One Bloom, Changing Skies

In 2006, an intensely localized wildflower bloom appeared on the northern edge of central Antelope Valley during an otherwise difficult spring season. California poppies, goldfields and gray rabbitbrush covered one concentrated area while much of the surrounding landscape showed little comparable bloom.

The location was first photographed beneath a sunny, unusually cold and windy sky. A few days later, rapidly changing weather transformed the same flowers and terrain as clouds built across the valley and the light shifted dramatically.

The flowers remained the same. The weather did not. Together, these photographs show how quickly light, cloud and atmosphere can transform a single landscape and produce results very different from those originally anticipated.