Category Archives: Photography

iTexas Tour: Mission Windows


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We’re back on the San Antonio Mission Trail, piecing together the convergence of Christ and conquest these beautiful, ruined churches represent. Most of them are still working parish churches with a resident priest. In fact, there was a christening at the Espada mission when we came to see it. But these missions were not all about the things of God, as their soaring spires and intricate carvings might suggest. These were also forts with military garrisons on the frontier of what was then a new world. Just look at the windows. Always shuttered. Sometimes barred. Many mere holes in the stone walls, more for pointing a rifle out than letting light in. Such is the conflict of our souls – at war with the world, seeking a place of peace.

iTexas Tour: Mission Doors


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There are a group of Spanish missions, including the Alamo, from the late 17th and early 18th centuries that run along an old trade route, south from San Antonio. I remembered them from a field trip I took when I was a boy, colored with adventure the way so many childhood memories are. And still they speak a tale of adventure, these monuments to religion and fortresses of war. I did not notice the city that had grown up around them or their sometimes desolate condition. I chose instead to see the Spanish friars and Spanish soldiers sequestered there. The great oaken doors and shuttered windows and great stone battlements and soaring cathedrals. And ultimately the great commission they represent, in what was (and still is) a real and dangerous world.

Becoming an Airman


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My nephew, Airman Jonathan Womack, graduated from boot camp at Lackland AFB in San Antonio on May 6, 2011. He was one of 722 on that day, and they graduate that many every week – over 39,000 in a year. I told him in a letter I wrote him while he was in boot camp, “he may not realize it yet, but he is becoming the kind of man that other men honor.” Even my seven year old son thought that wasn’t such a bad thing.

iTexas Tour : Hallowed Ground


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We found much more than a monument to Sam Houston when we visited the place he was buried. We found a tableau of our history. Dating back over 150 years, we passed by the tombs of men who fought for Texas Independence, men who died during the Civil War, and many of the men, women and babies who died when a yellow fever epidemic swept through Texas in 1867. The sacrifice that made it possible for us to become Texas is all here, on this hallowed ground.

iTexas Tour : Sam Houston


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Maybe Sam Houston finally got his props when they built that 67′ statue of him on I-45 at Huntsville. He is our George Washington – Commander of the Texas Armies, President of the Texas Republic, and Senator and Governor of the State of Texas. He was also a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. Not an honorary citizen, but an actual member of the tribe who took a Cherokee woman named Tiana as his second wife. Heck, he’s what John Wayne wanted to be when he grew up.

iTexas Tour : Battleship Texas


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This is an old boat – almost 100 years old. It has served in two World Wars, and participated in the battles on D-Day, at Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Guadalcanal. It was by far my son’s favorite destination on our Texas Tour. But what caught my attention most was the claustrophobia below deck – the low ceilings and bunk beds chained to the roof and walls wherever there is room. God bless the 1700 men who sailed on each of her missions in defense of our country.

iTexas Tour : San Jacinto


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Outnumbered. Do or die. With a dash of luck for good measure. This is the kind of stuff that makes you a Texan. The Battle of San Jacinto is our Waterloo, our Gettysburg. Not just the decisive battle that birthed the Republic of Texas, but decisive for our adopted nation and the nations of the world. Remember the Alamo. Remember Goliad. Remember San Jacinto.

iTexas Tour : Galveston


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This is the first in a series of photographs from our family’s Texas History Tour. I know. I know. What kind of nerd takes his family on a history vacation? Me, apparently. On the first leg of the tour, we went down to the coast through Freeport, drove on the beach, and then took the coast road into Galveston. If it had been the Bahamas, the kids wouldn’t have been more excited.

iPhone Photos


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When the only camera you have is your iPhone, still take the picture. You might get lucky. Add a filter or two or not, and voila – iPhone art. Some of these filters were applied right on my phone, some on my computer. They’re all too grainy, but they each have a beauty all their own, too.

Country Road


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I’m a city boy. Raised with 5 million close friend, no cows. With 8 lane freeways, no dirt roads. But there is something about driving down a country road that makes me feel more at home than having a WalMart and Chili’s around the corner. There’s a song there somewhere. Can you hear it? Floating on the breeze like a memory that you can’t have really had growing up in the city.