About

PORTFOLIO | PUBLISHED PHOTOS | WRITING CLIPS

THE WILD BEAT PHOTOGRAPHY

“When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.” ~ John Muir

I love photographing both the wild and the urban, and especially the wild in the urban — the elements of my city wanderings and my Wild Beat. My photos follow my whims and my footsteps, making them situational and subjective … literal, lyrical or metaphorical.

This is not a straightforward nature blog … as I’m skeptical of conventions we’ve laid upon natural and social environments. I see the abstract in the tangible, the surreal sometimes as more real than the concrete. I value expressions of inner authenticity, beyond a situation’s barest outlines. I think we cannot possibly know the fullness of the nonhuman experience, for example. And, to that end, I refuse to restrict the possibilities of what they are, what we are and how we all coexist in this web.

I’m drawn to themes of reclamation, where wildlife and flora manage to eke out an existence or even thrive in the unlikely confines of the “unnatural.” As such, I’m particularly fond of wildlife success stories in city or industrial grids, where nature has been allowed to move back in, either formally or informally — in patchworks of habitat or in long stretches of greenway.

Please check my ethics page for my views on wildlife photography practices and the well-being of my wild, photographic subjects.

BIO IN BRIEF

:: Recent interview in the July 2012 issue of Empirical Magazine: A Moment With Ingrid Taylar

At a young age, I saw the Aurora Borealis from a jet, and that set me up to expect outrageous phenomena from the sky and sand — phenomena like thousands of tundra swans and snow geese brushing alabaster across the horizon . . . or a giant herd of elk grazing and bugling under Colorado snow drops . . . or the pulse of an orca pod stirring the waters beneath.

I’m a researcher for a bestselling author and also a freelance writer. My volunteer work in wildlife rehabilitation fueled my passion for photography, and my method is self taught, an ongoing curriculum. My lifelong engagement with animals continues to form my creative and visual narrative.

I was born in the States and spent formative early years as an expat in Geneva and Amsterdam — which makes me a bit of a misfit and a hybrid on either continent. Nature has been my constant. I’ve never outgrown my geekiness about flora and fauna, even as I juggle my love for city, cinema and coffee houses. I aspired to veterinary school before I finally admitted that word patterns made sense in my brain, whereas mathematical formulas did not. It was my conservation and resources classes at UC Berkeley that set into motion an evolution of spirit. They introduced me to an entirely new canon of ecological works and authors, and formed my environmental understanding from that point forward.

Since that time, I’ve taken disaster rescue training with Emergency Animal Rescue Services, trained as a volunteer rehabilitator at a Bay Area wildlife hospital, acquired Hazwoper certification to work with wildlife in oil spill events, and regularly take supplemental classes in a variety of disciplines to supplement and improve my skill set and knowledge. I’m also an administrator at the The Wildlife Conservation Stamp Project, a grassroots endeavor to promote a birders’ and photographers’ stamp for our National Wildlife Refuges.

MY METHOD

The well-being of my animal subjects — both wild and domestic — is more important to me than any image. That principle guides my photography. You can read my more detailed philosophy here.

My approach is photo journalistic in that I don’t take issue with the imperfections of ambiance, even as I work to capture the best possible composition and frames within a given environment. My intent is to freeze a moment, a scene, an inspiration or an emotion in such a way that you might see what I saw in that blip of time and space.

MY PHOTOS

My photos have appeared in a variety of publications, online journals and websites, and in commercial and nonprofit promotional materials.

Enjoy your browsings and drop me a line if you have any comments or need more information. Thanks for stopping by!

~ Ingrid Taylar
Email me at The Wild Beat

Photos, writings, cartoons and graphics are copyrighted to me — as is all content at The Wild Beat (except work by others, used here with their permission).

Feel free to use excerpts of articles or text — if you link back to the original post. And please attribute the work. Or, e-mail me if you’d like permission to use any content or material in full. I keep a selection of photos at my Flickr site — most of which are available under a Creative Commons attribution license. These can be used freely with attribution and a link back to my website.

ADVOCATING FOR ANIMALS

I don’t avoid controversial topics that are important to me. At the same time, I’m open to discussion, disagreement and perspectives different from my own, so please feel free to post in the comments if you have something to say on what I’ve posted. I’m not a scientific expert, but I do make every effort to inform my writings and opinions with accurate information. I enjoy animated debates, and I don’t block or moderate reader comments unless they are defamatory or otherwise inappropriately personal or vitriolic. Even then, I prefer to interject rather than block. My spam catcher will moderate comments with multiple links them. I do my best to approve them in a timely way.

My views are strictly my own and do not represent any animal, wildlife or professional organization with which I’ve volunteered or trained.