Glow Worm Cave by junge1
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No AI - This artwork was created entirely by hand or with traditional digital tools.
Description
The glow worm cave is one of several caves that make up the Waitomo caves. The upper levels of the cave are illuminated enabling the viewing of the stalactites and stalagmites. But the special cave, located 150 ft. below ground, is in total darkness and it houses the glow worms . Glow worms can control how bright their tails are by changing the amount of oxygen reaching their light organs. This bio-luminescence attracts insects which are trapped in the sticky threads that hang from the worms bodies. The changing of the amount of light appears as twinkling to the naked eye.
We boarded a boat upstream in an area slightly lit and began drifting slowly down the underground river in total darkness and total silence. Both sound and light disturb the environment the glow worms need to thrive. It was magical, similar to looking at the Milky Way on a cold, clear winter night in the mountains. The light the glow worms gave off looked just like the twinkling of stars.
It goes without saying no picture taking was allowed, but one could buy postcards upstairs that showed the glow worms, but it doesn't come close to the actual viewing.
This photo manipulation was done on 26 June 2017, Sig...

Comments (13)
These lights have halos, probably caused by time exposure, the actual light sources in the cave appeared as pinpoint lights, just like actual stars!
It's a lovely picture, even if it doesn't capture what you saw.
Wow, great capture!
Superb capture my friend. God bless.
Sounds like an amazing experience. I took a boat ride on an underground river in a cave in southern France, which was very cool, but no glow worms. So is this a shot of one of the postcards or did you sneak a photo?
thanx for this piece would have loved to see thre actal event nice work!!!
Stunning experience ! I've never heard of glowworms before . Great image !
fascinating and beautiful
Amazing! I have seen these on a BBC nature programme
This is a shot of a postcard. We were not allowed to take pictures and probably couldn't have captured the true beauty of the cave anyway!
Before this visit I had never heard of this before!
so cool and magical
Few people have ever heard about this and still fewer have ever seen it...but you Sig are one of those very lucky few:)