Father's Day Gift

My dad turned 70 on Thursday. I got him a card, a really sappy one but he likes those. As you might have known, it was also Father's Day on Sunday. I decided to gift my dad a trip to St Augustine so he can go to Sunday Mass at The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Augustine. I knew he'd appreciate it because he likes the history and is religious.

We arrived just in time for the 11 AM Mass. He told Holly and I that we can walk around while he was in Mass so we did just that.

We walked all the way down St George Street when I saw this clock. This was what brought my camera out of the bag.

After Mass, my dad asked that I take a picture of him with the Felix Varela Statue. Felix Varela was a Cuban born priest that lived and died in St Augustine in the 1700's. My dad's High School was named after Varela so he's always had an interest. Also, yes, my dad was happy here.

This is more my style of shot. Once I got the posed photo, he turned to read the plaque and I started shooting.

Walking down Cathedral Pl, we saw this dude playing the banjo all alone. He was playing for himself because it was barely audible. I thought it looked cool and would make for a cool black and white. I did a lot of processing to this to get the look I wanted.

We had lunch at La Herencia Cafe. It was highly recommended and now I will highly recommend the Media Noche. It was great. I had the Frita (The Cuban Hamburger) and it was pretty good too but definitely go for the Midnight Sandwich. About this picture. It was highly back lit but I was able to recover enough in the shadows to make a decent shot.

The Cafe had a bunch of these little model houses hanging on the walls. I have seen these before. My uncle has a few in his house. I particularly enjoyed these in the corner behind where my dad was sitting. It was a little nook by the window so there wasn't much space to back up. Even at 17mm, I couldn't get a wide enough shot to get straight on.

After lunch, we walked around a bit. My dad and Holly were checking out some items displayed at the shop window directly across the narrow street where La Herencia Cafe is located. I like the colors and though originally composed with them closer to the center of the image, it didn't work for me as much as this cropped version.

Here's a view of the narrow street I mentioned in the previous photo. Also, my dad pointing at something. Shot at 17mm so the image is distorted a bit. His hand is not that large.

The park had some interesting trees. I don't know much about trees but these look quite old and given the history of St Augustine, I think it's a safe bet to make.

Before leaving, my dad wanted to go back to the store in the Basilica to look for a book. We also took the opportunity to walk around and shoot a few images.

I waited about 5 minutes or so for the couple that was in here lighting candles to clear out.

The color on this stained glass was nice. I couldn't quite capture what I wanted with this shot though.

Holly actually recommended this angle before we left. I think it works nicely. The white balance was all over the place.

This is a close up of the altar. I can't help but think it's slightly off axis. Although it's lined up. I think it has to do with the wide angle it was shot at.

The final shot as my dad leaves the empty Cathedral Basilica. I really like this image. I almost don't even mind the distorted ceiling beams.

At the end of the day, my dad had a great time and was appreciative of the gift which is the most important thing. I also had a good time. We had a nice lunch and found bought some nice sugar cookies.

Check out the full set over on the Flickr: St Augustine for Father's Day