The lifelong project
Photographing as many of the world’s birds as one lifetime allows.
The Visual Life List is a living photographic field journal—part archive, part travel record, and part lifelong study of attention.
The premise
Every bird receives a permanent place.
A species joins the list with its first identifiable photograph. That first encounter receives a permanent number, then its page grows as stronger portraits, new behavior, different habitats, seasons, and stages of life are documented over time.
The goal is not to race through a checklist. It is to build a visual record that can hold both the imperfect first meeting and the photographs made after years of returning, learning, and looking more carefully.
How a species page evolves
Documentation becomes a study.
Visually documented
An identifiable photograph records the encounter and gives the species its permanent life-list number.
Portfolio in progress
The record expands with stronger images, field observations, habitat, and meaningful behavior.
Complete study
A mature body of work represents the species across the dimensions that make its life distinctive.
What the archive preserves
More than a portrait.
- 01The first encounter
- 02Behavior and family life
- 03Habitat and sense of place
- 04Return visits and changing seasons
- 05The evolution of a photographer’s eye
Behind the list — Brittany Templin
A life organized around encounters worth remembering.
I’m Brittany Templin, the bird and wildlife photographer behind The Visual Life List. I’m building this archive as a lifelong visual record of every bird species I am fortunate enough to encounter and photograph—beginning with the imperfect first frame and returning whenever I can to document more of how each bird lives.
Most of this journey is shared with my husband Rob, my birding partner for life, favorite travel companion, and trusted spotter. Together, we follow birds from familiar trails to faraway places, always looking for the next encounter and the story surrounding it. The photographs are my way of preserving those moments and giving each bird a permanent place in the larger journey.
Field ethic
The photograph never matters more than the bird.
Locations remain intentionally broad when specificity could disturb a bird or concentrate visitors around a sensitive site. Nesting, roosting, and resting birds are approached with particular care.
Explore the complete list