SA Central Library

San Antonio's downtown main library is a 12 year old building that caused some controversy when new due to it's "Enchilada Red" paint.
We're all used to it now, and I have always loved the bold architecture and colors.
It comes from a long pedigree of outstanding buildings.
Link: SA Central Library

My Flickr photography club held a "Meetup & Shootup" there on Sunday March 3 to take advantage of a rare opportunity: For only the third time since it opened all of the outside terraces were open to the public. These are on the third through fifth floors and hold some surprises as well as views of downtown you can't get elsewhere, but dreary overcast skies meant that I didn't feel inspired to make much use of the latter.

Our club had already held a meeting on this particular terrace, and it is more enclosed than the others with less that is of interest to me.
We all shot this chair pushed against the wall like it was in 'time-out', but I was the only one to do so in infrared.

On the other side of the building was the best, most feature-rich rooftop area.
A square window caught my eye knowing that Matthew enjoys a nice straight and simple architectural feature.

The fountains out here don't get much lift, but the pools and waist-high channels are unique and interesting.

A hand-held flash freezes the action on this dismal afternoon with little available light.

I left my tripod and monopod in the car on purpose, trying to make myself work a little harder to get interesting photos. I also didn't want to be the only one in the club to be carrying a heavy load, but was surprised to find several members with three-legged help and one with a nice monopod permanently attached.
Some quick meter readings by the car told me that I could get away with IR and by extension anything else shutter-speed-wise if I was careful, and wanted to use flash more anyway.
I don't regret this decision.

Library Part 2 coming soon...