The Art Silos

Possibly my last visit--now behind a locked fence and soon to be demolished.

Once the carcinogens are cleaned up this property will become condos and retail space.

An Empty River

Every January the city drains the downtown Riverwalk part of the San Antonio River for maintenance of the channel and to collect all of the folding chairs, silverware, plates, glassware, cellphones, keys and sunglasses lost (or thrown in) by tourists and restaurant patrons.
The Fiesta Mud King and Queen are also chosen at this time.

Fish and turtles etc are collected and relocated downstream while the aquatic birds have a feast on whatever remains in the isolated pools left behind.

The city crews were relocating introduced tilapia until the State of Texas reminded them of the rules that say this destructive non-native fish is to be gutted (or eaten), not released back into the river. And the city was also told that they have not been in compliance with the required wildlife handling permits, which cost $20.


The reflection of a downtown building caught my eye as I was trying to get a good angle on this egret fishing in the shallow pools.
Normally shore birds like this are never seen in the Riverwalk area but adapt nicely when there's a free lunch to be had.

Leather Statues

I'm glad these came out OK since I took them just after midnight on January 1, 2008. I guess that makes these my first photos of the New Year.

I had never seen statues covered entirely in leather before.
They had a tactile quality that made them a pleasure to hold.
Warm and inviting--certainly more natural than bronze.
They were about a foot tall.


Update: The camel came from Iraq and the horse is from Virginia. Thanks, Holly.

Missile Barrage!

One of my favorite fireworks as a kid, I caught this at a party we attended on New Year's Eve.
I used flash to freeze the smoke and light the ground somewhat (the flash was tilted up a few degrees to lessen the ground's light) and then a very long exposure to catch the streaks from all of the missiles that fire sequentially.

The Other Side

San Antonio River in Infrared.

Steel Wheel

A boxcar sitting alone on an industrial spur track south of downtown, behind the Blue Star and the art silos.


I've got a few more recent photos to show, then I suppose I'll do a 'leftovers from last year' post again.
During the next few weeks I'll be experimenting with new equipment and there's no guarantee that I'll go anywhere interesting or shoot anything worth showing, but hopefully there's enough material on file to carry us through the lean times.
Thanks in advance for your patience--I'm a little burned-out from the holidays and was the last person in the family to catch the cold that got re-gifted for Christmas a few times, so I'm still a little sick and there's a ton of household stuff to do, too.