Meet Kelsi Camper | Owner of WildKC Imagery and North Park Disposal & High School Counselor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kelsi Camper and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kelsi, is your business focused on helping the community? If so, how?
Jackson County covers about 1600 square miles. Our county population hovers around 1000 year- round. I don’t know if that paints the picture in your mind or not but that’s less than 1 person for every square mile. Our community is incredibly small and that comes with blessings and disadvantages. For example, because of our tiny population and our surroundings isolating us – we depend largely on tourism to keep our economy moving. We do have a Chamber of Commerce that has just recently become active again, and we have a lot of community organizations that work hard to bring unique events to our town but somehow North Park has never really made it on the map. A lot of people think this is our greatest strength – Colorado’s Best Kept Secret. While I love that so much of my home is untouched, I see our residents struggle and I watch as more businesses close their doors and another building gets boarded up. One of the main goals I have for WildKC is to put the spotlight on this undiscovered place and get some long term attention brought here. Walden isn’t just good for visiting, our school system is excellent, the opportunities here are abundant (albeit nothing worthwhile comes easy) and with remote work blowing up, it’s more possible than ever to live the small town life without giving up your big town career. Some of my pictures have been featured in our North Park Visitors brochure and I use social media to try and peak people’s curiosity with hashtags like #visitnorthparkco. I DO believe we are on the edge of greatness up here and things are going to turn around for our community, it’s just going to take some work. I want to see my home thrive and to be able to be a part of that is incredibly rewarding. So to sum up – North Park is awesome – you should move here.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
The very thing that sets me and my art apart from others is the very thing that presents the biggest challenge to my business’s growth. My photos are 99% focused on spotlighting North Park’s beauty and wildness and I feel like the people that appreciate these photos enough to actually want to buy them, are people that love this place as much as I do. As I mentioned previously we have a lot of things to photograph – but not a lot of exposure. My main customers are North Park natives and frequent visitors that have fallen in love with our small mountain town; this is not a large demographic. Hiring a team of professionals for website development and branding has been a game changer but we still have some ground to cover.

That being said, I still think that my perspective on North Park is unique and I love showcasing that. In any given day we see moose, deer, big horn sheep, bears, antelope, bald eagles and my favorite – FOX! We have the occasional lion, otter and most recently wolves too! Capturing these guys in their native habitat is every wildlife photographers’ goal, I differ because I’d really rather people just come visit North Park and see them for themselves! I want to create a picture that sparks enough interest to plan a trip.

I’m most excited about my most recent features on the Steamboat Pilot and other Colorado social media pages, and that my brand has raised a ton of awareness for our community. It’s so fun and rewarding! Being paid to be creative is the coolest thing I think I’ve accomplished. I love that it started out as just a way to balance work and life and it’s grown into a whole part of who I am!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
This is a fun question! I would hope that they would be visiting during the late summer. That’s the best time, no mosquitoes but still warm during the day. I am making the assumption that my friend has the same level of outdoor appreciation that I do. We definitely aren’t packing in for 3 days in the mountains but some quick day trip hikes would for sure be on the itinerary. The must sees would be – Big Creek Lake and hike to the waterfalls up above the ghost town of Pearl
Check out the North Sand Dunes – bonus if we could borrow an ATV to check out the coolest spots up there like “the beach”
The Stockman has the best chicken fried steak (hand breaded bro!), so after a day of hiking we’d definitely go sit in their beer garden under their twinkly lights and replenish
If you want to meet some interesting characters with incredible life stories – this is pretty much the best place to start
Jackson County has the first confirmed wolf pup litter in Colorado in ages, so we’d definitely go check out their stomping grounds and hope to catch glimpse
We have a few resident moose that live in Hanson Park – in the mornings we’d definitely want to grab some coffee from Holy Grounds and go moose viewing. We are known as the “Moose Viewing Capital” so seeing moose is a guarantee
This park has hundreds of miles of country roads and two tracks on public land. We can’t hike for a week straight so one day we’d for sure just cruise some back roads and I’d recap the places I’ve caught the best wildlife viewing

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I feel like every win and every ounce of success in my life can be somewhat be attributed to the people around me. My family, my friends, my co-workers – even my high school classmates (thanks for recommending me Kels!) have all encouraged me to pursue this dream of being a “famous” wildlife photographer. It used to be something we’d joke about when I was spending so much time in the woods with my camera – “I’m working on being a famous photographer”, I’d tell them. Then it was them asking me – Why aren’t you actually pursuing this? So I did! All these people in my life helped me celebrate every little win in the beginning and keep pushing me to reach the rest of my goals. That being said – my husband for sure deserves some extra credit! He not only supported me in spending a huge chunk of change on equipment but he is the one alongside me in every trek out in the woods and up in the mountains and he happens to be the best wildlife spotter I know. He also takes on the role of running our other business – North Park Disposal while I chase my crazy dreams. The best advice I could give anyone starting a business or embarking on any new challenge in life is – Surround yourself with people who want the best for you and who aren’t afraid to tell you when you’re going in the wrong direction.

Website: https://www.wildkcimagery.com/

Instagram: wild.kc.imagery

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/kelsi-camper-2020

Facebook: Kelsi Camper