Ely | R. Doug Wicker

Ely Cathedral

More pictures from our 2005 visit to England. Our daughter was stationed at R.A.F. Mildenhall and son-in-law was assigned to my old base at R.A.F. Lakenheath (I was stationed there in 1976 and 1977), about four and a half miles from Mildenhall and both in East Anglia. But rather than split the distance between the two bases, our clan decided to reside in the medieval town of Ely in nearby Cambridgeshire.

Ely Cathedral stained glass

The most famous structure in Ely is of course the Cathedral. I’m sure you’ll agree that Ely Cathedral is quite impressive both inside and out.

Interior view of the octagonal west “Lantern” tower — 215 feet/66 meters tall; from the inside it’s 142 feet/43 meters from the floor to the roof boss in the center of the Lantern

Click on any image below to bring up today’s slideshow:

Ely Cathedral

Ely Cathedral stained glass

Ely Cathedral

Exterior view of the west “Lantern” tower

Ely Cathedral

Ely Cathedral organ

Ely Cathedral

These shots were taken shortly after the dawn of the digital photography age with a 5mp camera. Looking at them today, you can see why I tell people it’s not the megapixels that count. It’s what you can do with them.

Unfortunately, the interior shots of Ely Cathedral (taken in the Cambridgeshire town of Ely, northeast of London) still show the poor ISO noise sensitivity inherent in cameras of the time, but the outdoor shots look good even by today’s standards.

One of the London buildings I photographed is the SIS Building made famous in a long-running movie series, and a series of novels that date back even further (1953). How long running? October 5 will mark the 50th anniversary of the release of the very first film in this series, and November 9 of this year is the U.S. release date of the 23rd film. And if you haven’t guessed yet what the SIS Building is, or the series that made it famous, it’s more commonly known as the MI6 (or the Secret Intelligence Service) Building. It’s most famous fictional residents are a certain English MI6 agent (whose service number bears a Double-O prefix) and his boss, a person who goes by the code name of “M.”

Also featured are London landmarks such as the London Eye, Big Ben (officially renamed this year Elizabeth Tower after Diamond Jubilee for the current monarch, Elizabeth II), the Palace of Westminster (i.e., the Parliament building), and Vauxhall Bridge.