Meet JOHN FIELDER | Nature Photographer

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

Hi JOHN, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I was fortunate to have had a first career in retail. From that I gained marketing skills, and the knowledge about how retailers dealt with product vendors. When I decided to publish books and calendars, I felt comfortable approaching book retailers such as the old B Dalton, now Barnes & Noble, and the 100s of independent book stores. I also started galleries to be run by my own managers to sell fine art prints. In addition, I made my living teaching photography workshops in Colorado and around the world. In summary, I was able to make a living from nature photography only with good marketing and selling skills, organizational skills including time management while raising a family, extreme planning skills, and very strong legs!

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I never wanted to “go where others had gone before,” therefore I have spent most of the past 50 years on the wilderness trail actually off-trail seeking scenic locations no one else had ever photographed, much less seen. For example, I have only photographed the iconic Maroon Bells lake scene near Aspen in winter of a partly frozen lake. But ironically, I published an entire book about the other 230,000 acres of the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness. For 25 years prior to digital cameras, I carried 65 pounds of large format German Linhof 4×5 view camera gear on my back up and down mountains from 8,000′ to 14,000′. This required extreme planning and extreme fitness.

Along the way, being witness to the sublimeness of 4.3 billion years of the evolution of life on Earth, I became an environmentalist. I decided not just to share my work commercially, but philanthropically. Over the past 40 years I have donated images, fine art prints, and photography workshops to environmental non-profit organizations worth millions of dollars. In addition, I became a politician in order to influence voting for progressive candidates and ballot issues that protect nature.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
My trips traditionally were extreme backpacking excursions lasting a week or more. I carried the camera gear and up to 6 young people carried the tents, sleeping bags, food, and emergency gear, typically weighing in at 70 pounds. We would visit high mountain lakes in remote wilderness at elevations from 12,000-13,000 feet, often only able to be reached by “bushwhacking” off-trail though talus rocks, bogs, down timber, and precipitous 45 degrees couloirs, as well as glissading down snowfields at 45 mph! These “sherpas’ always received free ramen noodles, salami, cheese, oatmeal, and chocolate for there hard work, and photography instruction.

After 25 years of this hard core travel I began to suffer osteoarthritis and had 2 knees and 1 hip replaced with titanium joints. Though they work very well, I decided from then on to let 2 llamas do the heavy lifting. Though I have employed these wonderful creatures for the past 38 years for less intense trail-focused explorations, now they are my primary modus operandi for photographing remote places. Each can carry 85 pounds of gear including a six pack of Fat Tire! And at this stage in life I travel alone. This allows me to “focus” better on my photography, and be more intimate with nature without the distraction of others with which to socialize and support.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I am blessed to have been able to move from an early career in the department store business into a new career that took advantage of my passions in life: nature, photography, wilderness exploration, my particular love of one place, Colorado, and raising a supportive family all at the same time. After that, I was lucky to have developed a fan and customer based that placed my books, calendars, and fine art prints on coffee tables and walls around the world.

Website: https://www.johnfielder.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/John.Fielders.Colorado?sk=wall

Image Credits
credit Steve Glass for photo of John no credit book cover