Biography of Photographers

Southeast Arizona (2006) Chiba, Japan (1998)		Monte Taylor is a Canon Professional Photographer. He began his interest in birds and nature at the tender age of 9 years. That interest grew into wildlife photography which he has pursued now for over 40 years. His images have been published in National Geographic, National Audubon Society Field Guides and Magazines, Birding, Western Birds, and numerous other books, magazines, periodicals, CD's, and research papers over the last 30 years. His accomplishments include photographing nearly all (over 785 species) of the expected bird species, including many of the rarest, in North America. To that he has added many of the large mammals, cetaceans, and sea mammals and expanded into species from Japan and east Asia. At present he has over 70,000 stock images of these species (and sub-species) in different poses, age groups, and activities. His travels have taken him to each state and province on the North American continent, north of Mexico, including many trips to Japan and east Asia. His most favorite places are Alaska, California, southeastern Arizona, Florida, Ohio, Texas, Japan, British Columbia, Ontario, and Nova Scotia, Canada.

Along the Kougarok Rd, 85 miles north of Nome, Alaska - where the Musk Ox and Grizzly roam !! (1990)		Camera Equipment
		Canon 40D Body (Digital)
		Canon 30D Body (Digital)
		Canon 20D Body (Digital)
		Canon EOS 1N Body (35 mm film)
		Canon 600 mm / f 4.0 USM Lens
		Canon 400 mm / f 2.8 USM Lens
		Canon 300 mm / f 2.8 USM Lens
		Canon 100mm-400mm / f5.6 Lens
		Wimberley Ver 1 Head and Gitzo carbon-fiber tripod including EX-580 flash systems and hardware, Canon 1.4x and 2.0x EF teleconverters + extension tubes

Photo Credits - Published Articles / Images - 'National Geographic' books - 'National Audubon Society' Field Guides - American Birding Association 'Birding' Magazines - 'American Birds' Magazines - 'Western Birds' Magazines - 'Kaufman Birding Series Field Guides' books - 'Peter Thayers Birders Diary' CD - eNature (enature.com) - Smithsonian Institute videos - BioDiversity Institute (bdi.org) - Oriental Bird Images (orientalbirdimages.org) - Wikipedia.com Online Encylopedia Website
- and, numerous other books, CDs, magazines, research papers, wildlife area posters, and educational publications


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My interest in nature, birds, mammals, and photography also started at a young age. I've always been fascinated by the brilliant colors of many of our countries song birds and the variety and geographical differences in habitat that North America offers. This has also been a 'magnet' for me - to travel to many of the far reaching points on this continent in search of some of the rarest species. For those who are keenly interested in the birds of North America, there has grown a large group of individuals whose challenge has been to 'see' as many of the species found in the United States. I fell into this group and its interest and took it another step further by trying not only to see as many of the species in the U.S. but also to photograph them as well. I've also had a special interest in the birds and animals of Japan and have spent some time photographing the species there in the "land of the rising sun".

For those interested in the photo equipment utilized a somewhat brief summary follows:

At age 6, I started with one of those old Kodak Brownie cameras (if anyone out there is old enough to remember that camera!) and by 14 had graduated to my first 35mm camera - a Minolta SRT-101. In its day it was a decent camera, and because once you choose a camera body the lenses follow. My first 'big' lens was a Vivitar 120-600mm with a f5.6 aperture speed. Believe it or not, a few hand held shots with that lens still exist on the web site. But, once the seriousness of getting sharp images became more of a priority, I finally broke down and bought a Minolta 9000 and an 8000i body along with a 300mm f2.8 APO lens. That satisfied the sharpness requirement for the next several years and allowed me to get some decent shots that ended up in many magazines and books. However, I found the Minolta system too slow. Yep, the "fast" auto-focus Minolta lenses seemed to be more accustomed to focusing at a snails pace it seemed and after looking at the Canon EOS-1 body and lenses I decided right then and there (after missing so many photo ops due to slow focusing) to switch to the Canon system. (Now I shoot with Canon 40D and 30D bodies along with the lenses mentioned below)

Well, for those of you who know the kinds of dollars we're speaking of here, that was no simple and inexpensive decision! But, in the sake of getting shots the credit card came out of the wallet and now the system is comprised of both an EOS-1n body (film), and 40D and 30D bodies (digital), a 100mm-400 mm f5.6 lens, a 300mm f2.8 APO lens, a 400mm f2.8 APO lens, and finally the big boy itself - a 600mm f4 lens. I utilize a carbon-fiber Gitzo tripod on nearly every single shot with rare exception (like out on boat trips of course!), and generally use a fresnel flash system as well. But - I did say I'd keep this short - oh well! Write me if ya want to know more!