Picture A Day Challenge for 12/17/07

I left home this morning at dawn, when the sun wasn't up quite yet, but the sky was lightening up. Those are the times I hate driving in for two reasons. First, the sun will be in my eyes below the sun visor and I'll be driving with all the other sun-blinded folks. Second, there are some wonderful photo opportunities when the light is that color and I can't stop to shoot them. Even after the sun came up, as I approached my parking lot, the light was a beautiful color and I got this shot. Main Street, San Antonio. What caught my eye was the Texas flag at the courthouse, but the accidental composition with the "Main Street" sign in the foreground was just too perfect. How many courthouses in America are on Main Street? And the color was just perfect, too. The reddish cast is not just the red sandstone of the building. The sun was helping.



And when I got to my parking place, I could see the shadow of the Tower of the Americas on the Tower Life Building and in the beautiful golden glow of the morning, had to capture it. The Tower Life Building is listed in the National Register of Historic Sites. I found this wonderfully whimsical tour of the building looking for information to share with you. by Walt Lockley.


I can understand his relationship with the building. I have a similar one myself. The building I work in is attached to Tower-Life by a parking garage. A very OLD parking garage! Whenever I see an image of the skyline, I can find the building and get a swell of pride knowing that my office is right there (imagine me pointing near the bottom of the Tower). What's really cool to me is that even as I sit here writing this, the building is at my back, just outside my window. I can look out my window any time and the building is there. Even if it's so foggy and misty that you can't see the top, you can still see the building...right there. Like a sentinel of the city, guarding my own back, keeping me company most days and a few nights.