A giant crane poised over a Barstow junkyard is wreathed in contrails from morning jets flying out of LA or Las Vegas. The crane is a wrecker's tool, used to create new wealth out of old goods. Barstow stands upon the remnants of Route US 66—the first highway to link Chicago to California. If there is an emblem to symbolize the end of the era that created the need for a Route 66, it could be right here. I made this image because the two most important compositional elements were already in place for me -- the diagonal crane and a diagonal jet contrail dissolving in the sky. All I had to do was to move my camera into a position where the contrail and crane would merge in the sky – a linkage of symbols for the air age and industrial age. I used my spot meter to expose for the contrail, allowing the crane and the junkyard below it to become an abstract silhouette. A crowning touch was offered the other horizontal contrail at left. It flows into the diagonal contrail and crane, and its horizontal successor emerges from the other side as a long black bar on a junked truck. As a result, this image has two strong rhythmic repetitions within it – the primary diagonal relationship, and a secondary horizontal relationship.