Maple Tree on East Parkway

Stephen Bybee
Columbia, MO
November, 2011

Now that we have come to the end of another long, hot summer in Columbia, one’s mind turns towards thoughts of Fall and the cool, pleasant rains of October and November. This maple tree on Columbia’s East Parkway is a tree I have photographed in many seasons and across many years. It has served as a waymarker on my path home at night, and a visual barometer for the changing of the seasons. This image was taken late in the Fall of 2011, near the tail end of November, when only the most determined trees still retain a few of their leaves. A light rain had fallen, imparting an almost topographical quality to the surface of the street where a few of the tree’s leaves lay within the illuminating influence of the streetlamp.