C++ :: Derive Type From Object?

Suppose I'm wanting to define a predicate for some algorithm. I already need to provide the begin/end iterators of a container, can I somehow use the container instance to derive it's type that I can then use as parameters of the lambda predicate ?

Essentially... something along the line of:

Code:
// doesn't compile ! just used as an example
auto something = std::min_element( foo.begin(), foo.end(), [](typeof(foo)::const-reference left, typeof(foo)::const_reference right) {
left.calculateSomething() < right.calculateSomething();
});

Essentially, I don't care about what specific type is stored in foo. I just want a convenient way to get to the type without having to look up that the actual type is :

mynamespace::somebaseclass<templatevar1,templatevar2>::somenestedclass<templatevar1>::value_type