Once again, my vantage point on the rear deck of a cruise ship in the middle of the Mississippi River allows me to draw a contrast that otherwise would have been very difficult to make. As we sailed past a replica of a vintage Mississippi paddle wheeler, I noticed white clouds of smoke belching into the morning sky from nearby oil refineries. I waited until our ship carried me into a spot where I could juxtapose the antique smokestacks of the paddle wheeler to the billowing clouds of present day smoke, and made this image. The original paddlewheel boats on the Mississippi were an important part of the American economy in the 19th century. The present-day oil industry along the river has long since supplanted them.