Arch Nemesis

Somewhere in Beowulf there is a line that says, paraphrasing here:  Under god's arches are we all.  In a high school literature class I parodied this line using a McDonald's arch symbol and having a character state: "Under god's golden arches are we all."  Well...these arches are no longer golden.  No longer do they symbolize a buzzing hive of hunger-inducing sights and smells.  This particular McDonalds had just been ousted for the expansion of the campus Student Success Center.  I didn't go in here alot when I took photography classes in the art building, but occasionally the smell of warm grease was enough to assuage my hunger.  Alas, no more.

Coley's, South Sixth Street

I don't think I've captured it yet.  There is something to Coley's...the slightly arcing, lighted sign with its wavelike form and its sense of direction.  Impelling casual passersby to follow its vector and continue southward up Sixth street, then to cross the dark chasm of the alley and onward past the bike shop.  There is something there in the skeletal form of the lights, and the sudden drop into a dark alleyway, and the dark street beneath absorbing the stray light pooled on the sidewalk.  I've stood here on half a dozen nights and tried to capture and render this scene in the appropriate way...but I still don't think I'm there yet.  This is Coley's on a warm spring evening.

Gerbes Panoramic

A Gerbes panoramic on a rainy night. 

Star No. 9

It was a dark and stormy night...the manhole cover glinted seductively in the rays of a distant streetlight. 

The corner of Tigertown

I've explored this area before, by day and by night.  But on a cool, rainy night in April it seemed even more expressive than usual.  Certainly deserving of further study.  At one time this block of buildings was called Tigertown...now it is occupied by an auto repair shop, a used car dealer, a couple bars and a strip club.  Still a colorful place, despite being somewhat down at the heels.  This is the used car dealership on the strange, difficult to turn left at corner of 7th, Rangeline and the Business Loop.  A triple corner, if you will.  By day I think this place is bright yellow.

Rangeline Tattoo

A tattoo shop on a rainy spring evening.  Rain, a novelty after a year of drought, is occasion enough to go out and photograph.  Spring only compounds the impetus.  I've started shooting outside of downtown Columbia, now and then.  It seems I find more unvarnished scenes, such as this one.  The color version of this image is over on my color blog. 

Corner Camera

Photographed with a very questionable FM-2 at the corner of a poetically empty alleyway on a night whose weather and details I can no longer recall.  This might still be there, but it has probably been painted over since then.

Five Stars

I've always been fascinated by manhole covers, especially the older ones with ornate, intricate, esoteric designs.  At night, obliquely illuminated by a distant streetlight, they radiate a shadowy, metallic mesmerism.