Nov. 16th, 2008
Breathtaking landscapes

After a few days in the western part of South Dakota, I spent a couple weeks in Wyoming. The sights are breathtaking. I’ve been very fortunate with amazing weather. Here are a few samples of what I saw. You can find these along a few others in the photo gallery. Thanks for visiting!
Nov. 29th, 2008
Happy thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. All the best for this end of the year.
Dec. 1st, 2008
Great Christmas gifts

You can now purchase prints of your favorite pictures.
Dec. 17th, 2008
Happy Holidays!

With one week left before Christmas, I want to take this opportunity to wish you a great holiday season.
Jan. 14th, 2009
A new year

Well here we go for another round. It’s always exciting, not knowing where life’s going to take me next. A year ago I was discovering the endless diversity of people, cultures and landscapes of southern Africa where I ventured for three months. An extraordinary experience which I hope to renew in the near future. 
As for now, a few projects are up in the air to start the year. A spec commercial, then a feature and possibly a web series may keep me busy soon. I will be posting updates as we go along. But first I’ll be putting up some new pictures. To the right you can see a sample of my experimentation with infrared. I’ll also be adding some new black and white photos by the end of the month. All the best for ’09!
Feb. 16th, 2009
Updates

The photo gallery has been optimized and made more user friendly with added flash components. It looks better and feels easier. New pictures were also added. I finally got some black and white film rolls processed that I had in the freezer for months! I do love the surprise factor of discovering pictures on film. Even if nine pictures out of ten are disappointing... Out of fifteen rolls I did get a few satisfactory ones though. I also made a few experiments with stop motion as you can see here.
Mar. 13th, 2009
Downtime

The year started very slowly. January is notoriously a bad month. February turned out to be just as slow except for a couple weddings I shot. Earlier this month I was involved in a short film called “Puffer Fish”. It is now in post-production. We produced it with a micro budget and shot for four days. As producer and lead actor, I had the opportunity to experience working on a film from two very different perspectives. It was very interesting to be on the other side of the camera for a change. As a director it gave me a lot of insight into the acting process and made me admire actors that much more. And all I can say is that you won’t see me in front of the camera any time soon again...
Apr. 5th, 2009
First quarter round-up

Well things are finally picking up. At last! I’m working on a corporate video these days and will be starting work on a feature on the 16th. I will be the chief lighting technician on a psychological thriller. 
Picture is locked on “Puffer Fish” and we just obtained the rights to great music. Now starts the process of submitting it to film festivals. We’re very happy with the result. As soon as the trailer is up online I will post a link to it.
Nov. 28th, 2009
About to embark on a new journey

The year has gone by very fast and I find myself not having posted any updates in months. 
I have been busy working on a number of projects. Since april, I have worked on a couple features, several corporate videos, a short film, a web series and last week a live studio recording session with some of the world’s best musicians. 
Most notably I shot a video for Nestlé in september. I am currently collaborating with them on future projects. 
I also directed and shot a short documentary called “Brevin” which is still in post-production. 
“Puffer Fish”, a film I co-produced earlier this year was screened at the International Malibu Film Festival in august and was very well received. 
As far as photography I have been shooting quite a bit and will post new pictures as soon as I have the time. May and june were spent shooting graduations. I had a couple fashion shoots between may and august. The last one was terrific. 
I also went on a few camping trips to the Mojave desert, Sequoia and Joshua Tree national parks to shoot. 

Now I am a few days away from taking off for Vietnam where I’ll start a four months journey throughout south east Asia. It’s extremely exciting as I’ve wanted to visit that part of the world for many years. After Vietnam I will discover Laos and Cambodia before ending in Thailand. It will undoubtedly be an extraordinary experience and I can’t wait to share my thoughts and images with you soon.
May 15th, 2010
Back to the western world

127 days spent backpacking through south east Asia. 
The journey started in december in  Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam where I shot for a local travel and entertainment magazine called “The Word”. Nearly two months spent in this beautiful country making my way from the charming Mekong Delta to the northern capital Hanoi.  
In late january I set out for Thailand’s southern island paradise of Koh Tao where I became a certified advanced open water diver. A new world opened before my eyes. I faced one of my biggest fears in the world by diving with bull sharks. Yes you can call me stupid... 
A month later I crossed into Laos from northern Thailand and felt like I was finally venturing into what I’d fantasized about for so long. A raw and nearly unspoiled peaceful country with amazing people and gorgeous landscapes. On that note most people in south east Asia as a whole were wonderful and greeted visitors with the warmest smiles. 
Cambodia was the last stop on this extraordinary journey. The temples of Angkor were everything and more than I had ever read, seen or hoped for. An amazing complex of temples all different one from the other. It is by far the most impressive archeological site I have ever visited. The country and its people still wear the scars of war and genocide. It was the hardest place to be in for that reason. Very poor and miserable in many aspects. But I found the food to be the most interesting and flavorful of all four countries. 
The return to California a few weeks ago was extremely rough. A cultural shock I was not expecting. Everything felt superficial and “plastic” for the first week. I found myself a little lost in the disconnected environment of L.A. 
It took a good two weeks for me to get back to normal and ease into the rhythm. 

Last weekend I shot a music video for Seven The Hardway, a “new” band comprised of well established musicians such as guitarist Tony MacAlpine, drummer Virgil Donati and singer Mark Boals. The video for their upcoming single “Guilt” will be used to generate a buzz and promote the band’s first album which will be released later this year.  

“Puffer Fish”, a film I produced last year was just accepted to another festival and will be screened at the Sunset Gower Studios on june 29th as part of the New Filmmakers Los Angeles festival.

         © 2006-2011 Gareth Taylor, All rights reserved

June 30th, 2010
New site!

The website will be getting a complete overhaul in the coming months. The new site will be up by the end of october. Thanks for your patience.
October 31st, 2010
Happy Halloween!

The site is slowly transforming. The new home page showcases my latest cinematography reels. The rest of the site will change over the next few weeks and with it a simpler more sober look. The photo page will be the next big challenge with 18 months of work needed to be added, including the south east Asia pictures. Thanks for checking in.

 News             |             Photography             |           Cinematography            |              About GT              |             Credits            |            Documentaryphotography.htmlGareth_Taylor___director_of_photography.htmlabout_Gareth_Taylor.htmlGareth_Taylor_credits.htmlGareth_Taylor___filmmaker.htmlshapeimage_20_link_0shapeimage_20_link_1shapeimage_20_link_2shapeimage_20_link_3shapeimage_20_link_4shapeimage_20_link_5
November 12th, 2010
Time warp and site updates

So I’ve come to terms with the fact that this site, like everything in life is an evolving project. It isn’t finite in any way and should never be finished or completed. I just made some changes and am happy with the way it stands now. The only major endeavor left for me to take on before the end of the year is updating the photo galleries. That’s a monster one. 

The last few months have gone by so fast and if it wasn’t for my mac’s calendar I’d have no idea what time of the year it is. Especially with the crazy weather we’ve had here in southern California. A mild summer followed by a couple months of going from extreme heat to pouring rain to chilly nights back to high temperatures and finally today a real fall day in all its beauty (how poetic of me). 

Work was terrific until the end of july. Then august through mid-october appeared fairly slow in terms of actual working days but I found myself quite busy between prepping for those few projects, developing others, putting my new reels together, keeping up-to-date with technical advances and shooting a few side projects. Now I find myself back on the looking-for-work routine which I was fortunate to avoid for the last year and a half thanks to referrals.  Wow those were a couple long sentences...

The time I put into the reels is paying off already as I am getting quite a few replies to job submissions. A nice change considering early last year I was submitting left and right and hardly received any responses. A one for twenty ratio probably. Not fun. Now it feels like I actually have a genuine shot at booking gigs. 

I’m shooting a short experimental film this weekend. In the works is another short I am writing, producing and will be shooting in mid-december. Finally I’m starting to slowly prep for a feature I’ll be shooting early next year in Montana. Very exciting stuff.
February 25th, 2011
2011 Express

Wow almost March already!!! Time has glided by at the speed of light... which in this case is a good sign.
In stark contrast with 2009 where by this time of the year I had only worked a couple of days, I find myself having already shot 4 commercials, 2 short films and a 25-minute spec TV show for SHOWTIME. Now I’m in the middle of shooting a comedy about two friends trying to rob the theater they work in. I feel unbelievably fortunate working this much and with so many wonderful people. And it seems like the pace will carry on into next month with another couple shorts, commercials and a feature lined up.  

Last night I attended the screening of “Green Oil” a political drama that was made for the 48-hour Go Green competition. It turned out fantastic and I can safely say it faired among the best films shown. It feels so rewarding seeing your work on the big screen. 

At the end of january I spent a few days in Santa Barbara covering the film festival there for NewFilmmakers Los Angeles, a non profit organization designed to showcase emerging filmmakers. I had the opportunity to meet and interview numerous directors, producers and actors from all over the world and watch terrific works of art. The crowning moment was listening to one of our greatest directors Christopher Nolan as he was being presented with an award celebrating his extraordinary career. Between being in this gorgeous setting bathed in creative energy and hearing him talk about making films I experienced an incredible level of inspiration, one that I try to retain on a daily basis as I go forward. 

Update: I mentioned in november that I was developing a short that I was to write, produce and shoot. “The Gift” is a contemporary adaptation of  O. Henry’s classic short novel “The Gift of the Magi”. It was co-written by myself and a close friend who’ll be directing. We’re producing it together. As of now the script is locked and we’re in the process of casting. There are no set production dates as we’ve had to push it back numerous times due to our busy schedules.
January 15th, 2011
Happy new year!

Here we go for another one. I feel good about it. The holidays were great with my family visiting from Switzerland.  Lots of eating, drinking and walking around Venice, the Getty, LACMA, the Grove and Culver City among other places. Now lets hope work picks up soon as I’m getting highly anxious to pick the camera up again. I had one day of work last week shooting pickups for an ESPN.com spec that I worked on in december. I can’t say anything about it yet as it’s being shopped around right now. It was one of the few projects that came my way at the end of the year. My savings overdraft program kicked in on december 1st meaning that my checking account is officially at a majestic $0. No worries. It’s a cycle and I’ve learned not to freak out. That’s freelancing in the shoestring budget world for you... Hopefully this is the last time it dips this low though. I’m lucky I miraculously saved up a bit last summer. 

On a more important note the last shoot of the year was for a critically important cause that I’m grateful to have been a part of. 
The A21 Campaign is an organization which raises awareness and rescues victims of human trafficking which has become the world’s second largest organized crime. They do incredible work and I urge anyone to visit their site and share the information with others on their facebook and/or twitter. http://www.thea21campaign.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=132&Itemid=305shapeimage_23_link_0
 August 29th, 2011
Jump to:

The last few months flew by as the momentum from earlier this year built up and kept me unbelievably busy.  
2 corporate videos, 6 music videos, 9 short films and 2 features later I am freshly back from Puerto Rico where I shot a feature about two people stranded on a deserted island. Production was halted for 24 hours due to hurricane Irene but we nevertheless got everything we needed before coming back to LA to finish principal photography.

Lately I’ve had the privilege of working with many wonderful people including Ed Asner, Justin Chambers, Lou Ferrigno, Missi Pyle, Peta Wilson, Michael Dorn, Brian Krause and Noel Gugliemi. It’s incredibly inspiring to collaborate with such humble and dedicated professionals. 

September is around the corner and with it comes the last stretch of the year. With the new reel I just posted I hope to carry on with better and bigger projects.