My love for nature, wildlife and the outdoors began at a very young age. I would go birding with my father, Monte Taylor, often in very remote locations from Canada to islands near Siberia in Alaska to the Dry Tortugas southwest of Florida. By the time I was 17, I had birded almost all of the states in North America and recorded over 700 different species of birds.

Curious Adelie Penguin in Antarctica

As a teenager my father much more actively photographed birds and mammals. On one of our trips to Alaska, my dad let me use one of his 35mm backup bodies and I couldn't stop taking pictures of the glaciers, native Inupiat and Yup'ik people, bears, landscapes and anything else that I found interesting. Needless to say, he asked me to be a little more conservative with how much film I was going through!

Although in the last 15 years I practically lost all interest in birding and photography (due to more "important" life obligations) that changed when I bought my Digital Rebel and began taking pictures once again. I quickly got bored photographing people and scenery - and found my primary interest to be bird photography. In Oct of 2007, I began taking photography much more seriously with the purchase of my Canon 500mm f/4L lens. And most recently, I finally upgraded to the Canon 1D Mark III in May of 2008.

I currently reside in Marina del Rey, CA just a few miles south of Santa Monica, CA. My other hobbies and interests include wine collecting, traveling, mountain biking/hiking and pretty much anything else outdoors. We recently travelled to Hawaii (Maui/Kauai/Big Island) in Oct 2007, Bosque del Apache in December 2007 and the Galápagos Islands in May 2008 and the Yucatán in October 2008. Future trips include Attu Island to Petropavlovsk, Russia in September 2009, Antarctica, South Georgia Island and the Falkland Islands in January 2010 with Debi Shearwater and a grand Africa trip (Kenya, Tanzania, Namibia, Botswana and Madagascar) sometime in 2010.

My photography gear list is also available for those curious.