One shot left on the compact flash card in my Nikon D1H as I walked back to the parking garage outside the race track in Charles Town, West Virginia.
That’s when the stairs and shadows caught my eye. It was a grab shot but the best ones often are.
Charles Town offers many photographic opportunities that extend beyond the town’s race tracks and slot machines.
Downtown is an eclectic collection of old and new. You often find street musicians playing while tourists comb the antique shops.
And Charles Town likes to remember the locals who have gone on and done good, like John Servis, owner of Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Smarty Jones.
But gambling, whether it be betting on horses and plunking tokens into the slot machines, is Charles Town’s big business and spurred a revival that brought the town back from hard times. Some may argue the morality of gambling but it’s big business in West Virginia and, without gambling, that parking garage wouldn’t have been there and I wouldn’t have shot the photo.