Hello again,
If you guessed from the title and subtitle that we were travelling again, congratulations! You're right!
Today, we left our beautiful cottage in Armscote and hit the road.
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/1600
The tree in the courtyard at the cottage. The light was just amazing. How could I resist?
Because we couldn't check into our flat in London until three, we had some time to kill and we decided visiting Blenheim Palace (home of the dukes of Marlborough and birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill). It was a stunning work of architecture, described as the "Versailles of England."
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/2000
We walked through the gates into the stone courtyard. With the palace surrounding us on three sides, it was rather striking.
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/1600
Cue the standard picture of my family members walking toward some location.
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/5.6, 1/125
Who am I to resist a cannon?
We continued inside, where we eventually caught up with a tour. I was too busy learning cool historical information about the palace to take very good pictures.
(For an example of the cool information, the land itself was never actually bought from the Crown. It was given on an indefinite lease after the first duke's victories in battle and it was paid for with the battle standard he kept as a "souvenir" from the French. Every year after that until his death, the lease was paid with another standard from his battles. After his death, the family just had the original French standard recreated with the new year embroidered at the top of it. To this day, the annual "rent" is paid with what is essentially a two-square-foot flag.)
Anyway, here are some of the shots I got.
ISO 1000, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/80
ISO 400, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/80
ISO 2000, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/80
Though this uniform looks fitting for a duke, it actually would have been worn by one of the footmen.
After we left the tour, we headed outside to the café (one of them, that is), got some food, then walked around the gardens.
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/1600
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/1600
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/640
This path just looked so inviting.....
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/1000
After that point, we decided to go back and walk a different path and then go see the Pleasure Gardens on the grounds, where there was a hedge maze.
Walking along the path away from the front gate, there was a pretty good view of the palace. And when I say "pretty good".....
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/3200
This may be the most stunning symmetry I've come across yet.
These are not the same picture with different crops, I promise. I took about fifteen of almost the same picture above and then I took eight or nine different angles for the panorama shown below.
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/3200
With the palace behind us, we set off on a walk around the grounds, on a path surrounding a lake.
While we were stopped to take a short break, I took these pictures.
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/2000
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/1600
After we made it back, we took the train to the hedge maze. The maze turned out to be fun, but my strategy of always following the left wall failed me. I was forced to make a right turn to get to the center.
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/1250
Dogs were allowed all over the estate and there were more than we could count walking around the park. However, they weren't allowed into the Pleasure Gardens, so we found this guy tied to the gate under the supervision of a ticket-taker/guard.
Yes, I have a lot of fun photographing animals. How'd you guess?
ISO 1250, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/4000
ISO 1600, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/4000
ISO 1000, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/4000
Pardon the weird focus here. I was eating ice cream and did my best to focus the camera with one and a half hands available. Uh—I mean, it's artistic. Yeah, that's it. Artistic.
That's all for today. (Weird place to end it, I know.....)
We're now in a flat in London, where we'll be for the next few days before heading back to the US. I'm not going to give away our plans for the week, but we will be going to some really cool places.
I really need to sleep now.....
Good night,
Alec
Alec