I was first inspired to enter the field of wildlife biology by Denis Kelly, a biology professor at Orange Coast College. I was taking a class on Marine Mammals when Denis jumped up onto the lab tables and began screaming at the top of his lungs - he was emulating the sounds that different whale species make - and I remember thinking, "this guy is nuts... but I like it!" Within a month I was signed up to join another professor (Norm Cole) who was researching gray whale site fidelity to calving in San Ignacio Lagoon, Baja California. We spent 10 hours a day, several weeks each year on small inflatable boats photographing the barnacle patterns on gray whales in the lagoon, then later comparing those patterns to photographs from past years to identify returning individuals. It was there that I met another photographer and lifetime friend Mike Couffer. I furthered my photo identification skills on my next project where I used photographs of tail spot patterns to identify and track individual male sage grouse on breeding leks in the Mono basin, CA.   Later, while working on old world warblers (phylloscopus) with Dr. Trevor Price high in the Indian Himalayas, my trusty Mamiya Sekor tried to liberate and took a thousand foot slide down a glacier - the damage was terminal. I spent the next 5 years working on a wide variety of species ranging from koalas and kangaroos to falcons and ravens - all the while staying focused on my work and taking very few photographs. My wildlife journey continued into 25 years with the US Fish and Wildlife Service studying and furthering the conservation of many plant and animal species. After retiring I was on an outing banding black skimmers with my friend Mike Couffer when I realized how much I missed photography, and how many years of great opportunities for wildlife photographs I had missed. So now I am rediscovering my passion and sharing my photographs in hopes of inspiring others to experience and promote the conservation of the natural world we all belong to.