INFLUENCERS
// behind the lens
A Patient Journey of FROM FLY-FISHING to photography, Coloradan Todd Bacon’s passions have led to a destiny-fulfilling career behind the lens, where he aims to capture “life’s essence.” I caught up with him to learn what inspires him to get the shot.
It seems you go to great lengths to get just the right shot. What are some of the unique places or predicaments you’ve found yourself in?
PHOTOS: TODD BACON PHOTOGRAPHY
Tell me about your background. Have you always been a photographer? I started shooting about 25 years ago. We had planned a family vacation on Lake Michigan near the tip of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. I was nursing sore knees from running and skiing and was advised to take some time off from running. That hiatus left a big hole in my daily activities, so on an impulse, I bought a Nikon camera the day before we left and was determined to learn to use it on that trip. I think it was Dale Carnegie who wrote in his famous book How to Win Friends and Influence People that “you become what you think about the most” (I could be wrong about that source, but that concept has stuck with me for decades.) I think about photography a lot. I am largely self-taught from reading photography books, magazines and watching YouTube videos. I probably look at a hundred photographs every day.
What makes you stand apart from other photographers? I have found the world of photographers to be very supportive of each other as people trying to express themselves and supportive of each other’s work, so I prefer to think of it as standing together, rather than standing apart. Having said that, I think my subject matter is more diverse than a lot of photographers’ work. I’m intrigued by the human experience and empathetic to what people go through in life; that means trying to capture life’s essence whether it’s a cowboy at the rodeo or how one reacts to seeing a gorgeous landscape. I come from a lifetime of fly-fishing, and those experiences have taught me the value of patience. So much of photography is just like fly-fishing; sometimes you go out and the fishing is slow, slow, slow. The same can be true with photography: You head out to capture a sunset, and Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate. On the other hand, the sensation of clicking the shutter and knowing that I’ve just taken a great photo is the exact same feeling as the moment of hooking a big fish.
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march 2022 // AvidLifestyle
The vast majority of my photography is done outside in natural light. My absolute favorite kind of photo outing is to get up well before dawn and head out into the darkness with a mug of coffee and a banana, a yogurt and a peanut-butter-andjelly sandwich in the passenger seat. I’m a huge music buff, so with the right tunes playing and a great sense of anticipation I’m ready to find out what adventures lie ahead. In terms of unique situations, I have recently dabbled a little bit in night or astral photography. That’s a whole different world unto itself. It can be unnerving to be out in complete darkness (no moon, and the darker the better to get the stars at their best). I photographed the Neowise Comet inside an empty rodeo arena. I photographed the famed Moulton Barns in Grand Teton National Park during a meteor shower with buffalo snorting in the distance. In the Four Corners area of Colorado, I photographed a life-size bronze sculpture of a Native American holding a buffalo skull up to the gods, with the Milky Way lighting up the sky behind him and coyotes howling nearby. For the past two winters, I have photographed horses in snowstorms, trying to capture what they look like after enduring a night of heavy snow and blowing winds. I put myself in their same environment to get those shots standing in knee-deep snow with howling
