May 14, 2013
Wilson Peak, Uncompahgre National Forest, Colorado

The Wilson Massif, in the San Juan Mountains southwest of Telluride, is comprised of the tight cluster of Wilson Peak (14,017 ft or 4272m), Mount Wilson (14,256 ft or 4,345m), El Diente Peak (14,159 ft or 4,316m), and Gladstone Peak (13,913 ft or 4,241m). There are nice views of Wilson Peak from the northeast along CO-145. When I was there in January 2013, there weren't any clouds to create a spectacular image, but I couldn't resist photographing the wonderful snow-covered peak. Here are two options for landscape photography without clouds. In this image, the subtle purple sky before dawn provides a nice background for the peak which is illuminated by really diffuse light. The range of light was rather small with no bright light or deep shadows, so a single exposure was all that was needed to capture all of the detail in the composition and reproduce what I was seeing with my eyes. In this image, the sun has risen and the brightly lit regions of the peak help to define the shape of the mountain. The solid blue sky isn't as interesting as the purple in the previous image, so I reduced the amount of sky in the image. The range of light was too great to be captured by one exposure, so I bracketed the exposures (-1.5, -0.5, +0.5 EV) to retain detail from the bright snow in the sun through the dark trees in shadow, then I blended them by hand in Photoshop to reproduce what I was seeing with my eyes.

Which image do you like better?