Nathaniel Wilder's Blog

I have a Hasselblad now! I pieced it together on ebay and all of the parts have arrived that make up my new little baby. I really love making 6×6 portraits on film. The image fits so gracefully into that little square. This is going to be a very wonderful love affair. Although it’s fresh out the box and I haven’t had a chance to shoot with it yet, I wanted to share some images I took on my girlfriend’s Hasselblad last month on the east coast. I can’t wait to shoot with mine so– there’s more to come!

hello dear blog viewers!

I’ve been neglecting the blog lately. Don’t worry, I have much to share but have been slow to share it here (although I’ve been utilizing the ease of Facebook posting a little more: https://www.facebook.com/NathanielWilderPhoto)

Two things that I especially hope to highlight in upcoming blog posts… a trip to the arctic in winter. Right now I am in Point Hope–a small Inupiat eskimo whaling village in northwest Alaska (on the coast of the Chukchi Sea). I’ve had a span of adventures packed into this 2 week visit and, sometime soon I would love to share some of the visuals from this trip.

Second, I have fallen head over heels in love with medium format film. I’ve been taking quite a number of portraits with my girlfriend’s Hasselblad whenever I get to visit her (she lives out of state). I’ve got some portraits that I would like to share from those visits. Stay tuned!

I can finally share images from my first shoot for Merrell in Oregon earlier this year.

We spent four days shooting active lifestyle around Mt. Bachelor, Smith Rocks, Portland and the Columbia River Gorge area in March for Merrell’s fall and winter photo needs. There was a contingent of us. Each day there were 4 models present, my production assistant Whitney from Side of the Road Sessions, a marketing director from Merrell, 2 other independent creatives in charge of organizing models and apparel on set, a 3-man video production crew creating a piece from our shoot and an occasional extra local guide or Merrell employee assistant.

I had been a little nervous about creating natural, documentary-style imagery with a crew on “set” of this size–and working with actual professional models (something that was new for me). I felt it might look too staged. But we were able to make the whole shoot into a fun, light event with good humor. I was grateful for the willingness of the models to stay focused when they needed to, and listen to my direction. And extremely grateful for my assistant’s hand in keeping us on schedule–as we were shooting some thousands of images per day during multiple activity scenarios in various locations.

Here is a slew of my personal favorite images from a long four days with little sleep  :) This doesn’t necessarily reflect all of the imagery Merrell chose to purchase from the shoot–just my favorites that I feel best represent my personal style.

I’m looking forward to sharing images from our spring shoot in Costa Rica once Merrell has begun to market those as well as for future shoots coming down the pipes. Stay tuned! …

It was summer solstice a few days ago and this year, I spent it above the arctic circle with my brother, my only sibling– Forrest Wilder. He no longer lives in Alaska, so when he’s up north we spend time together outdoors.

We had four flawless, computer-less days in this landscape.
There was perfect, wild-smelling smoke from fires, there was thick dust swirling up from the road that took us there, we became sunburnt, it was hot, there were clouds of mosquitoes everywhere we went, there was breathtaking light, there was thoughtful conversation about the decisions we have made and the decisions we have yet to make, about the directions our lives could take, there was wildlife, there was wild-death, there were signs of wolves around us everywhere we hiked, there was cool breeze that blew the bugs away, there was hot morning to wake up to in our tent in sweat, there was a chilling arctic stream to take away that discomfort–to help us feel alive and pure, there was a cup of coffee each morning to hold while I gazed out across a valley that stretched north–not too far to the arctic ocean, there were patches of snow up high and there was spongy, deeply pungent tundra down low. The tundra crunched as we walked upon it, sinking. I pulled a tuft of it out of the earth and held it to my nose and breathed the same way I would into a cup of coffee on an early mountain morning.