Tiger Pawn on a Rainy Night

Tiger Pawn on a rainy night, down on the business loop.  It lacks some of the effortless grace of an older neon display, but is somehow fitting for a pawn shop at the east end of the loop.

Travelier Motel, Macon

The Travelier Motel, in Macon Missouri.  This neon lacks some of the poetry of the Noll Motel sign, but it makes up for it with a uniquely vintage color palate.  This motel sits near the junction of highway 63 and highway 36. 

Noll Motel, Moberly

The neon outside the Noll Motel, in Moberly, Missouri.  Located at the junction of highway 63 and the venerable old route 24, the Noll's neon sign has been lit since at least the early 50s.  I have a feeling that this post will be the first of several Missouri neon signs.

Salem Cemetery

I found this uniquely crafted tombstone in the cemetery behind Salem Presbyterian Church, in Randolph County, Missouri.  I was intrigued by the shape, the color of the stone, and the hand-carved lettering.  This is probably one of the oldest stones I've come across in a Missouri cemetery...I usually photograph in the cemetery after spending some time photographing the church and environs for my documentary project on the rural churches of Missouri. 

Hello, Tucumcari!

Last night my night photography blog decided it had endured enough of this summer's exorbitant heat and drought, and packed its bags for a week or two of the relatively cool, beer-friendly environs of Milwaukee.  In some sort of URL solidarity, my Missouri blog today decided that it, too, needed to leave town for a few posts.  Strangely enough, it is on its way to Tucumcari, New Mexico.  Coincidentally, I was out in Tucumcari a couple summers ago for a very-belated honeymoon trip to Santa Fe and Taos.  For me, driving into Tucumcari from the high plains of west Texas and eastern New Mexico is like stumbling off the street into an extremely fascinating visual/historical/creative/photographic garden of wonders and immediately being offered a smorgasbord meal and a chilled microwbrew.  I mean it is full of the kind of photographic offerings that a person such as myself dreams of encountering.  So let's all take a hiatus from the occasionally predictable surroundings of central Missouri and spend a few days in Tucumcari.  I think the change will do us all a bit of good.  The image above is somewhere on Main Street, a block or two off of Route 66.  The repetition of the square and rectangle, along with the muted color palette, are what drew me to this scene.

Tatts on Tenth

The tattoo parlor on south Tenth Street, taken while leading one of my Access Arts photography classes on a night photo session in downtown Columbia.

Broadway Diner Minimalism

For some reason, warm nights in spring and summer always inspire my appreciation for minimalism.  Here it is at work on the Broadway Diner, a few weeks ago during a night photo outing with one of my Access Arts photography classes.