As you know from various other blog posts my desire to travel gets a little out of control at times! I am very fortunate to have friends on practically every continent!
So when I constantly moan at Nate Zeman for posting such incredible images from around Colorado and he said quit your moaning and come out to see it for real, it was time to put my money where my mouth was!
Nate and I are great friends. We often joke that perhaps we have the same parents and nobody told us as we literally are the same person! The thing that fascinates us is that we are both professional photographers for a living, yet we know nothing about what the other does as our fields are so different. We learn so much from each other.
I have always been a huge fan of Nate's work and it's easy to see why but this guy's knowledge of nature is half the reason he creates the shots he does. He has the patience of a saint (ok we're not exactly the same!) and would often predict a storm coming to the nearest second. He knows his environment and the characteristics of the wildlife that he shoots like nobody I have ever met. All part of his recipe for creating world class nature photography in a league of his own.
Paintbrush Pass - White River National Forest, Colorado.
Copyright Nate Zeman
So I took a trip out to Colorado to spend a week learning about Nate's world. Breckenridge to be precise and oh what a place! It appears to have stolen a piece of my heart. How rude. We drove 1430ft up mount Evans where the air is thin and the views to die for. Pikas, marmots, mountain goats all part of the scenery. Another day we were off to rocky mountain national park which was so beautiful I almost have no words. Again not only was the landscape incredible but Elk and Moose were just cruising around. A sight to behold, especially for a London girl!
One night after eating way too much pizza Nate gets the look of the devil in his eye and next thing I know we are driving up a mountain on 'roads' getting higher and higher until Breckenridge looks like it did from the plane as I flew in!! 'where are we going?' I ask, 'you'll see' is the reply. So finally after my ears popping and driving on rocks for a good 40 minutes I climb out the truck unable to see my own hand in front of my face. 'look up' says Nate and I swear to god I have never seen so many stars in my life. The milky way is right there so bright and visible to the naked eye it almost feels within touching distance. What an experience.
You would have expected me to shoot like crazy whilst out there but you know what? I saw little point. Nate is the master of this field and as far as I see it there is zero point in me shooting something mediocre (and frankly embarrassing!) when he is the expert who has hiked for miles on numerous occasions, in all weather conditions to get the perfect image.
Dawn of Winter - Elk (Cervus canadensis) - Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
Copyright Nate Zeman
Obsessed with detail and perfection each of Nate's pieces are printed on Fuji crystal achive/ fuji flex fine art photography Paper, numbered, signed, inspected and then sent out. You can purchase his work through his website www.natezeman.com or even through my studio where you can see a few showstoppers on display. Move fast on this one though as prints are strictly limited edition and this guy is about to explode on our side of the Atlantic soon and not just the USA. You can thank me later for the heads up! :)
Last Stand - Mayflower Gulch, Colorado. Copyright Nate Zeman.
I am incredibly proud to call Nate one of my best friends in the world but more to the point when people ask me who inspires you....look right here....natezeman.com you'll lose at least a couple of hours admiring this artist and his work.