Image and Visual Rhetoric

 
  http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/09/10/texas.fires/index.html?hpt=us_c2

The city's skyscrapers look small and vulnerable against the plumes of smoke from the raging fire.  Even though the smoke is miles away from the city, it feels like an imminent danger, looming over the horizon. The plumes of smoke are highest at the right side of the photo, sloping downwards towards the city, as if it traveling towards the city, threatening the city's peaceful security.  Just the sheer size of smoke hints at the magnitude of the fire.  The contrast between the peaceful city and the great puffs of smoke symbolizes how the fire is disturbing the peace everywhere in Texas.