Eric Abramson was born to 50 acres and a family business in New Jersey. The business was Tiny Tots toy stores, founded by his great-grandfather, then run by his grandfather and grandmother, then his father. Although Eric watched MTV and dreamed of being a big time Hollywood director, it seemed pre-determined that he would, in time, take over the stores.

Until his dad said otherwise. “Look at the Target down the street, and the other big box stores. They’re killing us. This business is dying.” Amazon and e-commerce followed, the final nail in the toy store coffin.

It was time to change course. Eric was attending CU’s business school at the time, so he transferred to its journalism school. He already knew still photography and portrait lighting; he learned from his uncle, a professional who worked with the likes of Dire Straits, Willie Nelson, and other famous people. At CU he had an impactful professor, Jan Witt, who taught him how to write and how to be comfortable with editing. “No word is sacred,” she would remind him.

After graduation, Eric and a partner created a TV show, Fat Tire Journal. It was about mountain bikes – the culture, the racers, the factories. The show got a major distributor and several corporate sponsorships. It did very well.

Except for the partner part. The show blew apart in 1994, in an ugly phone call. Eric’s roommate overheard the call. The roommate was Vince Herman, of Leftover Salmon.

Vince asked Eric to come to California with the band. “I really enjoyed being out with them – working the lighting, selling shirts.” This was when he began collecting footage of the band. “I wanted to make sure Leftover Salmon’s place and contribution to Jamgrass history was not lost.” When he completed the film Years In Your Ears, it screened at film festivals in the US and Europe, and it is still available on DVDs and online.

Eric moved to Old Town, in Nederland, in 1994. “In college, Ned was the place to hang out, to see music, to play in the woods. Lots of mountain biking, lots of fun.” When he wasn’t out on the road with various bands, or otherwise working freelance as a camera assistant, he volunteered with the Nederland Fire Department.

Eric started traveling to LA and New York when he got the chance to work on concert films, advertising, and independent features in the camera department. Thinking this might be the path to follow, he got deeply involved in a big budget comedy feature film that was about to take off. But it did not. “I was so disillusioned, I went back to Colorado to reset.” The dream was over.

It was time for another change of course – to firefighting. In 2002 the Forest Service offered him temporary work, loading fire retardant into the aircraft that were fighting wildfires. He took particular interest in Tanker 123, an old warhorse built in 1947, still in service after 50 years. Eric asked the tanker’s pilot, Rick Schwartz, how he felt about flying such an old machine. “I’d rather die in that aircraft than wish I’d done something with my life. We’ve saved thousands of lives,” was Rick’s reply.

Three days later Rick died in that aircraft. It lost a wing and augured in, killing Rick and his co-pilot Milt Stollack. The crash started multiple, smaller fires. One of the helicopters extinguishing those fires also crashed, killing pilot Gordon Knight.

“A light went off. Now I was sure I had no interest in shooting movies anymore. I’d rather fight fires, save homes and lives. It’s high risk flying, it’s dangerous, but it serves the greater good.” That’s when Eric committed to firefighting. He has over 100 hours in helicopters, a lot for not being a pilot.

It’s been almost 30 years and Eric is still with Ned Fire, currently as Public Information Officer and Senior Volunteer Firefighter. That’s not to say he’s done with filmmaking. He continues to shoot projects with local and national acts. And then there’s the Oscar thing.

You see, Eric got pulled back into the movies – specifically, an environmental documentary about dolphin hunting and the dolphin entertainment industry. “I didn’t see it coming, I was back in film at a very high level.” How high? Well, Oscar high, for Best Documentary Feature in 2010. The film is called The Cove. You can check it out on some of the streaming services.

And he just completed a segment on the Marshall Fire for a television series. It will air on PBS later this year.

All while fighting fires.

Tiny Tots. Fat Tire Journal. Leftover Salmon. Documentaries. Firefighting. You must be wondering, how will I wrap this up?

Like Eric, I’m going to change course. I’m going to close with something Eric explained to me, his view of the world. A world, by the way, in which “people take a deep breath and are kind to each other.”

This is how Eric sees it: “In the way the world used to be, we lived in a small town, and there was a dirt road. We could all walk out to that road and talk to each other. Then a guy in a suit showed up and told us ‘you’ve got to get off this road, we’re paving it for the big trucks.’ The big trucks came, and we were divided into two sides. We could no longer talk to each other because of those trucks.

“We’ve got to get back to the dirt road.”