My apologies for getting this post up later than usual tonight. It’s been a busy day of eye-doctoring and friend-meeting and fish-eating and time-having.

Today’s Colorado Campaign comes to you from Daniel Petty. Social media editor at the Denver Post by day (and often night), reporter and photographer…also by day (and often…night – I’m bad at this using a common phrase thing), he’s a journalism/photography/running/climbing/jumping fool. And I mean that in the best way possible. Truly.

So, please join me in welcoming him to the Campaign. (And when you’re through here, check out his site and Twittering ways.)

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DENVER — If you’re fortunate enough to find and do a job you love you’ll never have to work a day in your life.
So many spend their lives drifting from one occupation to the next — or just anchored in one place. Settled in time, but not with a settled soul — always doing just what’s necessary to sustain and survive. But I was one of the lucky ones who discovered relatively early that telling stories — through words, still or moving pictures — was my calling. And my calling became my work. And my work became and was my passion.

It pulled me West, away from the comforts of all my friends and family, the bustling metropolises and crammed highways of the East Coast to a city at the edge of the grandest mountains in the country. I came trained as a man of the written word. But the mystique of Colorado, its people and its places pushed me further to explore telling stories with pictures and capturing moments behind the lens.

I could count the number of people from my past life who have come here to visit me on one hand. In one of those moments, a former running coach from high school was here, passing through in late October for reasons I can’t remember. We journeyed west on Interstate 70 with no agenda in mind before I suggested we turn off to drive up Mt. Evans — elevation 14,265 feet above sea level — knowing we could drive on the highest paved road in the world to the summit without much struggle. I seldom travel anywhere — bars, churches, playing field, work, on planes — without a backpack crammed with at least one camera and a few lenses. Today was no different.

The sun was setting behind the jagged peaks and the temperature, much lower than the warmth of Denver, where we had just finished outside the city. I waited patiently for the sun to get just far enough behind and started snapping — lake in the foreground, slivers of lights shooting over the peaks.

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To see past submissions, click on the link:

The Colorado Campaign

Want to contribute as well? Send your submission to me at: anya.elise@gmail.com

Have any questions about submitting work? Shoot me a message or check out this post:

Questions, answers, the plan