Landscape photography is often thought to be a slow and contemplative pursuit. But when the light changes quickly, it becomes an explosion of furious activity as the photographer moves from composition to composition.

Mono Lake, near Lee Vining in California's Owens Valley, is one of my eastern Sierra favorites. Its South Tufa is an internationally known landscape icon. I have photographed there in the summer heat and in snowy zero degree temperatures. In late October 2010, I was privileged to shoot the sunrise there during the most dramatic light I have seen in the past 5 years.

This sequence is the pick of images taken in less than 10 minutes from start to finish, with peak light lasting just a fraction of that time. It was a rainy morning and the clouds opened up just long enough to give us a spectacular light show. Soon after the last image, the color disappeared as the gray clouds closed back in.

Sometimes you just luck into an amazing situation, and better yet, you're prepared to do something about it. A photographer friend was there for the first time, and after it was all over I told her, "just so you know, that doesn't happen every time you come here."

Walking back to the car, we passed people going down to the South Tufa, never realizing that they had missed the best 10 minutes of photography I have ever experienced there.