Abstract: An erbium fiber laser produces a beam of ultrashort laser pulses having a center wavelength greater than 780 nanometers, an average power greater than 0.5 watt, and a spectral bandwidth compressible to a pulse duration of less than 200 femtoseconds. The laser includes a fiber preamplifier that is energized by a counter-propagating pump beam, has relatively low population inversion in a relatively long optical gain fiber, and provides a spectrally-shaped beam for further amplification. Wavelength dependent gain and absorption within the optical gain fiber enhances longer wavelengths relative to shorter wavelengths in the spectrally-shaped beam. The spectral shaping is sufficient to overcome gain narrowing and gain shifting in a subsequent high-gain fiber amplifier.