A St. Augustine Thanksgiving

The Conquistadors first brought disease and religion to the native people of northeast Florida. The British followed suit with even more pestilence and "Redcoat" rule. The United States brought a Super Walmart. Finally, ChadSorianoPhotoBlog arrived to this east coast community of St. Augustine, Florida with meat. Lots of carne. Raw muscle from almost every meat group for a holiday Thanksgiving.



Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon landed his trade ships near the same shores of our beach house rental. He journeyed long and far in search of gold and new land. My family had sandy pursuits and St. Augustine tourist traps.



The Spaniards had their own weapon of mass destruction to ward off hostile invaders at the Castillo de San Marcos. More potent than gunpowder was hormonal rage complete with Gucci purse and Coach sandals.



We trekked into the Old City via St. George street with eyes wide open. From the oldest wooden schoolhouse to the plethora of "Tourist Trains" encapsulated by Spanish Colonial architecture. I soon discovered the former Spanish buildings now housed a Kilwin's of St. Augustine with my favorite toasted coconut ice cream.



Off to Anastasia Island to see the St. Augustine Lighthouse with it's spectacular topside view. 219 steps later, we made it to the top.



With a quick view of the bay and the inner workings of the Fresnel lens, we descended the 219 steps again in search of lunch. I Googled "fried chicken" which pointed me in the direction of an Anastasia legend called O'Steen's Restaurant.



I ordered the signature Fried Chicken while my family ordered the Fried Catfish, Clams, Liver and Gizzards. Fantastic describes the experience. Topped off with their special "Datil" cocktail sauce and accompanied with their seasoned hush puppies, O'Steen's Restaurant is definitely on my "must do" list while in St. Augustine.



Christmas in November came upon us with ice skating and sledding along with an Elf Village with no elves at the St. Augustine Amphitheater. My kids blasted through the overpriced carnival games and their cousin ice skated for the very first time at the WinterWonderland.



Thanksgiving is behind us with more meat filled photos approaching the New Year. I used a Canon EOS 1D Mark IV with an EF 35mm f/2, EF 50mm f/1.2L and EF 24-105mm f/4L IS lens.



You can view more pictures and videos in my St. Augustine Thanksgiving 2010 Gallery.

Philip Bloom Florida Meetup !

Fellow HD Dslr shooters gathered together at Pass-A-Grille Beach tonight shooting sunset time lapses with cinematographer Philip Bloom. I could only describe the Philip Bloom Florida Meetup as a HD Dslr circus. All the cameras were lined up along the beach of Pass-A-Grille in St. Petersburg, Florida capturing the eloquent sunset.



Philip Bloom is in town for the Filmmaker's Intensive Workshop, a two week training in the discipline of film making. The HD Dslr community of the Tampa Bay area welcomes this influx of cinematic culture with open arms!



Philip Bloom finally meets Chad Soriano PhotoBlog. I also met a handful of wonderful people who shared the same passion for photography and video including fellow blogger from GetawayMoments. He is a big fan of sunset time lapses. The sunset soon turned into lightning charged clouds that gave us a spectacular show and a small sense of fright!



This was another successful Philip Bloom Meetup! The Tampa Bay area HD Dslr community thanks you for your wonderful visit to sunny Florida.
You can see more photos in the Philip Bloom Florida Meetup 2010 Gallery.



My fellow blogger Getawaymoments posted this video of the event while I was snapping away pictures of the mayhem. Watch the sunset timelapse on his blog, you will not be disappointed.



I had the pleasure of meeting another east coast blogger from DSLRHD.com and he captured video of the event also. It was very nice to meet you Adriel and Juliana. Our HD Dslr blogging minds will meet again...

Congratulations Class of 2010!

Father Bill could not have said it better. Keep your family,faith and dreams by your side. Smart words for young minds. The world is a scary place, especially High School and you will need all the help you can get.



Congratulations Class of 2010 and to my first niece, Olivia. You have overcome many challenges in your life and your entire family is very proud of your achievements. The day you were born I saw you in your mother's arms and I already knew you were a very special girl.



You can view more photos in the Graduation Ceremony Gallery. The gallery was shot with the Canon EOS 1D Mark IV,EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L and the EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L version 1.

Mark and Gabby Visit Florida !

I don't think my longtime family friends from Los Angeles, California spend too much time in the sun. It has been at least 6 years since the last time they visited the Sunshine State of Florida.



To celebrate their arrival we brought them to where the sun was the most intense, the beach. I did not choose any regular beach, I chose one of our frequently visited watering holes in Sarasota, FL. Lido Beach is a rare jewel on the west coast of Florida. Powdery fine sand mixed with nearby parking and a collection of shops and restaurants called St. Armand's Circle.



Lido Beach is the jewel of the Florida coast and Kilwin's Chocolate and Ice Cream is the jewel of St. Armand's Circle. Their toasted coconut ice cream in a homemade waffle cone is well worth the trip from California.



Hopefully, it will be sooner than six years until Mark and Gabby visit Florida again. Until then, I can only PhotoBlog my many scoops of Kilwin's ice cream all the way to Los Angeles.