Photo Adventure

I know my adventures are over as a student at FLI, but the last several weeks I fell hopelessly behind in documenting them for memories sake, so now I’m going to try to catch up in several posts. However, I can’t promise they will be in order, or the most detailed. Oh well, I know what I mean, and as I’ve said before, I see this blog as a personal journal that you get a peek into :-) now aren’t you privileged?

Photo Adventure:
For months a sign up sheet had been posted in the communications room (a room where we can post info of events, we have boxes where the professors return our papers, give us handouts, etc.) asking who would be interested in a photo adventure. I was excited to do something like that, especially with so many talented photographers in our class. About halfway through the semester Chris let everyone know that he’d found a place a few hours away called Bishops Castle. Turns out it’s a castle some guy (who may or may not be insane) is building with his own two hands, and he opens to the public. So, six of us piled into Meg’s car and headed out for our adventure.
It’s hard to explain what the castle was like, imagine a middle age castle, tall, narrow, and cold. Rickety and unstable are to words that come to mind as well, forbearing, full of mystery, and of course, adventure. The whole thing was made of rock the man had taken from the land, and it wore many skirts of wrought iron balcony, which encircled it on many levels. We climbed the tall, narrow stone stairs, which led up to the main part of the castle, where you could just imagine a ball of knights and ladies being held. Today we were the knights and the ladies, and instead of dancing, we would be posing, and instead of candlelight, it would be our flashing cameras that lighted the grand hall.
We took several pictures there, the sunlight danced in rainbows through the wall and ceiling of mishmash stained glass. Soon our adventurous thirst drew us to attempt the wrought iron balcony just outside. It was a rush to navigate around the building as the mesh of iron beneath our feet swayed and creaked with each step. There were signs all over the castle proclaiming the visitors own risk, the owner warned that he was not responsible for anything, thus should the floor fall out from under us (as it certainly felt capable of doing at any given moment) the responsibility would be all our own.
We posed for many more pictures out there, stepping in and out of broken windows, glass strewn at random.
Next we endeavored to explore higher. We climbed through narrow and twisted stone and iron steps, leading to the tops of unfinished towers. It was windy, but the whoosh of it was sweet and thrilling.
Finally, Chris, Ciera and I chose to climb to the ultimate top. The giant iron globe balancing at the highest point of the castle. We discovered upon entering the globe that the mesh iron floor was only connected at the center, where the stairs descended, and not to the outer cage, allowing the floor to rock and wiggle precariously, especially in the wind. And I loved it. If I had a hammock, I would have hung it in that cage and slept right there, on top of the world.
We took many photos up there, one with all of us defying gravity and jumping (yes, I do believe the insanity of the castle and her builder was rubbing off on us) and we played tricks with the sun, creating an E.T. esque shot as the sun shown through Ciera and Chris’s touching fingers.
Finally we climbed down to solid ground, but the fun wasn’t over yet! Before we piled back in for the long ride home, we played in the street for a bit.
Finally, weary and all photoed out, we drove home, as knights and ladies traveling home after a long and memorable quest.