“I never really felt like I owned my photographs of Colorado because people supported me over the years by buying my books, my calendars, my fine art prints, and going to photography workshops,” he said adding that it’s all helped him make a good living and a good life for himself and his family, despite past personal challenges. “As I’ve gotten older and moved on in life, I’ve realized that it would be important to give back what’s been given to me.”

Fielder’s passion for the outdoors began when he was a teenager when a science teacher would take him and other students on summer trips around the country. “I saw the Rocky Mountains and Rocky Mountain National Park when I was 14 years old for the first time.  I said to myself, 'I’m going to live here someday.'”

Over the years, Fielder has hiked and back country skied hundreds of miles in Colorado. He’s also driven thousands of miles not only to get great pictures, but to experience being in nature. 

“It’s one thing to look at a Fielder photograph in a book or on a wall, but it’s another completely different to be outdoors yourself; to not just see the views, but to smell the decaying aspen leaves in the fall, to taste freshly melted snow, to touch the aspen tree bark, to hear the rustling of the aspen leaves in the air,” said Fielder.

He says his main concern over the last decade has been climate change. Fielder hopes that his photographs can inspire more people to listen to the science in order to reverse what’s happening to the environment. “That’s the purpose of what I’ve been doing lately is to show people how bad climate change is and how much worse it might get if we don’t reconsider our lifestyles and figure out what needs to be done to stop global warming.”

Fielder gave Rocky Mountain PBS his perspective on continuing to live life even while dealing with difficulties and challenges. “How lucky are we to be sentient beings on a planet in a solar system in a galaxy in a universe in a multiverse where maybe it’s all infinite to be able to appreciate this at this time in humanity,” he explained.  

Julio Sandoval is a multimedia journalist at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach him at juliosandoval@rmpbs.org.