Blog Archives

a pointed look

“You. There. You – the one with the Sharpie. Please do not write on the wall!! Don’t make Me post a sign!”

(What I imagine Jesus is saying to whomever He’s glaring at.)

Mission Concepción
San Antonio, Texas

photographed 10.9.2026

lonely frida

This part of San Antonio had a lot more closed-down businesses than I remembered from my previous visits.

You know that I love to find places that look just like this, but I feel bad for whomever’s dream ended up this way. And Frida looks concerned, too.

San Antonio, Texas
photographed 10.5.2026

tourism

This boat is called a “tour barge”, in case you were wondering what the proper name is. There are a lot of them in San Antonio, barging ( ? ) tourists up and down the San Antonio River.

Don’t you worry about the no-life jackets situation: the river’s only about three feet deep. If the barge sank, it wouldn’t even be all the way under water.

Also, I don’t think anyone’s who’s prone to motion sickness needs to worry as the ride is pretty smooth. Want to know how I know that? Well, look at the driver or captain or barger (the terminology is unclear) and how he’s placed his water bottle right there on the narrow wooden ledge…

San Antonio, Texas
photographed 10.6.2026

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