Sydney's Living Museums: Elizabeth Bay House

The interior view we all remember from a visit to Elizabeth Bay House. If you haven't been, it's only $12. The oval entrance hall and landing leading to the upper levels is spectacular and really demands the use of a super-wide angle lens which I didn't have on the day. All we took on this visit were 24-105mm lenses, which was OK, but next time I shall take an even wider angle lens (14mm fisheye) to capture more of its architectural glory.
(HDR pic by Natalie Hitchens).

Victorians liked to keep out of the bright light and sunshine which is why the windows in this room, and throughout Vaucluse House, are so heavily shaded with shutters, curtains and drapes.
(HDR pic by Natalie Hitchens).

Copper-bottomed pans like these hanging in the kitchens might be trendy today but back then it would have been a full time job to just keep them clean.
No dishwashers, detergents or scourers, just a lot of staff!
A wide open aperture (f4) was used to highlight the base of the shiniest pan in the upper foreground while effectively softening the rest of the clutter in the distance...

Another high dynamic range shot (i.e. three bracketed frames put together using Aurora HDR Pro 2019) taken in one of the reception rooms at the front of the house.

A different take on the breakfast room scene (another one is at the top of the post) using the same HDR shooting and post-processing technique. Doing this allows you to record more of the exterior tone without losing any of the far darker details in the interior. You really need a tripod to get this to work perfectly (to prevent movement (and therefore 'ghosting') between each shot but since using one here is strictly off-limits, I had to make do with leaning onto the door frame to gain a bit of stability - this I think gives between one and maybe two additional stops of sharpness (i.e. though the exposure might be 1/4s, it looks as though it was 1/15s or faster).

Another view of the staircase landing and cupola, looking more or less directly upwards using my Canon EF 24-105mm L lens, while trying to be as symmetrical as possible (with a little help in post-production).

Down in the basement of Elizabeth Bay House.
The basement covers a wide area under the main building and would have been a perfect place for storing food in the heat of the summer.
Again this is a three-frame HDR exposure (in Aperture Priority Mode), very necessary to capture some of the details in the very bright stairwell leading up to the ground level as well as the darkness in the basement itself.