Vacation part 2 - St Augustine

We arrived from Louisiana on Monday and we started looking into plans to Niagara Falls but passports and last minute prices were too high. My mom decided to come up to North Florida and stay in St Augustine for a few nights. We found a nice hotel called La Fiesta Ocean Inn.

The first night, we drove 10 minutes to the historic district to check it out.

We took some of the obligatory photos. At night without light, it was difficult to expose properly. I clearly didn't see the light correctly on this one since I'm shooting from the wrong side. In daylight, I often shoot with backlight but can't do it at night in such darkness.

I turned to the correct side here but unfortunately missed focus.

The columns of the Basilica or something. I was refreshed to see lots of light.

Walking down George St. 

I tried capturing some texture. I stretched the RAW file pretty far on this one.

I couldn't take this image as far because there was less light on the subjects.

The second night, we had dinner at Holly's house to meet her parents. Afterward we went to friendship fountain to see some of Jacksonville. When we arrived, we heard a large and loud congregation of frogs mating. Of course Holly was drawn to them..

She found these two going at it. I had her shine a flashlight while I shot this. The flashlight worked better since it was too dark to focus.

We let the frogs do their thing for a while and moved along to the fountain. Here's my mom and David.

I could never go downtown and not take a shot of the skyline.

The next day was our sightseeing day in St Augustine. We all slept in but got out there just in time for the mid-day sun. This shot almost looks HDR but it's just the awesomeness of RAW.

At the same location as above, I focused on Holly much closer to me.

At the end of George St, was this chrome Mercedes. Apparently it belongs to one of the art gallery owners.

Speaking of art galleries, here are mom and hubby enjoying some art.

It wasn't difficult to get photos of David taking photos.

While David was off taking photos of the Bridge of Lions, I saw Holly sitting at the base of this statue. I was at another angle but there was a big ugly truck behind her so we shifted and got one of my favorite images from the trip.

A little behind the scene feel to this one. 

Horse and carriage on the road. I cropped this one for two reasons. I wanted the horse to be the main focus and because I didn't get the full carriage so I felt the wide crop fit better.

We got a nice storm but it rolled through quickly. Unfortunately it left lingering dark clouds when we got to the Castillo San Marco. I like this portrait of my mom and David.

I handed my camera off to David to shoot me and Holly. I cropped it to get us off to the left side since we were originally composed in the middle of the frame. We look decent and in focus. The rare shot of us together. 

And they complain about me always taking pictures... :-)

I took this of Holly not knowing I'd like it so much later when I edited it. Sure it's not the best composed or posed shot and the background might even be argued that it's distracting but I like her expression.

I turned the camera to the other side where my mom was standing and got one of her. 

When I turn again, I see David popping his head up. Funny stuff.

Part two of the vacation continued where part one left off. This phase was slightly more relaxed being at the beach and not having much scheduled and although I wanted to and still want to see Niagara Falls at some point, I'm glad we did this. 

Total vacation time was 11 days, including the highly recommended post vacation, vacation at home. We drove over 1500 miles and had good time with family.

Check out full sets on Flickr: St Augustine Vacation

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