Biography

Wildlife Advocacy + Education

SEOT200 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. Read more about the CAWS program here

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

• 2014: Co-founder Wildlife Conservation Pass Project— a grassroots project to implement a new revenue pass for our National Wildlife Refuge system.

• 2005 to 2010: Lindsay Wildlife Hospital volunteer

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

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

• 2004: Volunteer for Emergency Animal Rescue disaster response

• Other volunteer work: Palomacy Pigeon and Dove rescue, SF SPCA

• I regularly donate my time and work to benefit conservation and animal advocacy organizations

Published Credits

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

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.

Colorado Review Cover by Ingrid Taylar

My work appears in publications, exhibits, and installations, and includes cover photos for:

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

Organizational + Publication including:

Puget Sound Partnership
Coastal California: The Wildlife (w/Jeff Corwin)
Defenders of Wildlife
SF Baykeeper
Migratory Shorebird Project
Bay Nature
USFWS
California Council for Wildlife Rehabilitators
State of the Birds SF Bay

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

Artist’s Statement

My mission as an artist is to generate awareness and care in our relationship to other animals. The absolute splendor of our natural world is at risk in almost every niche.

I work to showcase the beauty and magnificence of the many species with whom we coexist, while also amplifying the message of urgency — the importance of acting quickly and emphatically to protect and preserve the nature we stand to lose.

My environmental science classes at UC Berkeley, and my time as a wildlife hospital volunteer were foundational in my later wildlife pursuits. As passionate as I am about the arts, my wildlife photography has always been driven by a sense of advocacy and conservation.

My background is a cultural mix. I was born to Latvian parents, learning Latvian words before any English skills. My heritage is deeply connected to the the sea, the animals, and the biodiversity of the Baltics. I grew up with that ingrained, nature-oriented ethos.

I spent formative years in Europe as an expat kid, attending International Schools in Geneva and Amsterdam before repatriating to the States with my family. Two of my cherished childhood gifts — an Instamatic camera and a children’s typewriter — led to a lifelong love for both forms of expression.

I like to paint in pixels and words how it feels when I’m in the field … the heart-stopping moments when:

::: ten thousand Snow Geese take flight over Fir Island

::: an old bull elk bugles under Colorado’s first snow drops

::: a family of coyotes yips in the California dawn

::: a pod of orcas glides past the boat on the Salish Sea, sharing the song of the ocean

My guiding principle is putting the animal’s welfare above the photo, an ethical foundation strengthened through my mentorship at a Bay Area wildlife hospital.