Old School Wilson Picture Frame

The end of an overnight photo tour in the Colorado San Juans put me at an old abandoned boarding house with a magnificent window view of Wilson Peak... more

by Mike Berenson

Title

Old School Wilson Picture Frame

Artist

Mike Berenson

Medium

Photograph

Description

The end of an overnight photo tour in the Colorado San Juans put me at an old abandoned boarding house with a magnificent window view of Wilson Peak (elevation 14,016 feet). It was an amazing tour that featured a drive up on the Girl Scout Camp Road near Ridgway and the Sneffels Range, a wet hike/swim up a river near Telluride looking for a hidden waterfall, and then this old abandoned boarding house in the ghost town of Alta - all under the cover of darkness.

Having been to this location several times including most recently in thick clouds, I knew I would return someday for good conditions. And with all the detail on the inside of the cabin, I've looked at this spot as one of the better places for a capture with a rustic picture frame.

I’d actually planned for a great shot from this spot at night and so I arrived with plenty of time to catch the night stars before twilight. But for some reason, I didn’t end up liking the results from that timing as much as I did later on, at sunrise. Aside from the captures however, I was a bit surprised to find that I didn’t have this old secluded cabin all to myself. I thought I was there alone at first, but I soon learned this wasn’t the case...

There I was at about 4 am in very dark conditions with the moon already set. I had already found a good composition and was working on getting my exposure settings dialed in when I started hearing a sound - from right under the cabin. I tried not to pay much attention to it...but soon, I heard it right around the corner and my curiosity got the better of me. Sure enough, I could just make out the shape of a big Marmot looking like he just pulled up to the buffet table. Or in this case, maybe I should say he was working on a late night snack. Either way, he didn’t seem to care about my watching and just kept on munching. I knew these old cabins were a treat that wouldn’t last forever but I had no idea that they’d become a Marmot snack! :-)

This composite image was captured at sunrise from the old ghost town of Alta, near Telluride, Colorado with an old school view of Wilson Peak and the San Miguel Range. The image comes from 2 exposures with processing in Silver Efex Pro 2. I figured with all the textures of the cabin and the mountain, that the b/w processing would really help to make the most of it.

Uploaded

February 16th, 2013