Home : Travel : Footsteps : Boston to Los Alamos : One Article
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Look to the right as you come in and there is a gracious living room with a piano in the background.
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The coffee table caught my eye because of a beautiful "EP" glass
sculpture.
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A portrait of Elvis lines the stairs, but you can't go upstairs; that part of
Graceland is forever closed to the public. Not even the tour guides have been there.
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The decor gets a little more outre in the basement.
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I liked the Jungle room the best so I took lots of pictures here.
Elvis built a special house just for his gold records and other
trophies. Tour guides explain the significance of every portrait and
relic. They also explain why Elvis took to wearing jumpsuits rather
late in his career.
Elvis's grave and those of his immediate family are at the end of the
Graceland mansion tour.
Back across the road, a special museum houses Elvis's car collection,
including the Ferrari pictured below. There is also a comprehensive
giftshop.
Elvis's Birthplace
If you surfed in here without reading
my main story then you might
have missed these pictures from Tupelo, Mississippi:
Taking Pictures Like These
The pictures on this page were created with a Canon EOS camera and 50/1.0 prime lens (a 50/1.4 would
have been fine, especially with ISO 800 film). They are an
example of "available light" photography, which is only possible with a
lens capable of gathering a lot of light (otherwise you'd need to use
the on-camera flash and that ruins everything).
You can learn how to take pictures like this by reading some of the
other articles on this server. Here's a step-by-step program:
- Read Making Photographs,
our free online photography textbook. Concentrate on the "Light"
chapter.
- Read "What Camera Should I Buy?"
- Read "Where to buy a camera"
- Read film recommendations
(unless you decided to choose a
digital camera)
- Read laboratory recommendations
- Practice (repeat).
Elvis Books
These are some of the most interesting books about Elvis:
Elvis Dates
- January 8, 1935: born Tupelo, Mississippi
- July 1954: records first songs (for Sam Phillips)
- 1956: "Heartbreak Hotel" released
- 1958: drafted into the U.S. Army
- 1960: discharged from the U.S. Army
- 1970: made an honorary U.S. Drug Enforcement Agent by President Nixon
- August 16, 1977: died Memphis, Tennessee
Text and pictures are copyright 1994 Philip Greenspun
philg@mit.edu
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