Jacksonville and St Augustine

I’ve been saying it with relative frequency as of late. I love doing photography with a drone. It’s such a great experience.

Since I haven’t really had opportunity to yet travel this year due in large part to my remaining commitment to the flower shop business I own, I have been trying rather diligently to do some photography around the state of Florida.

Most recently, as of last week actually, Joelle and I hit the road to do some 4k video and also some photography in two Florida cities. St Augustine and Jacksonville.

Overall, I met with great success in the adventures.

Although, I’ll say, our patience was tested.

I have a long standing rule…and I must’ve somehow forgotten it; I do not ever travel on holiday weekends. Labor Day classifies as a holiday yet off we went. Fools! Holy masses of people Batman.

Our Air BNB was a total dump in a horrible part of Jacksonville. So much so, we drove up, walked in, and turned around to leave; Never to return. Paid and everything. Yes, that bad.

I don’t know how that slipped through the cracks with regard to it’s great reviews. But it was bad. Really bad.

We found a very nice Holiday Inn (thankful for the luxury of the cell phone in this instance).

We tried to do some photography of the city skyline and it was okay. Of my primary focus I wanted to fly and film and photograph Friendship Fountain. An Iconic fountain near the Museum of Science and Industry there at the riverfront. As it turned out, it was completely empty and torn up for renovations. As my grandfather was fond of saying “par for the course” for this trip. I did shoot a pretty great hyperlapse of the city skyline and bridges during that evening. I always enjoy working on a hyperlapse at night.

At any rate, the photography was a great success in Jacksonville. The majority of which was gathered the next morning from between the hours of about 5:15 and 8:00 am. Later, we tried to head up to Jekyl Island in Georgia but this too was a moderate debacle. The hotel was a dump (again…how do these people get these reviews?). It was listed as an Extended Stay Inn. I’ve stayed at the national brand and thought that would be a good spot to park for the night. However, this was NOT a national brand hotel. They merely copied the name in their listing. It was instead a run down motel.

We did the best we could but the island was so swamped with people the video and photography was a complete bust.

The final day was spent in St Augustine. We were up at 5 am to head out and do the video and photograph of the downtown area at “night” and then for the sunrise hours.

It was amazing.

I’ll be posting videos of the trip soon. Just the 4k stuff of the towns. Nothing vlog related. But I’m also pretty excited to think about doing the St Augustine Christmas lights with the drone for photography and video in November when they turn the city on.

I am planning to have the drone in the air for the moment they flip the main switch which turns on the entire Christmas light grid for the city. Should be epic. Already planning that trip. My room has already been booked.

At any rate, here are a few photos from Jacksonville and St Augustine.

I hope you enjoy them.

Until next time,

-rob out