We recently had the chance to connect with Jonathan Watt and have shared our conversation below.
Good morning Jonathan, it’s such a great way to kick off the day – I think our readers will love hearing your stories, experiences and about how you think about life and work. Let’s jump right in? What are you being called to do now, that you may have been afraid of before?
Recently I’ve felt a calling to get in to volunteer work. I have a passion for helping people and I’d like to give back to the community. I haven’t necessarily been “afraid” to volunteer in the past, but maybe just felt too busy, or honestly intimidated to go through the effort to figure out how to get started. I’m also one of those people who understands life can be tough. I’ve found that some people can just be afraid, or want to distance themselves from people who are struggling. I enjoy people reaching out to me and I’m always here for anyone to share their struggles, build them up, without judgement. Small talk and laughs are great, but depth and being vulnerable and authentic is a higher level of connection! Anyone is free to reach out to me, my contact info is on my website – www.jwattphotgraphy.com.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m a Colorado based photographer, doing primarily landscape photography. I’ve won multiple awards and contests. This past year I was featured in National Geographic. I’m a native and former pro mountain bike racer who has traveled Colorado and the Rocky Mountain Region. I think what makes my work unique are two things. First, I have been traveling all over the Rocky Mountain Region for over 25 years. I know the state of Colorado pretty well. I’m always trying to go somewhere new and explore and learn about Colorado’s history. Yes, I have shots of the popular locations like the Maroon Bells, etc. But I find the most joy in capturing the hidden gems that are less known or harder to get to. I’ve ridden my mountain bike 14 miles with camera gear and a tripod in my backpack to find those hard to get to locations.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What was your earliest memory of feeling powerful?
When I was about middle school age, I was getting in to sports and was really in to soccer. I had a great coach and I’ll never forget two things he told me. I played goalie, and during the last game of our first season, he told me all the other coaches would tell him they feared us because I was “the best goalie in the state”. Secondly, after our last game, he told me I was going to be a great athlete in whatever sport I pursued. That really inspired me and stuck in my head.
One thing I’ve learned in life, is that the most important trait you can have in life is drive. And I have found it’s hard to teach; most people are either born with it, or not. But whether it’s sports, work, hobbies, music, etc, drive or having that desire to really be your best is so important. Putting in that extra hour of practice, pushing yourself a little harder than you thought you could. Striving for new personal records, etc. Drive is so important, and I felt that after those early years in soccer. I later went on to have success in bike racing, moto racing, drag racing, music, tennis, football, academics, and now photography. Whatever I’ve gotten in to, I’ve had that drive to be the best that I can.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
Everything! This first made me think of spending time in the gym or training for an event. If you want to build strong muscles or train to run fast, you have to put in the work and suffer first. Lifting weights actually causes small tears in the muscle, which causes them initially to be weaker, but over a few days, the body rebuilds them bigger and stronger (assuming proper diet, etc.) The same goes with going to college and studying in college. Maybe there were some text books you enjoyed reading because you had a genuine interest, but we all had those textbooks that were like watching paint dry to suffer through for a good grade.
In photography, suffering helps you make less mistakes. When I was beginning, sometimes I would get up in the mountains and find a perfect photo location, pull out my camera, and realize I forgot an SD card, or a certain lens I needed. Or maybe when I got home and downloaded my photos, I realized there was a piece of trash in the foreground, or the focus wasn’t right. That is suffering when you did all that work and the photos are a bust. But that continuous process makes for better preparation and thinking ahead. I usually double or triple check my gear when heading out now.
Here’s a deeper form for life. One of the most important things that I’ve learned in life is that suffering can lead to empathy and kindness. I’ve found that the kindest people have gone through tremendous suffering experiences. Now I don’t wish suffering on anyone, but in my opinion, it can lead to kindness and empathy. I have gone through some very tough times in my life, and now when I see others going through hard times, I have a passion to help them, instead of ignoring it.
Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. Is the public version of you the real you?
Yes and no. The photos of me out camping or exploring are real and typically there was a fairly large adventure leading up to the location that isn’t seen. I am thinking about doing videos about the journeys to get my shots. I tend to share publicly about my beliefs on kindness and empathy. And if you ever have a deep conversation with me, that will come out fairly quick.
I’ll be honest, I try put my best self out publicly. Mostly… Here’s an example, when I see a homeless person at a grocery store, I usually try to buy them a sandwich or some food. But I don’t share that publicly. I don’t like to be given “fame so to speak” for just helping someone out.
In some ways, the real me is kind of boring. All those bike wins, the photo and music awards, they were accomplished in a few minutes or hours. But behind that was thousands of hours of practice, training, etc.
I also try not to air out my dirty laundry. Just like everyone, I’ve made mistakes in my life and don’t feel I need to share them publicly. I open up pretty quick in person though.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
I want to be remembered for my accomplishments, but also how I’ve helped grow every industry I’ve been in. I want people to remember I won a mountain bike national championship, raced from 1989 to 2022, but then I also spent 15 years designing and progressing the performance of mountain bike suspension that it is today.
I want to be remembered as someone who gave it his all no matter what he got in to. Someone who had drive.
But my biggest goal, which is probably not realistic (but a guy can hope) is that I want to be known as one of the greatest Colorado explorers of all time. I want to be listed among the names of John C Fremont, Juan Antonio Maria de Rivera, Louis Vasquez, Mary Cronin, John Muir (a distant great uncle of mine I’ve been told) and Zebulon Pike (two of the many forks I was involved in design work for RockShox were the Zeb and Pike, named after Zebulon). I have an advantage over the historical explorers from the 1700’s and 1800’s in that there are highways and reliable vehicles to travel. But I spend nearly every weekend finding a new location to explore, Not just the locations where you can drive your car up to and look. I have a capable 4×4 truck, but I like the locations that have no roads and most people don’t know exist in Colorado, Places like Skagway power plant, Champion Mill, secret hot springs such as some un-named off the Co River south of Kremmling, ghost towns, the amazing views from Blackbear pass in the san Juans, less traveled waterfalls… I could go on and on. If you have a question about where to go in this state for a vacation or any sort of adventure, I’m your guy!
But I hope that people will speak of Jon Watt as one of the Colorado explorers with my photos of hard to get to locations showing up in text books.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jwattphotography.com/ols/all
- Instagram: @jwatt_photography
- Facebook: @jonwatt
- Youtube: Jon Watt @wattnothing
