Teresa Golden lives in the small mountain community of Gunnison. Her love of photography began as a child, and was influenced by many family members. Her grandfather showed her photography books of mountain scenery at the tender age of four years old. Her parents gave her a Nikon camera for her sixteenth birthday. Her grandmother saw a “living spirit” in her photographs, encouraging her to find a venue to share her work.
When Teresa moved to Colorado, she eventually settled in the wildlife rich environment of the Gunnison valley. Able to hike the high Rockies, camp in remote places and observe the vastness of nature, she found home. While the seemingly endless mountains are filled with birds like bald eagles, blue heron and osprey; it is the big skies that invite evenings of fascinating and colorful sunsets. Big game animals such as elk are seen roaming the vast valley floors and bighorn sheep skip across the steep mountain peaks drawing one to look in awe. Yet, there is something to marvel at in the grace of a doe or buck cresting a hilltop in silent beauty. To her photographic eye, even the smaller critters like chipmunks, rabbits and squirrels are a delight to capture in their more playful aspects.
Teresa considers herself a “Texture Photographer” today. She loves to take pictures of landscapes, sunsets and wildlife, but all with an eye for the texture in the scene. A sunset is beautiful; however, when you add a tree, a horse or a mountain panorama, then a regular sunset becomes “The Glowing Vista.” Likewise, a bald eagle is pretty and captivating to view on a tree branch. When she captures the bald eagle flying over a flowing river, the bird becomes “A Mighty Hunter,” powerful and compelling to watch swooping a fish from the waters.
With a strong spiritual connection to the Sacred Divine, she is inspired by God to use her photography as a presentation of the precious living world we live in. The spirit of God is alive and active in all of creation. She hopes that her photos will inspire you to feel the deep love of God when you look in to the soft eyes of a deer, instead of to hunt it. It is her desire that you marvel at the agility of a bighorn as it scales the rocky cliffs and feel your spirit lift as you watch an eagle soar upwards towards the heavens. She hopes that we learn to treasure all life and create a more peaceful world.
Teresa took the cover photograph of the bighorn ewe this past November, 2018 along the Taylor River just outside of Almont. It had recently snowed and a small group of rams and ewes were climbing along the rocky slopes that jut out of the hillside about a half mile past the Three Rivers Resort.
