GIVING: Colorado’s most famous nature photographer donates life work to public domain.

For the past eight months at his home in the Summit County hills, John Fielder spent most every morning and afternoon sifting through photographs tucked away for decades.

They were transparencies from his years of hauling heavy film equipment deep into Colorado’s backcountry. The transparencies needed paring down — duplicates in which the exposure and/or contrast wasn’t quite right. Fielder estimated copies to number around 150,000, with another 50,000 or so from his digital days after 2008.

The countless hours spent sifting, editing and scanning were “enough to whack me,” said Fielder, 72.

It was all for the sake of others.

The state’s most famous nature photographer has arranged the gift of a lifetime: his lifetime of work.

Have two of Fielder’s coffee table books and they’re stunning. This is a helluva gift.