Meet Jeremiah Altfater | Photographer, Blogger, and Creative

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

Hi Jeremiah, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Honestly it probably started from a young age just being into skateboarding, snowboarding, and surfing. Being exposed to a lot of imagery and marketing, I was always inspired by that. As a kid I just wanted to do my own thing. In terms of my blog, I was having trouble getting a job in the industry beyond retail (It’s pretty competitive out there!). As I was trying to figure out what to do with my life I remembered a blog post on Burton snowboard’s website called, “A quick and dirty guide to the Pacific Northwest.” I really liked that post. The pictures and words were fascinating to me. At the time I was traveling a lot to different resorts, taking a few surf trips, and had a curiosity with photography.

So I reached out to a couple well known photographers via Instagram to see what equipment I needed, which helped a lot and then went out, bought a camera, a lens, and backpack. From there I was thinking of what to call my website and was like, there’s a lot of hidden gems all over, so I looked up The Outdoor Gems to see if it was taken, and it wasn’t, so I bought the domain and registered my business name. Slowly started to build it. It was really bad in the beginning, but I kept showing up. I was just researching to see how make it all possible a lot in the beginning. Eventually I had to upgrade my camera equipment because I needed a way to get shots if I’m by myself and for the images to look more professional with a mirrorless camera. There’s been a lot of failures and I feel like I am just now starting to figure out a good direction to go in, while making a few dollars here and there. The hardest part is being by myself, so I use a tripod to get most of my images with help from friends here and there, which has been a huge help.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I try to create realistic imagery that people can relate to or get inspired by to get outside through my words or photos. I would say the biggest thing that separates me is, I don’t see anyone else with a camera backpack on the mountain getting photos of themselves and then writing detailed posts on the ski resort. There’s a lot of outdoor blogs, but I have yet to see anything as detailed as mine for winter ski resorts and snowboarding related posts. It’s been extremely challenging because I am by myself. The best way I’ve overcome this is just by taking small steps everyday, working two jobs to make the travel happen, and believing in myself to keep going. I got to where I’m at today just by how I was raised. I just remember going into my favorite shop growing up called Sunsports and just always feeling inspired in there. Or my mom would take me and my two brothers to downtown Columbus Ohio and we would go to the Art Museum there and I was exposed to art and loved to draw from an early age.
I’ve had Lot’s of lessons with photography and how to drive traffic to my website. Camera angels, extra batteries and SIM Cards, weather windows, camera capabilities, and how to get shots of myself using a tripod have been some of my greatest lessons. Also not worrying about what others think of you has been probably the greatest lesson. At the end of the day it’s your life, so you deserve to wake up everyday to something that excites you! I’d like people to know that I’m just an average person trying to leave a small impact on the world by getting more people outdoors.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I would take them to Breckenridge ski resort and of course Vail ski resort if it’s a powder day. Buena Vista for a day to check out the hot springs and eat at one of my favorite restaurants in BV, Crave, walk along the Arkansas river in town after before it gets dark .

For restaurants in Breckenridge, definitely Cool River for Breakfast/Coffee, Daylight Donuts for Breakfast one day. Fine dining, Aurum and Radicato for Dinner. For lunch Empire Burger or Fatty’s. Other activities in Breckenridge would include walking around town, going into shops such as Underground Snowboards, Mountain Goat, Patagonia, or Burton. Grabbing a drink at RMU or sitting by one of the outside fires on Main Street. Hang out and going sledding at Carter Park as well and lastly Ice skating and Night Riding at Keystone. There’s a lot to do in Colorado, but that would be my week itinerary for the winter where I live.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’d like to thank my friends who have helped me when I needed it; Phil and Kylar and photographers who gave me inspiration, specifically Gabe L’Heureux. He’s probably my favorite photographer, and I got to meet him at one of the Burton US Opens and talked to him about his life and background. It was really inspiring. He was the main reason I bought a camera and got into this.. Thomas Heckler and Megan Ray for believing in me. Also my parents, who were always supportive with what I wanted to do in life. Lastly other creatives who give me lots of inspiration. Any one who follows me or who has read a blog post, that means a lot! Even though my following is still really small.

Website: https://www.theoutdoorgems.com

Instagram: The Outdoor Gems

Other: Pinterest account is also The Outdoor Gems

photography Portfolio: jeremiahjaltfater.myportfolio.com

Image Credits
Aspen Highlands Spray turn was shot by Mitch Webb (Green Kit). Other than that, all the photos were shot by me, including the ones of myself with a tripod.