Underneath a parking lot in Ottumwa, Iowa

Yes, this place was literally located beneath a parking garage in Ottumwa, Iowa.  Not Missouri, I know.  But I was on a road trip up to West Branch to see a David Plowden show, and was amazed to find this neon-bedecked diner crouching in the shadow of a downtown parking structure.  I assume the lot had been built up around and over the canteen.  Its lunches must be notable, to eschew demolition and preserve a most unlikely piece of commercial real estate in Ottumwa.

Graveyard and trees

The juxtaposition of the brightly-colored plastic flowers and the bleak, November day was the hook that compelled me to compose this image, but it is the fascinating contortions of the trees along the fence-row that turned out to be my favorite element in the composition.   Something about it reminds me of a Thomas Hardy novel...

Missouri River Hills in November

A moundlike hill overlooking the Missouri River, south of Rocheport.  This was around sunset on an exceptionally pleasant day in late November.

Front yard maple

The maple tree in my front yard, on a dark afternoon in early November.

My Tomato Harvest, 2011

My tomato crop at its most bounteous, picked in mid October.  Despite the drought, and the heat, and various four-legged pilferers, the harvest wasn't bad. 

Williamsburg, MO

We were driving back from Graham Cave a couple summers ago, on our way to a stop at Crane's Country store in Williamsburg, when I found this old building and knew that it must be photographed.  The far-stretching cornfields and blue Missouri sky were the ideal context for such a perfect example of midwestern, roadside architecture. 

Autumn is here

This was Stewart Park late last fall.  This autumn seems to be arriving a bit earlier, but after the summer we have had in Missouri, who isn't ready for it? 

Blind Boone House and Cone

The Powhatan Restaurant, Pocahontas, Illinois

The Powhatan Restaurant, just after having had supper there.  Located in the intriguingly named town of Pocahontas, Illinois, on old highway 40, I've always been curious about this place as we have driven by on our way to Indiana.  I was not disappointed.  It's about 30 minutes east of St. Louis, and still retains the charm of a vintage, highway eatery.  Sorry, but I just had to get out of Missouri for this post.

Red Stripe, Columbia Alleyway

A summer's night on the quadrangle

I took my Access Arts photography class out for a night photo outing last week, wandering around downtown and the MU campus.  A swelteringly hot night, as seems to be the pattern right now in Missouri, but we found a few interesting things to photograph.  This is an image of the MU quadrangle, bathed in the pink, sodium vapor light that is now the ubiquitous color temperature for most night photography.

Concord Church of Christ, Macon County

A beautifully painted wall lined with wooden chairs in Concord Church of Christ, rural Macon county.  I don't think this particular hue of green paint exists anymore.  Or perhaps it has lost its cachet.  This is another image in the Missouri Rural Church series.

St. Raphael Catholic Church, Chariton County

Late afternoon sun on St. Raphael Catholic Church, near Indian Grove in Chariton County.  This is one of the images in my continuing Missouri Rural Church project, an effort to photographically document the rural churches of central and northern Missouri.

A screen door in Dewitt

The title of the post tells it all...or most of it.  I found this advertisement painted on the screen door of an old general store in Dewitt, Missouri, just north of the Missouri River.  At the time I was there, none of the storefronts downtown were in business anymore, and the place had the lonely, alluring feel of an abandoned ghost town somewhere in the American West.  While photographing, a woman drove up and told me some of the history of the town, including a massacre of Mormons that took place on a hill just outside of town.  I didn't go look at the place that she mentioned, but I did stay long enough to photograph an old gas station and a billboard.  Then I continued along 24 highway.

Door Opener, Business Loop, Columbia

Another hidden detail found during this morning's shoot on the business loop.

Mystery on the Loop

I got up early this morning to photograph on Columbia's old business loop, before traffic got heavy.  I'm particularly interested in a block of buildings just west of Rangeline.  Clover's Market used to anchor the west end of this strip of businesses, in a now-abandoned building.  While trying to photograph some details, I found this graphic of a native American, in between the windows of a bar.  What it is or why it is there, I do not know. 

Columbia Skyline, early summer

Missouri Pasture

A sleepy pasture in early summertime, Saline County, Missouri.

Green Ridge in the 1930s--My Great Grandfather's Gas Station

I think the title says it all...or most of it.  This is an old, family photography of Green Ridge, Missouri in the early 1930s.  Out if front of the service station is my great-grandfather, William Fine Kendrick.  I guess by this point in the depression, farming was just not paying any longer, so he went into the gasoline business.  I don't think the building is there anymore...pity, as service stations no longer possess this much style or grace. 

Bella Hess, Ninth Street

An old storefront sign was exposed when the ninth street strollway was redone a few years ago.  Evidently, a store called Bella Hess once occupied a spot on ninth street where Columbia Photo now resides.  I was intrigued not only by the vintage appeal of the antique signage, but by the pale yellow on turquoise color scheme. 

Flowers in the Ozarks

Somewhere down in the Ozarks on one of Oliver Schuchard's photography classes through the Extension Department. 

The Bull Pen Cafe at night

I was only lucky, or smart enough, to have eaten here twice before they closed.  I had a roommate who ate a brain sandwich here for breakfast one snowy morning in January.  I preferred the biscuits.  I took this one poignantly atmospheric fall evening in October.

Ozarks in spring

Summer in Columbia

Summer.  That should be all I need to say.  This was taken in a neighborhood a couple blocks away from my old house on Glenwood Ave.   Just beyond the top of the fence a hammock is visible in the backyard, beckoning, waiting, inviting.

Iris in the a.m.

Winter Bird

Found in a neighbor's yard, between snows this winter.   It resembles a sapsucker or woodpecker...but I'm no expert.

Cottonwood, Van Meter State Park

A friend of mine told me that native Americans used to hang weights on the lower branches of young trees in order to get them to point in a certain direction.  This cottonwood tree, growing out in the wetlands north of Van Meter State Park, is probably just old enough that it could have been taught to point.  But to what was it pointing?  A tree becomes a symbol and mystery.  The world becomes a little more interesting when viewed this way.

Redbud, Spring 2010

This was last spring, sometime in mid-April.  I was hoping that we would be close to this stage of spring by this time, but it looks like we are going to be pulled back into winter for a few days. 

Lay's Motor Lodge, Kingdom City

Lay's Motor Lodge, an abandoned motel located on old highway 40 in Kingdom City.  A sign at the edge of the parking lot advertises "Glass Heat Electric Heating" in every room.  I don't know what that is, but it apparently could not forestall the eventual demise of the motel. 

Centralia Anchor Fest, Summer 2010

 

Three images taken at the Centralia Anchor Fest, last summer.  A warm, sultry night when strange things were just yearning to be photographed.  Thanks to Matt for letting me borrow his camera that evening.

February Thaw, Columbia

A single oak leaf is suspended on the rock basin of a Boone County creek.  This photograph is a tonal and poetic counterpoint to the February Frost photo a couple posts back.  Taken on County House Creek, a few blocks from my house, during a warmish February day when most of the snow that fell on Columbia only weeks before was melting to fatten the local creeks.

Van Meter State Park

Another warm season photo, to keep at bay the dispiriting influence of February's leaden skies.  This was taken during an October camping trip at Van Meter State Park, north of Marshall.  The park has done a significant amount of work putting in an elevated boardwalk around and through the Missouri River wetlands.  It is a profoundly beautiful place to find yourself on a foggy morning in late October.

Hiking at Gans Creek

A summertime image to break the gray monotony of mid-February.  I found this serendipitous scene while hiking at Gans Creek wild area with Kevin Dingman, a couple summers ago.

Article about my Missouri rural church project

February 11, 2011

Stephen Bybee's Entropy-Slowing Photography

"It is a simple fact that entropy is the path that all things must follow, whether living or dead, animate or inanimate, consciously aware or blissfully oblivious. It is also a fact that us pesky humans consistently strive to slow or hurry the process of entropy, the choice being dependent on an advantage perceived by a given group at a given time. But regardless of the speed or the level of humanoid stubbornness/complicity, entropy will see its natural task fulfilled, turning order to disorder, with a neutral indifference that is both brutal and benign."
 Read more:  http://www.crickettoes.com

 The talented writer and blogger Mary Dally-Muenzmaier has been gracious enough to post an article about my Missouri Church Documentary series on her art and culture blog, Crickettoes.com.  Take a look at the rest of the article, and Mary's blog, at www.crickettoes.com  Thanks Mary!

Febraury Frost

Frost detail on the garage window, on a very cold morning in early February.

Arrowhead Motel Neon, Business Loop, Columbia

The Arrow Head Motel neon sign, down on the east end of the business loop, in Columbia.  I photographed the sign back in 1999, when the owners were still switching on the neon every night.  I haven't seen it on in over three years. 

Utility Pole in Blizzard

A street light on Broadway, during last night's blizzard in Columbia.  I couldn't free my car from the mound of snow in which it was entombed, so I walked down Broadway for an hour or two, taking a few shots and speaking words of commiseration with nocturnal snow shovelers.

Ore Scale, Missouri Mines Complex

A beautifully patinaed ore scale inside one of the abandoned buildings at the Missouri Mines Complex, an old lead mining district in southern Missouri. 

Winter trees from the Rocheport bluffs

I hiked out to the blufftops above Rocheport last week to see if I could find a view similar to the one I found there last April.  Even though I found the same spot, and photographed the same vista, without the pale green of early spring and the warm light of sunrise, it just wasn't as magic.  So I started working with the screen of oaks and hickories that I at first mistook for an impediment, and I decided that given the flat light of the winter morning, this image wasn't too bad.  It has a lot more to do with the repetition of the tree form, and the resulting variations and permutations thereof, than it has to do with color.  I'll post the image from last spring next time, to give you a taste of this location in the glorious fecundity of early spring.

Cooper's Landing, Missouri River, Boone County

Hillary Scott plays on the porch at Cooper's Landing, a music/sunset/boat landing/thai food/cheap beer venue on the Missouri River in the wilds of southern Boone County.

High Point

Old garage, High Point, Missouri.  Across the highway from this garage are a few very well preserved brick buildings, one of which houses a general store.  Legend has it that not too far from High Point are the remains of a very old, very deep coal mine.  It's hard to believe that this part of Missouri was once home to a thriving coal industry.

Church Interior, Carroll County

A friend and I explored this church while driving north on highway 65, through Carroll County.  The dust on the pews is due not just to neglect, but also to a rock quarry located just behind the church.  The church building and surround trees were the last outpost of non-quarry between the highway and the quarry itself. 

Sedalia

I found this image while walking the streets of Sedalia, near the railroad tracks on the north side of town.  The far north side of town used to be Sedalia's red light district, back in the day of cattle drives and a burgeoning ragtime music scene.  No less than Scott Joplin got his start playing piano in some of early Sedalia's saloons and clubs.  The name America seemed appropriate because of the resemblance, if you use your imagination, to an American flag...red brick surround a blue field, pitted with characters.  And what state could be more American than Kentucky?  Bourbon, bluegrass, and coal mining.