Artist portrait: Timothée Nalet
Timothée Nalet is our photographer of the day. Self-taught man, he made sure that his passion became his real job. Let’s discover this young man full of projects and his beautiful pictures in our interview!
[Hiking on the Moon] Can you introduce yourself and tell us how you become a photographer?
Timothée Nalet: I’m 26 and I come from Montelimar, in the South of France. It’s not the perfect destiny to become a mountain photographer, is it? In fact, I started trail running during my studies in Grenoble, France, 7 years ago, and my passion for photography raised at the same time. I took photos of the mountain places where I went, of my trip, my friends skiing, etc. So this passion became my main leisure time, and then my professional activity in 2012. At the beginning I sold my pictures very occasionally, then it was more regular. I never studied photography, I just observe and learn from the best photographers, they inspired me!
[Hiking on the Moon] Today, you take pictures of mountain sports, landscapes, animals or urban environment. Do you have a preference?
Timothée Nalet: Obviously! I like above all else spending time in the mountains, and take pictures of it. Landscapes are clearner, more pure. The conditions, sometimes difficult, encourage us to surpass ourselves. It’s not easy to take a nice picture in a real storm, but it’s in this kind of situation that you make your most beautiful pics. My favorite kind of picture is action sport in the mountains. Sportmen help me to magnify a landscape. I also realized that “my” own mountains, locally, are my favorite place to shoot. But, my first motivation is still and always learning. There are lots of pictures I still don’t take correctly and my curiosity leads me to regularly try new techniques or compositions to bring some new things in my to take pictures and to keep the fun to the maximum.
[Hiking on the Moon] Among the pictures below, do you have a favorite? If yes, for which reasons?
Timothée Nalet: This is a tough question, since you already asked me to choose my favorite pictures for this article 😉
But, I would say the one of the Mont Blanc’s 80 km, with the whole Mont Blanc chain in the back. I walked from 3 am to 4 am with a big backpack, I waited one hour in the cold and enjoyed a very short time of a clear sky at the sunrise to get this image! This kind of perfect scénario doesn’t happen very often, so I was at the right place, at the right time!
[Hiking on the Moon] Regarding the Mont Blanc, you went around him. What do you remember about this great adventure?
Timothée Nalet: I only did once in its entirety, during the UTMB 2013 as a runner. It was an amazing human adventure, with a lot of people who supported me. I took forces in deep down of myself to complete the lap! Trailrunning always brought me a lot things for my pictures. It allows me to identify places very quickly places, to judge the brightness according to the seasons and to imagine future images. I know very well the Mont Blanc turn, since I make it very often in small sections, but I would like to take the time to go through a normal speed, sleeping in mountain huts. It will be a good opportunity to illustrate it in my own way, even if the subject has already been done. And, of course, I hope that one day I will cover the UTMB as a photographer, to be on the other side of the fence 
[Hiking on the Moon] Some projects to come?
Timothée Nalet: Oh yes, a lot! 2015 will be amazing!
In April I will run the Ultra-Trail in Madère, then I will focus on a photography project for the summer: a lot of images around Annecy, France and new sports to explore: triathlon and tennis. But for the moment, I will enjoy some back country skiing session before the end of the season!
On the Hiking on the Moon side, we wish you a lot of success for these coming projects and we encourage you to visit his website www.timotheenalet.com and his blog www.peignee-verticale.com.
