We were lucky to catch up with Nicholas Jensen recently and have shared our conversation below.

Nicholas, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Over the last few years, a big part of what I do as a photographer has shifted to photographing the night sky.

I venture out to wild places in the middle of the night to photograph them under the stars, and there is something inherently peaceful and humbling about that experience. Staring up at our galaxy, the Milky Way, brings me peace in a way few other things do.

I also teach classes and workshops in the field to teach other people how to photograph the night sky. Many of my clients have never done this before, and perhaps have never even seen the Milky Way with their own eyes. Sharing the peace of that experience with them, as well as the excitement of seeing something new and photographing it for the first time, is something that is so rewarding.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I didn’t set out to be an artist. In fact, I didn’t think I really had much artistic talent. But in the years after college, I found that I enjoyed spending time outside and I enjoyed taking photos of those experiences to share with others. Eventually I started to be recognized by my peers that this was something I was developing a skill for and opportunities began to come to sell my work.

I’ve developed the skill over the years to capture my photos in such a way that people connect them with their own experiences. I often get feedback that people can share the experience through my photography as if they had been there with me. Nature photography is a saturated market, but this helps set me apart from all the photography that is out there today. It’s always been my goal to present my photos in the same way that I saw them, so I’m proud of the fact that my viewers recognize that.

There’s something about bringing the natural world into your indoor space via a piece of artwork that brings an inherent peacefulness. That is what my work delivers to so many of my clients.

My success also gives me the opportunity to give back to the places that give to me. A portion of the profits from my business are donated to charities that support the National Parks.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The more successful I have become, the more humbling it has become as well as people connect with my work in ways I could never have imagined. There’s the collector who has gotten older and can’t get out to see the stars anymore, so they have a large print of the Milky Way in their living room to connect to what used to be their favorite experience. There’s the family who saw my night sky photo of an old mining camp in Colorado, and sent me back a picture of their grandmother who used to live in that same cabin almost 100 years ago. The ones who share happy memories of growing up in Colorado or taking vacations in the West when they were younger, sparked by seeing a photo I’ve taken of one of their favorite places. The cancer patients or immunocompromised who missed getting out and seeing their favorite places during the pandemic, but connected with them through my work and that brought them peace and happiness. And so many more….

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Being a successful nature photography is often as much about persistence as anything else.

There’s many examples I could choose from to illustrate this, but there’s one photo in particular that tells this story well. I had an idea to photograph the Milky Way over the old mining cabins in Mayflower Gulch near Leadville, Colorado. In 2019 I went, and although the weather forecast looked great I got completely clouded out. In 2021 I returned to try it again, but I arrived too late in the night and there were already other photographers at the location so I couldn’t get the composition that I wanted. In 2023 I returned again, and finally got the shot after 4 years of waiting.

Resilience can also be about pivoting when the idea you had just isn’t working out. Weather can be the biggest variable in nature photography, and it’s one you can’t control. If the weather isn’t working out to capture the photos you planned, you have to be able to adjust to capture what will work with the conditions you have. Some of my best work has come by embracing the conditions there in front of me instead of dwelling on the fact that they are not what I wanted them to be.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.nicholasjensenphotography.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/njensenphoto/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nicholasjensenphotography
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NicholasJensenPhotography

Image Credits
All photos by Nicholas Jensen