I've always been fascinated by this interesting hunk of gray rock named Marcellina Mountain. Located in the West Elk Mountains of Colorado, I photographed the nearby colourful aspen forests for many years. During my autumn photo trips to this area, I must have seen this mountain at sunset at least a dozen times. With so many other photogenic scenes in the area, I never planned to photograph this mountain. Typically, the mountain face looks rather uninteresting during the light of day compared to the low light of early evening.
The gray rock of the mountain face is perfect for absorbing and reflecting the early evening light spectrum. Although it is just over 11,000 feet high, it is quite an imposing mountain in the area. At that elevation, the autumn air is often clear and crisp, displaying beautiful night skies and some bright stars.
For reasons unknown, during previous trips, the aspen trees at the mountain's base had never been as healthy and vibrant as nearby aspen forests. But for this particular trip, the aspen trees were spectacular. When I decided to camp nearby, I knew this was the evening to finally spend some effort capturing the beauty of this mountain during the blue hour.
I quickly discovered that a longer exposure time accentuated the fading light striking the mountain face well beyond what my eyes could see. As expected, the longer exposure time also allowed the stars to appear brighter. After many years, I was quite satisfied to finally capture Marcellina Mountain with its vibrant color, side lighting, clouds, and stars!
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Dimitri Vasileiou • Editor