Maroon Bells are two mountain peaks (Maroon Peak and North Maroon Peak) located bout 12 miles southwest of Aspen, Colorado. The view of the Maroon Bells from the Maroon Creek valley is reputed to be the “most-photographed spot in Colorado”. This was evident when a friend and I visited the area over Labor Day weekend. We saw no less than 50 photographers lined up alongside Maroon Lake with their cameras pointed towards the peaks. We waited patiently for sunrise but never got the great skies we anticipated. The mountain top was covered with low hanging clouds and dark clouds loomed ahead. I was able to capture this image before it started raining and decided to leave.
Maroon Bells are composed of sedimentary mudstone unlike their Rocky Mountain counterparts that are made of granite and limestone. Mudstone is very unstable and as a result, Maroon Bells are labeled “The Deadly Bells” by the US Forest Service. They get their name from the maroon color emitted by the mudstone.
This image was taken with my SONY ILCE-7R using my FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS set on 26 mm. The camera was set on Aperture Priority mode with the aperture set at f/11, shutter speed at 2.5 seconds and the ISO set at 100. I used a circular polarizer to reduce some of the glare on the water and enhance some of the colors. I took 3 bracketed images (-1, 0, +1) so that I could extend the dynamic range of the final image. Post processing was done in Lightroom and Photoshop.
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© 2015 T. Kahler Photography
