Nice hat

From a current exhibition called Knowing the West at the Cummer Museum in Jacksonville.

Spring growth

Blue theater lighting

Blue LED lighting is so color intense. It is much more magical than incandescent lights with blue gel filters. This stage lighting created a mood while waiting for the band to start.

Theater lighting

Both decorative and theatrical lighting at the Florida Theater in downtown Jacksonville Florida. The historic 1927 theater was recently restored and updated. Stage lighting is now all LED providing more efficiency and flexibility. There was also plaster repairs and a complete repainting as well as new seating. Turns out modern theater goers need wider seats than was provided a hundred years ago.

Swamp

Immersive

TSO

The Tans-Siberian Orchestra annual Christmas show is a spectacular featuring tons of intelligent lighting, lazers, fireworks, flame throwers, a half dozen video panels, hydraulic risers, multiple undulating trusses and individual LED clusters along with over-the-top rock style music. Nothing subtle here. It is an enjoyable show that was performed for about 15,000 people here in Jacksonville FL.

Unusual things catch my eyes

Flamingo

Don't look too close... missed the focus on the bird but the color really did look good so I am posting anyway.

Feathers

A walk in the park

Christmas lights

 A bit over the top but impressive in person. This home was part of ABCs Great Christmas Light Fight program this year and is located near where I now live. They did not win but I did enjoy a walk through the installation.

St. John's River and downtown

View from the terrace of the Baptist Health Heart hospital. I was a "guest" there last week for a procedure and everything went well. It is nice to have this facility right on the river facing several of the bridges across the St. Johns and some of the buildings on the north shore.

Skylights

Seems like many airport concourses now feature skylights to bring more sunlight into the interior. Also an opportunity for some added design interest. This concourse is in JAX, the Jacksonville International terminal.

More cars

Another composite photo collection from today's visit to the  Brumos Car Collection located here in Jacksonville. It is an impressive collection of wonderful cars though history focusing mostly on racing and leading up to the Porsche sport racing cars that made Brumos famous. The facility itself is also very impressive... every feature seems first class just like the Porsches. Well worth the visit if you are in the area.

Actually there is one tractor in the image... can you tell which one?

As usual, click the image for a larger view.

Square art

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Jacksonville has this unique installation that includes dozens of citizen artist created 10 x 10" pieces of art. The Jacksonville community at large was invited to create these squares (a favorite aspect ratio of mine!) that were assembled and titled Imagination Squared. The subject of each square was selected by the individual and there is a surprising range of images.

IllumiZoo Jacksonville

We went to the LumaZoo and I took my Olympus OMD EM1 Mk II with the 12-45mm Pro f4 constant aperture lens thinking there might be a few opportunities for some shots. The displays were OK but not overwhelming. This was the most interesting view I saw.

Wanting to keep up with the wife I did not take a lot of time to check my settings so this was my first shot... mistakenly with the camera still set at ISO 200 and f stop at 5.6. The result is a unbelievable demonstration of the outstanding in-body image stabilisation of the Olympus system. The exposure time was 2.0 seconds (not 1/2 sec, a full 2 seconds). I did not brace myself more than normal but waited a long time to hear the shutter close. You can see where people and some leaves moved but much of the image is still pretty sharp.

I took several other mages after bumping th ISO, but the colors in this shot were my favorite (the colors constantly changed). To further demonstrate the sharpness I have added a 100% crop. Sure it is not perfect but still impressive.

Strange clouds

Look more like waves than clouds. Anyone know what type of clouds these are?

Santa's hat

Actully I think Santa's hat is red, but this is still quite a well done light display.

East Coast Railway Foreman’s House #93

Our local history museum includes a small collection of buildings from the early days of Jacksonville beach (Beaches Museum History Museum and Park). It also includes a 1911 steam locomotive and tender, station, a chapel and several other buildings. It is a pretty nice collection and interesting way to spend an hour or so. Details of some of the other building are below.