35mm, f/5, 1/800 sec, ISO 200
Despite having lived in Houston continuously for 18 years and coming back frequently since begining college, I’ve never really known much about the city. Since getting into photography and talking to other photographs over on flickr, especially in the DeleteMe Uncensored group, I’ve begun to think about my cities a lot- both Boston and Houston. Seeing as how Boston is absolutely tiny and mass transit gets you anywhere you need to go, it hasn’t been too difficult to explore.
Houston’s a different beast. It’s huge. Everything’s spread out and you have to have a car to get around. It’s also very hot and tiring to explore. As such, I’ve been putting together a list of places to go see and shoot in Houston. At current, it has a lot of skyscrapers and stereotypical Houston photographer locations, but I expect to be continuously adding more places to it.
Anyways, I went out yesterday for the first time to knock a couple places off the list, and I’ll be uploading shots from the outing over the next couple days.
This particular photograph is of the entrance to the Chapel of St. Basil on the University of St.Thomas campus. I found the geometry of the chapel to be just spectacular. The building’s a white cube topped with a golden sphere, all bisected with a black granite plane. The inside of the chapel was quite serene as well. With the exception of the 14th century Gothic crucifix hanging over the impala granite altar, there were very few adornments, all of which were very subtle. I’d have photographs of it all, but as luck would have it, Mass began just as I entered the chapel.
The entrance of the Chapel of St. Basil is on one of cube’s faces. As you can see in images in google searches, the wall has a seam from which the wall pulls away from, creating a small triangular entrance. It simply just beckons you in. I’ll have to go back another time to shoot the inside.