While I was in Jacksonville I went to spend an afternoon at Saint Augustine. It is very close from Jacksonville just about an hr. I came here more than 2 years ago but as just like this day, I went so late so I didn’t get to see too much. So I went this time to see some places that I wanted to see back then and revisiting some that I really liked…mm I still missed lots of things. I should have gone early. But oh well.… I really like this city. Somehow it makes me feel like I’m in Mexico. Saint Augustine it is the nation’s oldest city and as it was founded by the Spanish it has a lot of Spanish style Architecture.
One of the things that I like the most is The Castillo de San Marcos ( a fort constructed to protect the city from the English or whatever…). I didn’t get inside as I was short of time but it is really nice. I think it is worth the 6 bucks they charge to get inside. I was lucky to see a cannon demonstration from the outside while I was there… it was so loud that I couldn’t keep the camera steady or press the shutter on time when they fired the cannons.
The Flagler College is very beautiful too. I just get to see the lobby as it was too late to take a tour to see the Tiffany windows at the dining hall…..
The fireworks were great. But I miss a lot of them as the police rushed to move the people out of the bridge just when the fireworks were shot. I had meet earlier a girl who told me about some pictures she took last year of the fireworks from the Southbank of the river with the bridge span raised and the light of the bridge turned off… but as I walked over the bridge to go the other side of the river I saw a bunch of people on the bridge so I decided stayed there and try to use the bridge fence as a tripod. I didn’t think there were going move all the people out of the bridge and rise the span with all those people within a few minutes to the fireworks to start just as the girl said to me… But they did…:( … most of the people on the bridge were by the north side of the river, but as I wanted to take some pic with the skyline I hurried to get to the south side before they rose the bridge. At least I was able to get a few decent shots of the fireworks from the 2 launch sites.
After the fireworks I just went back again to the Landing. The music was great so I stayed there till the end. I was very surprised to found out that I had my car locked up at the parking garage. I should have parked it on the street lots that actually was cheaper but I didn’t… it was kinda hard to get a taxi with all the people trying to get home not only from the Landing but from also from the nearby clubs. I went back home almost at 4am and without a car I wasn’t able to go the beach to watch the first sunrise… I really wanted to do that but, oh well, at least I had some fun at New Years Eve and met some nice people…
I spent a few days in Jacksonville but I just mainly went shooting the 31th. There was going to be some events in the downtown area in the afternoon so went to take some pictures there. I went very late that I miss the 5k run, but I did get on time to see the Gator Bowl Parade. It was too boring and it wasn’t too crowded. Well, actually most of the people were by the Landing (a shopping and dining area) but for some reason I started not feeling confident taking pictures in the crowd. I was thinking too much on being noticed and how the people may react…. so I just went to a less crowed area and try to take at least some pictures of the parade. There are times that I feel confident and I would just go and snap a picture almost in front of the person without thinking too much and the person would rarely be aware of me or even care about it. But other times I just start thinking too much if they are aware of me and how they may react if they caught me taking their picture. I usually always ended-up without taking the picture and not even a hip-shot…
oh, how I would like to be so confident to shoot people like Bruce Gilden…
mmm… I don’t think I would ever dare to shoot like him…
There were a lot of people from West Virginia supporting their team as they came for the Gator Bowl game (an annual college football game) against the Florida State that was going to happen the next day… Also it was weird to see Hispanic people in downtown; I guess it is that to expect as the Hispanic population in Jacksonville it is about 4 % in contrast with the 66 % in Miami. The people were really nice with me and maybe that help me later on to be more confident on taking some pictures there.
I was also lucky to get a nice picture of a Latina. I actually was focusing on her friend but after I saw that she caught me and was smiling at me, I quickly change the focus to her and take the picture. After I took the shoot, I just gave her back the smile along with a thanks gesture, which it is what I usually do when they react in a friendly way like she did. Other times when I can’t really tell or when they don’t seem too happy I would just walk away without making eye contact like if it wasn’t a big deal or fake shooting something else. I’m trying to change that and give them a smile but sometimes it is not that easy… She then came to me very excited asking me in Spanish to show her the picture… I was glad when she told me that liked it…. I think that is one of favorite picture from that day…. oh well, they were very nice….
