Live Interview with Erik Stensland

April 11, 2018

Welcome to episode 051 of the F-Stop Collaborate and Listen podcast with Estes Park, Colorado photographer Erik Stensland!

This week we share a special recording of the podcast. Erik and I recorded this one in person from Ridgway, Colorado - it was a really special experience and I am so excited to share it with the world. Erik is one of the most thoughtful, intelligent, engaging, and interesting landscape photographers of our time. His journey as a photographer is incredibly interesting and inspiring. His outlook and approach is refreshing and has provided me with a great deal of inspiration and I hope it will for you as well.

We covered some great topics this week, including:

  • Erik's journey into photography and a gallery owner.
  • Nature as a vehicle for self-healing and the connection to introversion.
  • Leadership and our role as photographers in the conservation movement.
  • How to bring goodness to the world though photography.
  • Why do you take photos?

Over on Patreon this week Erik talked about owning and operating a gallery - a must listen for anyone who has ever been interested in that!

Please consider supporting the podcast on Patreon! There's a ton of bonus content over there for subscribers! We are closer to our goal of being able to award a $1,000 prize to a photographer dedicated to conservation. 

To learn more about Erik:

Website

Instagram

Facebook

Here are the artists that Erik would like to hear on the podcast:

Richard Barnabe

Jack Dykinga

Marc Muench

Chip Phillips

Some examples of Erik's photography can be seen below. 

I love hearing from the podcast listeners! Reach out to me via Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter if you'd like to be on the podcast or if you have an idea of a topic we can talk about. You can also join the conversation on our Facebook Group.

Erik Stensland - Nature Photography as a Healer

There was an abstract quality to this scene. Fog was moving in and out while fresh snow continued to fall on the remaining aspen along the Bierstadt Moraine.

Erik Stensland - Nature Photography as a Healer

In late winter and into the spring heavy snow blankets the tundra of Rocky Mountain National Park creating a scene of stark beauty.

Barry Sweet from the National Park Service

The tundra explodes with wildflowers in mid-summer in Rocky Mountain National Park as the Never Summer Mountains try to hold on to their remaining snow. This dynamic scene that reoccurs ever summer is nothing short of glorious as the world seems for a short while to overflow with music.

Erik Stensland - Nature Photography as a Healer

This morning was one of those beautiful blue sky days up here in the mountains. Unfortunately, clear skies are what most landscape photographers dread, as such conditions are not conducive to photography. So, I decided to find something different. I found these trees in Horseshoe Park and waited until the first light just hit them. It still hadn't reached the hill and trees behind them, leaving them in the shadows. Their fresh green foliage glowed in the warm light as birds sang and flew from branch to branch, celebrating the new day. Just behind these trees, out of sight of the camera, elk with shiny fresh coats and velvet covered antlers were running through the meadow.

Erik Stensland - Nature Photography as a Healer

The path of life twists and turns. It is impossible to anticipate what lies around the next bend. In many ways we are walking into the fog. We know that steep climbs and dangerous descents lie somewhere ahead as well as sorrow and deep pain, yet these are not the end and they are not the meaning of our journey. That mysterious diffused light that calls us onward seems to hint that there is something hidden, something healing waiting for us at the end of it all. Encouraging us at almost every turn there is beauty and wonder. It cries out from the edges of the path, “Don’t be afraid.”

Erik Stensland - Nature Photography as a Healer

A lone spruce is surrounded by the pageantry of elegant aspen in their joyful autumn dress.

Erik Stensland
Posted in Photography Podcast and tagged Podcast.