Robbie Shone Photography

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Robbie Shone Photography Committed to creating unique images of exploration in our extreme subterranean world.

It’s great to be back at Dudley Canal Tunnels with Gina Moseley (Greenland Caves Project and University of Innsbruck), c...
10/22/2026

It’s great to be back at Dudley Canal Tunnels with Gina Moseley (Greenland Caves Project and University of Innsbruck), continuing the project investigating calcite growth in these fascinating underground environments.
This visit, we downloaded the drip and temperature loggers, replaced glass slides to monitor new calcite growth, and collected fresh water samples from dripping stalactites. The new lights installed for the Halloween tours also brought back memories of seeing glowworms in New Zealand’s Waitomo Caves recently!
More to come as the project develops. Thanks to the team at Dudley Canal and Caverns for their support (Dudley Canal & Caverns). Funded by the Wissenschaftsfonds FWF 1000 Ideas grant. Samples collected under appropriate permits.

Deep inside the Gorner Glacier in Switzerland, water carves its way through the ice, creating a world of extraordinary b...
10/16/2026

Deep inside the Gorner Glacier in Switzerland, water carves its way through the ice, creating a world of extraordinary beauty. But these places are changing fast. Switzerland’s glaciers continue to lose ice at an alarming rate, and every summer brings further changes to the landscape of the Alps. This summer alone, Switzerland lost more than 5% of its glacier ice, following a winter with very little snow and months of intense heat. Almost a fifth of the country’s glacier ice has disappeared in just five years. As a photographer, I feel incredibly fortunate to explore these hidden worlds, but there is also a sadness in knowing that the glaciers I photograph today may look very different in the years to come. These caves are a reminder of just how beautiful, powerful and fragile our natural world can be.

10/10/2026

It was this video by Elias Siebenborn that first pulled me into the story. A harrowing record of drills breaking through the ceiling of a pristine, ancient cave;
Oppenheimer cave. Within seconds, millennia of untouched beauty were violated. The scene was more than disturbing; it was an assault on nature itself. The shock hit me like a real punch in the gut. How could anyone, knowingly, commit such an act of irreversible vandalism? And for what? A train line. A project that could have been rerouted, redesigned, or reconsidered.
This was not progress. This was desecration. I couldn’t just stand by and watch - I felt an overwhelming pull to Mexico, to do my bit.

I did get to see Oppenheimer cave, but I never stood there and heard the sound of rock splintering or feel the tremour of heavy machinery as Elias did. Through his lens, we all bear witness. His footage is not just evidence, it’s a stark warning of the destruction being carried out under the banner of “development,” often out of public view, but with consequences that will last far beyond our lifetimes. Thank-you Elias for capturing this, as it drew me in, no matter how hard it was to watch.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing one photo a day from this journey, each image peeling back another layer of this environmental disaster, and the cultural legacy at risk of being buried beneath steel and concrete. This is not just a story about an illegal train.
It’s about what we choose to preserve and what we’re willing to sacritice.
• Link to the Nat Geo article in my bio.
pollution EnvironmentalDisaster

Baisuntau mountain range, southern Uzbekistan, 2014. Nat Geo writer; Mark Synnott climbs the Baisuntau cliff in the earl...
10/01/2026

Baisuntau mountain range, southern Uzbekistan, 2014. Nat Geo writer; Mark Synnott climbs the Baisuntau cliff in the early evening light, close to where he and cave explorer; Misha Rafikov had free climbed a route up the wall several days earlier. This awe inspiring wall is located in a remote corner of southeastern Uzbekistan, and the expedition was centred around Dark Star Cave, high in the mountains and days away from any roads or settlements. This photograph was from my first assignment for National Geographic Magazine. The picture became the opening double page spread in the story, exactly where I had imagined it while making the photograph, hence the composition.
I’m slowly working my way through printing an archive of my work whenever I get the time. Prints of all my work are available here: ⁠shonephotography.com/prints

Today we walked almost a kilometer through the Gallruthstollen in the Kaunertal, Tyrol, a 996 meter long tunnel cut thro...
09/27/2026

Today we walked almost a kilometer through the Gallruthstollen in the Kaunertal, Tyrol, a 996 meter long tunnel cut through the mountain as part of the Kaunerberger Hangkanal. Built in the late 1940s and early 1950s, it was made to carry water from the mountains to the dry slopes below, helping farmers irrigate their land.

The underground has always felt like home to me, but sharing it with my five year old daughter and her friend was something pretty special. As she’s getting a little older, it’s lovely to see her beginning to appreciate and understand this hidden world that has been such a big part of my life. Watching them walk through the darkness, listening to the water and discovering the mountain from the inside was amazing. It feels like she’s starting to join me in my world.

There are still places on Earth where exploration really means not knowing what you are going to find. This photograph w...
09/13/2026

There are still places on Earth where exploration really means not knowing what you are going to find. This photograph was taken deep inside Imawari Yueta, an extremely remote cave in the quartzite tepuis of Venezuela, formed in some of the oldest rocks on Earth. Remarkably, this cave was only discovered in 2013. Being there was an extraordinary experience. You can study maps and satellite images, but ultimately there is only one way to know what lies beyond the next passage. That is what I love about caves. They are one of the last places where exploration can still be so pure. But caves are far more than places of adventure and exploration. Their darkness and isolation can preserve incredible records of the past. They can teach us about archaeology, biology, geology and climate change, revealing stories that may have remained hidden for thousands or even millions of years. They are fragile, often untouched environments, that we don’t know about.

The discovery of Imawari Yueta in 2013 by La Venta Esplorazioni Geografiche is a wonderful reminder of that there are still places on our own planet waiting to be discovered.

Happy UNESCO International Day of Caves and Karst. 🌍🕳️

Venezuela Tepuis ImawariYueta Exploration Geology Archaeology Biology ClimateScience

The next picture from my first assigned expedition. A giant stalagmite standing alone in the centre of an enormous under...
09/05/2026

The next picture from my first assigned expedition. A giant stalagmite standing alone in the centre of an enormous underground chamber, in San Wang D**g, with one of the cave explorers appearing almost impossibly small beside it.

I remember being struck by the simplicity of the scene. There was no need to fill the frame with anything else. The space, the geology and that tiny figure said everything about the scale of the place. This was also the kind of picture I was hoping to find when I went to China. I was conscious that this first assignment for GEO, and particularly being given that chance by Ruth Eichhorn, could be an important moment for me. I wanted to make the most of being there and to come back with pictures that felt like my own, rather than simply documenting what was in front of me.

Looking back, I think that was one of the most valuable things about those early assignments. Ruth and the team of cave explorers gave me the time and space to work things out for myself, and I’ll be forever grateful.

Following on from the previous photographs in memory of Ruth Eichhorn, here is another image from that first assignment ...
09/04/2026

Following on from the previous photographs in memory of Ruth Eichhorn, here is another image from that first assignment she gave me for GEO in 2012, exploring the caves of China.
This is Erin Lynch, the leader of the expedition and the protagonist of our story, suspended hundreds of metres above the floor of Cloud Ladder Hall and looking down into the vast emptiness below. There is something wonderfully unsettling about this picture. The lure of the unknown, although Erin had already been down there, it still resembles an opening into a new world. I suppose there is a little of the freelance photographer in that view too. You often find yourself looking into the unknown, with no guarantee of what is going to be there.
In 2012, I was still very much finding my way. Ruth’s decision to send me to China put me in a position where I had to trust my instincts and see what I could make of it. I stayed on for two extra weeks after the assignment finished, partly because I felt there were still pictures waiting to be found and as mentioned before, mostly because I wanted to honour the faith and kindness she had shown me.
Looking back, I think some of the photographs I’m most proud of came from that willingness to keep looking beyond what was expected, and it was thanks to Ruth for sewing that seed.
I’ll always be grateful to Ruth for giving me that opportunity in the first place.

To follow yesterday’s photograph in memory of Ruth Eichhorn; who was the Director of Photography at GEO magazine in Germ...
09/03/2026

To follow yesterday’s photograph in memory of Ruth Eichhorn; who was the Director of Photography at GEO magazine in Germany for 21 years, here is a third image from that first assignment she gave me for GEO in 2012, exploring the caves of China.
This photograph was taken during the extra two weeks I stayed in China after the original three week assignment from Ruth and GEO had finished. By then I was determined to keep going. I wanted to come home with a knock-out set of photographs that truly made a mark and the most of the opportunity Ruth had given me.
The caver in the water is American speleologist Erin Lynch, the leader of the expedition and the protagonist of our story. Here she is fighting her way across ferocious rapids in an underground river, completely focused on getting through. There is something about Erin in this photograph that makes me think of Ruth. Both had found their own paths and made a significant mark through the work they did. There was a quiet, yet steely determination in both of them that I admired.
During those extra two weeks in China, I wasn’t ready to leave. I wanted to keep looking, keep photographing and come home with something that would show Ruth that the chance she had given me had been worthwhile.
Thank-you, Ruth.

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