortion at the wide-angle end is still noticeably disturbing. For most situations the distortion should not be a problem since most rock formations are quite irregular, but the "straw" formations (which are vertical tubes extending from the ceiling) in Inner Space Caverns are more of a challenge --- those at the edge of the picture look more like bows than straws. If tripods are allowed, I would also use a ultra-wide lens such as a 20mm lens or even a 17mm lens for the ultra-wide angle gives you a sense of space where there is very little room. If tripods are not an option then I would take a fast lens such as a F/1.8 or even a F/1.4 lens. In either case I would just mount the second lens on a second body because changing lens in the dark and often damp caves is too much a hassle
There are some useful resources on the internet.
Texas Speleological Survey has two articles describing the show caves and wild cave tours in details. They are the must-reads if you want to know about Texas caves and caverns.
The following are the official websites of the seven Hill Country show caves:
Cascade Caverns
Cave Without A Name
Caverns of Sonora
Inner Space Caverns
Longhorn
Caverns
Natural Bridge Caverns
Wonder World Cave
The following are some interesting cave related websites:
http://www.caverns.org
http://www.caver.net
http://www.cavern.com
