Rosie’s Backyard
A diverse mixture of popcorn flowers, coreopsis, California poppies, Bentham lupines, lacy phacelia, globe gilia and fiddlenecks spreads across the Gorman hills. An old line of burned fence posts crosses the panoramic frame, adding a quiet human trace to a landscape otherwise dominated by flowers, rolling terrain and open sky.
The title comes from my friend Rose—“Rosie”—who cared deeply about these hills and became one of the people defending the Gorman landscape. This broad hillside was essentially part of the country beyond her backyard, so the name stayed with the photograph.
What drew me to the scene was the extraordinary mixture of flowers spreading across the rolling terrain. Popcorn flowers, coreopsis, California poppies, Bentham lupines, lacy phacelia, globe gilia and fiddlenecks all occupied the same panoramic landscape.
The old burned fence posts added another layer to the composition. Rather than removing them visually, I used the line of posts as part of the landscape, allowing them to carry the eye across the wide 6×17 cm frame and through the fields of flowers.