I've made the trip downtown 6 times now (actually 7 if you count the total bust when it rained) for my Jax project. This Saturday was my most fruitful outing. It seems that I am getting into the swing of things. It takes time to find a path, and some diligence to keep on it. Right now I am taking a lot of the obvious shots, the landmark buildings, what I call the "stock" views of the city. There is a lot of work in doing so, as one needs to capture the sense of place, spirit, and lighting. This takes repeated attempts as the weather does not always cooperate and the light in the morning or afternoon usually favors certain views of the buildings. Take for example the skyline from the Acosta bridge. This is the classic Jacksonville sunset shot, it's been done thousands of times. So what will be different in my version? The light, the clouds, the time of day? I resign myself to taking what is present at the given time and moment. There are no other choices. Here is what I found on Saturday September 19 at 7:45 pm. I had to wait until they turned on the lights for the Jacksonville Landing sign. Is this the shot? No but it will do for now. It is a pan of 3 - 21 mp images, so I'm going to make a big print.
After walking around on Saturday, which was so incredibly hot and humid, there were many times when I was ready to just pack it in. I'm glad that I stuck with it. I arrived around 2:30 and first hit the South bank River Walk, then headed to the new courthouse construction site, then around Hemming Plaza, and finally back to the south bank and the Acosta Bridge to catch the sunset. Six hours. I found that I needed walk-around time just to be comfortable and to start seeing things that could be easily missed, or having the light and clouds change. Just being awake and present at the right time and place allows the serendipitous to happen. I love the weekends downtown because Jacksonville is almost abandoned. I have the whole city to myself so it seems. A few people passing by with smiles. Almost like being out in the woods.
My Jacksonville 400 project gallery can be found here.