Reflecting Bells

Some landscape scenes just make a person wonder, “Did this come about by random processes or did God create and design this just for our enjoyment?”

The Maroon Bells near Aspen Colorado may certainly evoke such a thought. Majestic in size and elevation, their beautiful symmetry and unusual form seem to defy random processes of erosion. These peaks are iconic to the Colorado Rocky Mountains and are probably the single most photographed location. The view shown here is almost cliché, it’s been photographed so many times from this exact location, but this is nevertheless a classic photo and one which people certainly enjoy.

Thus, in late June of 2018, while visiting this area to climb some summits not too far away, we spent some time early in the morning as the first bus-loads of tourists began to arrive, taking some photos to add to our collection. Not only must early morning shots deal with hundreds of tourists in the way, but also a deep shadow on the left-hand side of the scene that obscures detail. To overcome this difficulty, this image is an HDR image that has combined five photos of the exact same scene shot at differing exposures. The result, as one can see, is a photo with greater detail in the shadow areas, but still not overexposed in the brightly lit areas, and a classic reflection.