remember
Remember? (It’s the Alamo.)
This was another self-assigned challenge: to get a photo of the Alamo that didn’t look like the other one billion photos that we’ve all seen. (Part Two of the challenge was to get it without a bunch of people in the shot – going at night when it’s closed made that part pretty easy.)
San Antonio, Texas
photographed 10.7.2026
hemisfair
My self-assignment for this image was to see how small a slice of the Tower of the Americas I could get while still conveying what it was.
But you may be wondering what this even is. Good thing I have some facts to share:
- It’s an observation tower that was built for the 1968 San Antonio HemisFair.
- Construction started in 1966.
- O’Neil Ford, who lived and worked in San Antonio was the architect.
- The top house, containing observation decks and a restaurant, was built at ground level and then hoisted to the top of the concrete shaft, inch by inch, using twenty-four steel lifting rods. This process took twenty days.
- The fastest recorded time up the tower’s 952 steps is 5 minutes 18 seconds on January 29, 1981, by Tommy Johnson.
- Or you could take the elevator.
San Antonio, Texas
photographed 10.5.2026
four phone booths
Sometimes I think having a “favorite” photo is sort of weird, like having a “favorite” son or daughter. (Note: I only have one kid so I really don’t even know why I think about it in terms that are not part of my own lived experience.)
But, right now, this is my favorite photo.
I made a single image of these phone booths and it…just worked. Sometimes the Gods of Photography are kind.
San Antonio, Texas
photographed 10.7.2026
pink water
I hate lugging a tripod around. There. I said it.
However, if I had had one that night I could have gotten a more interesting photo of this fountain.
Is there a lesson here? Yes.
Have I learned this lesson? Absolutely not.
San Antonio, Texas
photographed 10.5.2026
ninety eight thousand sunrises
I went to this mission the other morning; almost no one else was there, which was exactly the right number of people to be around.
This church was originally founded in East Texas by Spanish friars 1711. It was relocated to its current site in 1731 and still serves as an active parish. The church building dates from approximately 1755 – it’s hosted over 98,000 sunrises so far.
And look! Here are some more facts:
- On October 28, 1835, Mexican troops and Texian insurgents fought the Battle of Concepción here, making it the first major engagement of the Texas Revolution. (The battle lasted 30 minutes.) (The Battle of the Alamo began seven weeks later. It lasted 13 days.)
- The western entrance to the church is aligned to the sunset in such a way that an “annual double solar illumination event” occurs every year on or around August 15, the feast day of the Assumption of Mary. (The ADSIE alignment is when the setting sunlight passes through two windows of the church and align on the altar.)
Mission Concepción
San Antonio, Texas
photographed 10.9.2026
