I’ve had a camera in my hands since I was a kid — my first, a Kodak Instamatic I carried everywhere during our expat lives in Europe. My family history and heritage is connected to the sea, the animals, and the biodiversity of the Baltics, where my parents were born. I grew up first in Europe, then in the States, with an enduring love for animals and ecology.

My partner and I began volunteering at a Bay Area wildlife hospital after years of rescuing the injured birds and animals we’d find, always wishing we had more skills.  It was at the hospital where my photography and my environmental passions found a new voice. The hands-on experience breathed life into abstraction. We syringed meds to head-injured waxwings, mashed up kibble for crows, and bottle-fed orphaned raccoons. Seeing the hardships these animals faced blew my heart open.

Outside the hospital, I started documenting wild animals adapting to human-altered environments — especially their resilience in surviving where nature and urban/industrial settings converge, places I also lived.  So many species are now at risk globally and, to me, this is the ecological story of our times.

I’m also drawn to the quieter worlds coexisting in tandem with charismatic species — the shore crabs and beach hoppers, and the misunderstood animals like city pigeons and opossums. My photos reflect this eclecticism and my need to root for the underdogs.

I do my best to paint my experience and theirs in pixels … that heart-stopping moment when ten thousand Snow Geese take flight overhead … when an old elk bugles under the season’s first snow drops … when a pod of Orcas glides past the boat, sharing the pulse of the ocean.

My guiding principle, always, is putting the animal’s welfare above the photo.

GEAR: Olympus/OM, OM1 Mark II, OM1, 300mm f/4, 150-600mm f/5-6.7, 100-400mm f/5-6.7, 40-150mm f/2.8, 12-100mm f/4

Taking a photography break at Fort Ord in Monterey County

In October 2022, I was certified with Community Active Wildlife Stewards (CAWS) — a recognition program for businesses and others demonstrating wildlife stewardship, and designed to encourage responsible wildlife viewing guidelines.

• May 2024 to present: Volunteer Naturalist – Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary – Public education on MBNMS and Monterey Bay/Pacific coast wildlife

• 2016 to 2020:  Ethics Committee for the North American Nature Photography Association – promoting standards of ethical practice in the field of wildlife photography.

• 2012: Co-founder Wildlife Conservation Pass Project— a grassroots project to implement a new revenue pass for our National Wildlife Refuge system.

• 2009: 24-hour Hazwoper certification for oil spill response

• 2009: Wildlife rescue field response training (Wildlife Emergency Services)

• 2005 to 2010: Lindsay Wildlife Hospital volunteer

• 2004: Volunteer for Emergency Animal Rescue disaster response

•  International Bird Rescue

•  Empirical Magazine.

• Science
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Magazine
• Colorado Review
• Functional Ecology Magazine
• Penguin Publishing’s Morning Glory Novel
• Puget Sound Partnership’s State of the Sound

Organizational + Publications including:

• Defenders of Wildlife
• Coastal California: The Wildlife (w/Jeff Corwin)
• Bay Nature
• Ocean Conservancy
• California Council for Wildlife Rehabilitators
• Elakha Alliance

[A more complete list of credits is here: Published Images]

In addition to my photography, I’m a freelance writer and an independent book researcher (15 years). My work is credited in more than 25 James Patterson/Maxine Paetro books, including Women’s Murder Club, Private, and Confessions series.

In the years prior, I wrote and edited the San Francisco travel website for About.com, worked as a freelance writer, and wrote a regular column for a national health magazine. My previous background was in administration, working in various fields including entertainment.

Enjoy your browsings and thanks for stopping by. For all uses or permissions of images posted here, please feel free to contact me for the specs.

Photos, writings, and graphics © Ingrid Valda Taylar