Hello again, everyone.
If you don't know, my parents and I are total Downton Abbey nuts. We have all watched the show start-to-finish multiple times and have all spent time mourning the deaths of main characters (no names, though it's a bit late to worry about spoilers).
Of course, then, we couldn't resist a chance to go to Highclere Castle, better known as Downton Abbey. Before the show came along, the castle was falling to disrepair. The roof needed fixing and there was a ton of maintenance needed and not enough people to do it.
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It was raining when we got there, so there was naturally a massive queue leading to the front doors, with people filtering in one at a time.....We were standing in the rain for a while. Once we got close, my dreams were crushed. There were signs (and people working there) saying that photography wasn't allowed inside.
The entire time, I was walking around thinking, "I want to take a picture of that. I would love to get one picture of that. Please let me take pictures. I want to take pictures....." You get the point. Anyway, I still enjoyed seeing all the rooms I had seen so many times on TV, and we all got a weird sense of déjà vu..... After the inside bit, we went outside and I made up for not being able to take pictures inside.
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/2000
While Dad was getting us tea and scones, I took this picture of the Universal Sundial in the middle of one of the gardens.
We loved walking the grounds, seeing more of the marvelous work of Capability Brown, probably the best landscaping artist in history. Apparently, he actually had his workers dig out a huge section of the estate behind Highclere to make it more of a valley than just a flat area.
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/4000
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/6.3, 1/160
I successfully replicated the shot from the opening sequence! Wooo! (Well, replicated and then took some artistic license).
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/2.8, 1/800
A picture of my parents in front of Downton/Highclere. I insisted that they let me get this picture.
After this point, we headed to the garden a few hundred behind where I stood to take that last picture (for reference).
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/2.5, 1/1600
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/800
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/1.8, 1/2500
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/2.2, 1/1250
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/2.2, 1/640
This little guy was so hard to capture without a macro lens.
It was a great day. Three of us loved being at the place we had gotten to know through the screen.
ISO 100, 50 mm, f/7.1, 1/200
Picture taken by Nico and edited (relentlessly) by me.
Tomorrow is our last full day here in England. We'll be heading back to the States in two days. It's been fun and we have some stuff planned to make the most of the last day here.
Until then,
Alec
Alec