Welcome to a strange, electric landscape

Towers of power
Shanghai, China
May 2012

I'd like to wrap up this week's exploration of parallelism* with a shot that almost never was. We were in a Buick minivan on the way from Shanghai's airport to our hotel. Although the sun had been blazing when our plane landed, the sky was now a smog-choked shade of green. Yum!

Between the bouncing ride, horrid light conditions and a full dose of jet lag-induced fatigue, I'm thinking that taking the camera out for a shoot through the soot-stained windows wasn't my finest hour as a photographer. But there was no way I could nap in this traffic - turn signals? Who needs 'em! - so I shot some Hail Mary pictures, anyway, to distract myself.

Hydro towers are the kind of post-apocalyptic/industrial relics that pull my eye in. They're otherworldly, built-to-a-purpose structures that seem to take on an even more overwhelming tone when they're bunched together. I didn't have much choice insofar as composition was concerned - all I could do was hope the muddy light and vehicular motion didn't blur the heck out of the shot - but I rather liked this one's ability to tell the story of that particular day, in that particular place.

I'm willing to bet I've got more tower shoots in my future. But the circumstances will never align quite the way they did on this murky day in May.

Your turn: Ever shoot an ordinary subject in an extraordinary place or circumstance?

* Thematic's been exploring parallelism all week, and there's still time to share yours - just head here. Tonight brings a new theme, weathered and worn. Tune in at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.