Laddonia in the sun

Laddonia, Missouri.  North and east of Columbia in Audrain county.  I've posted a couple images from this town on the blog before, but both were in color and taken from somewhere down the street.  This one is one of my earliest images from Laddonia, but it is also in keeping with my recently rediscovered fascination with panoramic images of small town main streets.  This image epitomizes my quest.  From locals I garnered that the building in the middle was once a bank.  It provides a nice, visual fulcrum to the rest of the mass of this downtown block of buildings.  And the late afternoon sunlight raking across the surfaces was more than I could pass up.  I haven't been back to photograph in Laddonia since 2010, but I have a feeling it hasn't changed much.  And I mean that in the best way.

Ottumwa, revisited...

I posted a different version of this strange, nearly subterranean eatery a couple years ago, right after an early winter trip to Iowa.  Now I'd like to revisit the Canteen, using a different image.  This place has since been featured in the New York Times and several prominent food blogs...ostensibly for its loose meat sandwiches, but I prefer to think that its unique location has something to do with its selection as well.  This was taken after a light snowfall, just before closing time.  As winter begins to creep into Columbia, I find myself gravitating towards warm, comforting images such as this.

Maple

A fallen maple leaf in Stewart Park.  It brings to mind what Blake said about seeing "the universe in a grain of sand," but in this instance it was like discovering the fleeting essence of an entire autumn abbreviated and crystallized in one wayward leaf. 

Clifton Hill, Missouri

According to a local who wandered by while I was out in front photographing, this was the original lumber yard building.  Now you'll notice that this photograph is not in color, so the parameters of the blog have to be stretched a little bit.  Now, I believe, it is going to be Missouri in Color and Black and White.  Located on the main road in Clifton Hill, just a few feet from the railroad tracks.  A beautiful, primordial, midwestern town with nothing appearing to have been altered in a very long time.  Notice the faded Chief Paints mascot in the top window of the front door, and the many and varied shades of rust and graceful decay.