Meet Chase Hunter | Photographer

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

Hi Chase, how has your background shaped the person you are today?
I grew up in Boise Idaho, which is where I lived up until moving to Colorado to complete college. Boise is a town tucked away in the deserts and plains of southern Idaho at the doorstep of stunning mountainous terrain. Boise has a unique culture that is very laid back and full of people who love and respect nature and the outdoors. With Boise being a small to medium sized city, I often found myself venturing out into the deserts or mountains of Idaho with my father for weekend adventures of hiking and skiing. In retrospect, my consistent early exposure to nature as a child has helped to cultivate me into someone who can thrive and appreciate nature. It was only later in my college and post-college life that I began to push myself further towards achieving more challenging personal travel and exploration goals. Ultimately this would culminate in my purchase of my first DSLR camera, which would allow me to increasingly focus on channeling my curious and adventurous tendencies towards capturing the beauty of the places i’ve traveled to. Photography expeditions often require significant self-control and commitment, as they involve early mornings, long drives through the dark, and shooting in ice cold conditions to capture the best lighting. My exposure to nature as a child helped better prepare me for some of the more rigorous outdoor experiences that would be part of my photography journey.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
As a photographer, I consider myself adaptable and able to shoot many kinds of photography from portrait to wildlife to landscape photography. Ultimately i find landscape photography the most rewarding, as I am able to capture the beauty of nature as I experience it. One of the challenges of landscape photography is standing out among the crowd and generating something unique, particularly among iconic locations that have been photographed countless times. It is constantly top of mind to come up with innovative and creative ways to capture an iconic scene. Often times this may require shooting at long focal lengths to compress images or shooting on an infrared-converted camera to capture a scene through a completely new and different wavelength. I regularly use my drone to get a birds eye view of landscapes and can use a drone to get endless unique compositions that are impossible from the ground. When i find myself unable to travel to exotic locations for photography, sometimes i will look to the sky for inspiration. As another form of photography, i also practice deep space astrophotography to capture the beauty of distant galaxies and nebulae. For those who are just getting to know me, i would want them to know that as a photographer i feel comfortable shooting almost anything, but get the most personal passion out of photographing nature’s beauty, both on this planet and out in the cosmos.

Across all of these types of photography projects, I seek to overcome my challenges by continuing to shoot on the regular and always challenging myself to capture the more creative perspective as opposed to the easiest perspective. Regular shooting is an integral part of improving my photography skills and being willing to go out rain or shine to sharpen my skills is the sacrifice that i make. Another challenge has always been being able to make a true living out of photography, which would be the dream. In such a challenging and competitive market, it remains difficult for me to make this move though i am constantly looking for ways to slowly transition my income streams over to photography as i improve my portfolio and photography skills.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Colorado is a diverse state full of history, culture, and stunning landscapes. Given a week, making a road trip out of traversing the mountainous regions of Colorado would be of utmost interest. Colorado has so many neat towns and stunning terrain that i would plan an itinerary around seeing as much of the state as possible, as I typically take a “see it all” approach during travel. Whenever traveling, I consider it important to experience both the culture and community of a region in addition to the natural beauty. Therefore, any Colorado road trip would need to regularly use Colorado’s small historic mining and ski towns as home bases for each night. Starting in Denver, an entire day would need to be devoted to the beautiful wildlife and mountains of Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. Next, I would begin the long and scenic drive down towards the center of the state, crossing Independence Pass and making my way into Aspen. This region has so much to offer in terms of Colorado mountain culture and the stunning fall scenery of Maroon Bells. After weaving our way through a number of scenic spots around central Colorado, we would end our trip in the San Juan Mountains. There are so many neat small old mining towns like Telluride, Ouray, and Silverton that represent excellent points of interest when visiting the region. The San Juans are well known for rich mining history, spectacular fall colors, and towering granite mountains. After completing a few days of exploration in this region, we would make our way back to Denver and finish our journey at one of the many local Colorado breweries to celebrate all of the new memories.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would want to recognize my father as a person who has influenced me and turned me into the person that I am today. From a young age, he instilled a sense of adventure, passion, and appreciation for nature. As a child, he passed along all of his knowledge and experience on how to survive and navigate through the rough terrain of the outdoors. It has been through his leadership and navigation that I have been able to feel confident in traveling and exploring on my own to the far reaches of the world. His sense of adventure has been a consistent inspiration for myself and he represents someone who I can constantly look up to as an example of someone who is living up to his full potential.

Website: https://chasehunterphotography.myportfolio.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chasehunterphotography/?hl=en

Other: https://500px.com/p/chasehunterphotos?view=photos