Whenever I go to my office in Durham (NC, USA), I pass Duke Memorial United Methodist Church. This week I was sitting at the stop light at the right spot to take a picture of this Gothic Revival style church which was started in 1907 and completed in 1912. 
When I was driving home a block over from the way I drive to the office, I spotted the steeple of the same church through the trees and snapped another picture.
Friday when I was getting gas on the street very near where I live in Raleigh (NC, US), I spotted the two starlings perched on the cross at Bethlehem Baptist Church.
Saturday as I drove past the same church, I decided to pull in and take a full shot. I thought it was kind of interesting to contrast the different styles of churches. There isn't any information about this church online which is why I don't have any information to include about it.
Another church I photographed recently is Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church (also a school). This church and school is located at the end of the park in the neighborhood where I grew up and was founded in 1954 but was enlarged with a new church being dedicated in 1976, and a new parish office and chapel were dedicated in 1997. Part of the expansion also included a larger school.
I like the way it's nestled in the woods so it's almost as if it's part of the park. It's a very contemporary design and offers yet another contrast in church design. Although it has been expanded, what I shot through the trees is much as I remember it as a child. The very fact that it was so contemporary struck me when I was growing up because it was very different than the church I attended. Below is the church I went to when I was growing up. I thought I'd throw it in although I've shown shots of it before. 
Christ Church (above) is located in downtown Raleigh and was established in 1821 as the first Episcopal Church in Raleigh, NC (although this church was built later). The church building was designed by Richard Upjohn (founder of the American Institute of Architects) and is the oldest example of the early Gothic Revival style in the south. The building was designed in 1848, the sanctuary was consecrated in 1854, and the tower was completed in 1861.
I don't attend church anymore but I guess in a way this is still my church. I took my daughter there when she was growing up, and I think it's a very beautiful old church.To find other weekend snapshots you can go to the home of WS where participants post on Monday or you can browse for early birds on technorati 
weekend-snapshot.
Downtown Durham, NC used to be the home to big tobacco but that is now an historical fact, not a part of the contemporary city. It's interesting to me how, as part of revitalizing downtown Durham over the past few decades, they have preserved many of the tobacco factories and warehouses but use them in new ways.
The American Tobacco Campus has become an entertainment area as well as a place for businesses, restaurants, and the home of the new Durham Bulls athletic center. The part that I'm featuring here has water features running throughout it. I used another shot of the old train which sits in the middle of part of the water feature (below) for another post but never got around to posting other shots.
I live in Raleigh but the company I work for is in Durham and their offices are located in the historical warehouse district. As a matter of fact, part of their offices are in a restored tobacco warehouse.
I usually work from my home office but I was in Durham today. However, ironically I don't have any shots of the part of my employer's office that was a tobacco warehouse. 
All of these shots were taken when Bill and I went to Duke Gardens on labor day, and after that visited the American Tobacco Campus. My employer's offices are on the other part of the district 5 or 6 blocks away and we didn't go there. The lighting wasn't great for many of the water shots, but this gives an idea of the area.
It really is pretty staggering the sheer amount of water. I'm not doing it justice here but I've included some representative shots. 
I am no lover of tobacco having fought an addiction to cigarettes a long time before I stopped smoking in 2001. However, there is no denying that historically tobacco was an important part of North Carolina.
I like to see cities use historical buildings, even if they were something as mundane as tobacco warehouses, in creative ways. 
I don't like to see cities all start to look alike. There are certainly parts of the area where I live that I've seen that happen. When regional areas start to lose their individual character they lose their charm for me.
I have to admit that I never in a million years would have thought of preserving tobacco warehouses and factories as something desirable. However, once they started moving along with the reuse of this part of Durham's past, I thought it was pretty inspired what they did.
I'm taking even more photographs than ever. After two years with my new camera, I finally read the manual and I am finding that I can zoom in closer than I thought possible.
That's particularly useful for shy subjects like the man in the moon and humming birds. However, there is definitely a learning curve. I can get better results if I set everything manually but it's been trial and error with plenty of missed shots.
I am thrilled that the dogwoods are beginning to change colors. They are one of the earliest trees which change where I live. Then the maple trees and lastly the oaks with lots of others in between. So far the dogwoods are the only ones that are showing very much fall color.
I love this time of year, before the first hard frost, when the flowers are still abundant but changing leaves and cooler air give me a new lease on life. 
The birds are starting to change too. They puff out to that full look they get when the weather is cooling off. They also seem to be braver, taking longer to fly off when the sense my presence.
I used to write in a paper journal every morning but for some reason I stopped doing that. I almost never write in a journal anymore. When I've looked back on my journals the part I've found interesting were notes I made about the birds and garden. I would notice when the birds were getting up earlier and when they slept in. These patterns were apparent at different times of the year.
The emotional or personal issues of my life which I wrote in my journals didn't seem important if I glanced back on what I wrote. Those were the sections I wanted to discard, ripping them out of the journal and discarding as rubbish.
The old journal entries I was interested in years later were my notes on the birds behavior different times of year, what kept blooming past the first hard frost, what sprung up as a volunteer in a different part of my garden from where it was originally planted.
I think photography has replaced my journal in a way. I spend at least as much time taking pictures every day as I used to spend writing in spiral notebooks. If I want to look back on my life I can turn to my photo files.
photohunt
Weekend Snapshot