Jacksonville, through the eyes of a visitor

[thelakelander]

There's a great photo series of Jacksonville at Skyscraperpage.com worth checking out. 

Southwest Airlines had a promotion back in January. Book a flight to any city in Florida by January 31, 2010 and complete travel by March 9, 2010 and receive double credits. I have a friend in Jacksonville who I visitited last summer that I was thinking of visiting again, but hadn't yet made the reservations. Finally, on Friday January 29, 2010 my friend called me and said she found a great place to take me to next time I visited Jacksonville. It was a (very) reasonably priced restaurant on the 42nd floor of the Bank of America. That was all it took. I booked the reservations right then.  Leaving Austin Thursday February 25, 2010 and returning Tuesday March 2, 2010.

Jacksonville/NE Florida - It's a Trip! (part1)
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=179710

Jacksonville/NE Florida - It's a Trip! (part2)
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=179711

Jacksonville/NE Florida - It's a Trip! (part3)
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=179712

A good article from the Jacksonville Times-Union on downtown development plans and how things haven't worked out as city leaders had hoped.

Lights dimmong on Jacksonville's big plans for downtown
Why Jacksonville's downtown vision remains unfulfilled and unfocused
December 14, 2009

http://jacksonville.com/business/2009-12-13/story/lights_dimming_on_jacksonvilles_bold_plans_for_downtown

The article quotes a customer of a local downtown restaurant who told the owner - "You have a beautiful city - but where are the people?" That was my impression of Jacksonville, too. Hopefully, they can find a way to turn things around and lure more people downtown because the place really has a lot of potential.

For those who made it all the way to the end - thanks for looking.

[Wacca Pilatka]

Thanks for posting.  Terrific pictures that really capture the vibrant colors of Jacksonville and, as usual, make me wish I were there rather than 600 miles away.  Doing tax returns.  At 9 at night.

[fsu813]

How the hell did he get such vibrant photos?

There must be some hidden color setting on my camera that i don't know about.....

those were amazing!

[thelakelander]

A lot of the guys on that site are professional photographers.  That was the first forum I joined years ago and is what set the path to what eventually became Metro Jacksonville.  Its a cool community over there.  No matter what city you want to visit, you can always hook up with someone from skyscraperpage who will give you a tour of their city and show you the best spots for urban photographs.

[buckethead]

Reading through the comments, it is clear that one of Jacksonville's finest ambassadors is right here in our midst.

Thanks for doing what you do...

[JeffreyS]

I'll second that BH.

[stjr]

How the hell did he get such vibrant photos?

There must be some hidden color setting on my camera that i don't know about.....

those were amazing!

Could be the settings for color, contrast, etc.  Or, even Photoshop.

But, in a perverse kind of way, most lower end cameras (like the pocket ones or non-SLR's) are more likely to produce "vibrant" pictures like these because they have less range or ability to produce a more subtle range of colors that mirrors the most accurate coloring of the real world (which clearly isn't this naturally vibrant in most circumstances) or to ideally respond to a full spectrum of lighting situations.  Higher end cameras have better lenses, higher quality and larger sensors to capture the image, and more sophisticated technologies and on-board software to produce the most accurate coloring over the widest range of lighting circumstances.  Seeing two pictures of the same scene at the same time by two totally different types of cameras would probably surprise many by how different the pictures turn out.

Color rendering can also be greatly effected by your computer monitor in the same way.  Low end or older monitors give the same picture file a whole different look sometimes than a high quality screen.

[Jason]

Fantastic tour!  I absolutely love to read and hear about outsiders opinions of this area.  It was quite the comprehensive tour of NE Fla too.  Yeah, there is a LOT LOT LOT more to see but those glimpses into what we have to offer should easily peak some interests and draw in some visitors to see it for themselves.

[tufsu1]

there are plenty of visitors in town this weekend...and I've heard nothing but glowing reviews.

[9a is my backyard]

Thanks for posting this Lake!  As everyone has already mentioned, it is interesting to get on 'outsider's' perspective.  For me, I can often get caught up in the negative, feeling like nothing ever moves in Jacksonville, that I forget how much potential we have and how we are, albeit slowly, making progress towards realizing that potential. 

I thought his quote at the end of the last series of photos was nice: "The [Times-Union] article quotes a customer of a local downtown restaurant who told the owner - "You have a beautiful city - but where are the people?" That was my impression of Jacksonville, too. Hopefully, they can find a way to turn things around and lure more people downtown because the place really has a lot of potential."

Maybe it's just me, but I do feel like Jacksonville is starting to get some wind in her sails.  Yes, it's not in the form of high-rise condo towers and fixed mass transit that many of us would like to see, but Bay St seems to be opening a new venue every few months, downtown should play heavily in the upcoming mayoral race, and the budget issues seem to have gotten people talking about what kind of city we would like to live in and how all parties can help make the city become reality.  On top of that, I continually find myself having to choose between two/three/four things on any given night that I want to do (what a GREAT problem to have).

On a totally unrelated note, that photographer's got a sweet 'stache.

[coredumped]

Thanks for posting this - some great photos in his thread!

He sounds a lot like us "downtown is dead, but has so much potential." While I agree with 9a, we're getting better, but we still have some ways to go.