Biography for Event Planners
John Fielder is a nationally renowned nature photographer, publisher, teacher, and preservationist. In 1981 he founded Westcliffe Publishers, one of the nation's largest publishers of nature books and calendars. A former department store executive who turned an avocation into a career, he is the photographer of 39 exhibit format books, guidebooks, and children’s books, most about his adopted state of Colorado.
Fielder has worked tirelessly to promote the protection of Colorado's open space and wildlands. His photography has influenced people and legislation earning him recognition including the Sierra Club's Ansel Adams Award, the University of Denver’s Daniel L. Ritchie Award, and the Distinguished Service Award from the University of Colorado. He was an original governor-appointed member of the lottery-related Board of Great Outdoors Colorado, and speaks to thousands of people each year to rally support for timely land-use and environmental issues.
Right-click here and select "Save as" to download a high resolution photo of John (as seen above).
Right-click here and select "Save as" to download an Adobe Reader (.pdf) version of "Get Ready for John."
Right-click here and select "Save as" to download a Microsoft Word (.doc) version of "Get Ready for John."
John Fielder Book & Calendar Sales
John does not charge a fee to present slide shows to charitable non-profit organizations. Book sales are a way for him to cover some of the travel costs. More importantly, people have come to expect John to have books available for sale, especially in the fall for Holiday gift-giving! If your organization can use the money, and you are a charitable or environmental non-profit, we are happy to share proceeds with you.
It is your responsibility to acquire and deliver the books to the event. Tell John (john@johnfielder.com) how many people you expect at the event and we will have proper quantities by title ready for you. Front Range events must pick up the books and calendars from John Fielder’s Colorado gallery, 833 Santa Fe Dr., Denver, 303-744-7979, info@johnfielder.com. We are open Tuesday-Saturday 10-6 pm. More remote events can request that books be shipped to the event directly from our distributor in Denver, but shipping charges in both directions will reduce your profit. It is also your responsibility to return leftovers to the gallery if that’s where you picked them up, or ship them via UPS back to the distributor. Contact the gallery for authorization and instructions. Please tell them how many boxes you have. If you pick up the books from the gallery, we will write you a check for 30% of net sales. If you have the books shipped from the distributor, we will write you a check for about 20% of net sales. Give John an address for the payment check before he departs.
John will bring to the event price sheets (that include sales taxes) and iPads for credit card sales. Please have 2 or 3 volunteers available to write up sales. We also take cash and checks. It would be wise to have a cash box available with some change. We prefer books be available for sale at least 30 minutes before the slide show and after, when most sales occur. John can autograph copies as soon as he has set up the projector and following the presentation for as long as folks stick around.
Audio-Visual Considerations
John brings his own projector, laptop, and music system to many events, but if your venue has a good quality projector and sound system, he will just plug his laptop into their system. He usually arrives 1 hour before show time to set up and to autograph books. All you need to provide is a good slide screen and small table for projector and laptop. The table should be low to the floor, about 2 feet high and 3 feet wide. For less than 100 people attending, the screen needs to be at least 6 feet-square, otherwise, at least 8 feet-square, but the bigger the better to display his images! Landscape format digital screens do not work well, unless they are quite large, given that some of John’s images are vertical format. If your event includes a meal serving, John prefers not to begin the program until after dessert has been served when commotion has ended and folks can enjoy the show. (Plus, John loves dessert and refuses to start the show until he’s consumed one or more!)
Promotion of the Event
We expect you to promote the event as best you can. John enjoys talking about his projects, usually involving some sort of environmental or humanitarian issue, and showing his photographs to as many people as possible. Again, he does not charge a speaking fee to non-profits and hopes that you will reciprocate by aggressively promoting the event. If your event is not open to the public, we hope you can attract a high percentage of your group’s membership.
If it is a public presentation, we hope that you will beseech your local media to promote the event either with public service announcements, or better yet, with a front page story about John, the project, and the event. We are happy to provide you press releases and John’s biography, and high resolution photographs of John, of book covers, and images from the show/book. John is always available to do interviews by phone with the media prior to the event. John’s Ranches of Colorado tour attracted 200- 500 people in most Colorado communities, including smaller towns. You may contact John directly for press materials.
It is important that you say in your promotion that many of John’s books and calendars will be available for sale and that John will be autographing them. That way people will already be thinking about for whom they want to purchase gifts and have their credit cards armed for big business! You may also encourage people to bring books previously purchased.
Thank you for inviting John to your community and your event….we are very appreciative of the opportunity to meet you and your group, and to share photographs and discuss issues important to the future of our most beautiful of states, Colorado!