Meet Tom Greenfield | Photographer

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

Hi Tom, we’d love for you to start things off by telling us something about your industry that we and others not in the industry might be unaware of?
I’ve been trying my best at wildlife photography for about 8 years and have captured so many wonderful images. The most common thing I hear from people who see my images is that I must have a really nice, expensive camera, like in the thousands of dollars range. They’re always shocked when I tell them that I got my camera for around $600 at Target. Sure, a high end expensive camera might be nicer to work with at times but I feel good with the results I get with something most people could more easily afford.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
It starts with the birds. I really started using the camera to help me identify birds, which is something I still do. Most of my photography adventures revolve around finding birds I have never seen or birds I like to see yearly during migrations. I primarily use “Birding Colorado,” a Falcon Guides book, and the “Colorado Birding Trail” series which is available in booklet form and on the internet. The series breaks the state into sections and has detailed maps of the areas in each section.
I tell people all the time that if you go to where the birds are you will probably see a lot of the wildlife in the area. It works for me. Doing this I have found some spots and wildlife I consider among my favorites and try to visit frequently. The San Luis Valley for the sandhill crane migration is an annual trip I make. I like the Kenosha Pass area for moose, the Guanella Pass area for bighorn sheep, pikas, and marmots, and South Park for elk and pronghorn.
What sets me apart from a lot of other photographers is that I use the same lens for everything. I always have my 75-300mm lens on and use it for long distance shots like it’s meant for, but also for up close and personal shots of things like butterflies and bees.
I like to take what I call saleable images with each shot if I can, meaning I frame the subject so that the image tells a story without the need for cropping, and very minimal if any editing is needed. If I want I can send an image from the field via email to whoever wants it and it is ready to use.
Using this method I was able to contribute many images to the newspaper, which I also happened to deliver weekly as a second job. I delivered the paper to several businesses in Bailey and a few surrounding towns. I was able to meet many people who followed my work in the paper and hear from them firsthand what they were most appreciative of my work for, after all, there were several other wildlife photographers that contributed to the paper. They liked that I gave them information about the wildlife in each photo. What it is, where to find it, what it’s doing, and some interesting or little known facts.
I don’t like to submit or post any photos without providing the species identification, especially the birds. Figuring out what the bird in question is can be challenging and I guess that’s the part I enjoy most. I love finding a new bird and will flip through page after page of countless bird books I own until I find out what it is that I just captured with my camera.
It was not an easy path to find what truly makes me happy. I first had to survive liver failure from alcohol abuse and then find a way to start over. Once I quit drinking and started getting healthier I needed something to do other than working again. I had recently moved to Bailey and there were birds and wildlife everywhere. A lot that I had never seen. I had never seen a bear or a moose before my move and I’ve lived in Colorado my whole life. The camera became my connection to the universe essentially, allowing me to capture and share intimate moments in nature that were, and still are vital to my physical and mental healing and wellbeing.
At one point in my life I weighed over 300 pounds. After I quit drinking alcohol and had lived in the mountains for several months I had gotten down to 150 pounds. A little unhealthy the other direction in around nine months. But within a few more months I was up to a healthier 170 pounds because I had gained some of what I call mountain muscle. In the mountains you’re eventually going uphill on matter where you go.
I don’t live in the mountains now but they are usually never more than an hour’s drive away from me. And I usually have a gear bag, some hiking shoes, and my camera with me just in case they call my name. I know I would have survived going a different route but having that close-up connection with nature that the camera provides helped me heal so much faster and gave me some purpose at the same time.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If I wanted to give someone an incredible wildlife adventure, now is one of the two times of the year that around 20,000 greater sandhill cranes, and 5,000 lesser sandhill cranes are migrating through Colorado. The Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge is a place I go every year, usually in March, when the birds are migrating from their wintering grounds at the Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico, to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem farther north. Late September and early October is when the cranes start to return home for the winter. The birds stop in Colorado on both journeys to refuel in the rich grain fields in the valley.
There are numerous other species of birds and animals to see in the area as well. Porcupines are prevalent at the Alamosa National Wildlife Refuge. Mule deer and elk can be seen, as well as golden eagles and great-horned owls.
The Best Western Movie Manor Inn is the place to stay because they have a drive-in movie screen that you can watch from your room. You can control the volume through the room speakers almost the same as if you were in your car at a real drive-in movie. It’s not a far drive to the refuge from there, or from the Pizza Hut down the road that still has the salad bar. At least it did the last time I was there.
If you’re down there you might as well check out the valley and all it’s high strangeness. Visit the UFO Watchtower in Saguache County and see if you can tell if there’s a vortex there. Talk to the workers and ask for a story. Trust me, they will have some. Near the watchtower is the Colorado Gator Farm, full of plants, tortoises, tilapia, alligators, and various other oddities. Last on the list would be a stop at the iconic Great Sand Dunes National Park. You can walk the dunes or just look at them, either way once you are there you are in the biggest sandbox you’ll ever be in again. There are several insect species that are endemic to the area, meaning they only exist in the world in that one area, and other rare species of plants and grasses. You could have a one of a kind, out of this world experience on the trip.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
In 2014 I was recovering from liver failure when Emily Clingman put her older Canon Rebel in my hands to help me get some closer views of the birds and other wildlife I was finding in the new town I lived in, Bailey, CO. She was a landscape photographer and very instrumental in helping me through the early stages of developing my own photography style. Interacting with nature and wildlife became a new healthy lifestyle, one that was completely different from the previous one I was living that ultimately led to having liver disease. Having that camera in my hands helped pick me up from the floor that is rock bottom, and opened the world to me with a second chance. I am forever grateful for her helping me through such a tough time.
While living in Bailey, I was able to submit many wildlife photos to the Park County Republican and Fairplay Flume newspaper. The people in the community were very outspoken about how much they enjoyed my work. I actually won Best Local Photographer in 2015 and was runner up in 2016 through reader voting in The People’s Choice Awards, which the newspaper does every year. I looked forward to each week’s edition and hearing the feedback from the community. I was always trying to outdo myself each week not because the people wanted me to do better, but because I wanted to do better for the people.

Website: greentartworks.com

Instagram: @greentartworks @tomstravelshots

Linkedin: Tom Greenfield

Facebook: Tom Greenfield

Image Credits
1st image credit Emily Clingman