About George and Kathryn

George Lepp

Nature photographer, teacher, author, and inventor George Lepp’s inspiring professional career spans more than fifty years. His passions for natural beauty, technical precision, cutting-edge technology, and environmental responsibility are revealed in his beautiful and compelling images, and in his unique dedication to sharing his photographic and biological knowledge with other photographers through his books and hundreds of seminars, workshops, and nationally and internationally published articles. 

George’s university studies in wildlife and wildlands management were interrupted by service in the U.S. Marine Corps including a tour in Vietnam, after which he earned a BA and honorary MS from Brooks Institute of Photography. In the early years of his career, he worked with scientists at the University of California, Davis; in 1976 he joined historic research expeditions to Central Mexico to document the discovery of the over-wintering sites of the North American monarch butterfly migration. Following eight years as Car and Driver’s West Coast photographer, he returned fully to the field of natural history and nature photography.

Lepp’s images have appeared in some of the world’s most widely viewed venues; at the corporate headquarters of Canon U.S.A, Eastman Kodak, and Epson America; on a 2017 U.S. Post Office stamp as part of the Protect Pollinators Forever Stamps issue; and on the covers of many books and magazines, including Natural History, Car and Driver, Camera and Darkroom, Photo Media, PC Photo, and Outdoor Photographer. He is known for his high-resolution photography of complex subjects, from minute snowflake crystals to sweeping panoramas of locations all over the world. His stock and assignment photography is represented by Getty, Corbis, and Photo Researchers.

George Lepp’s books include Wildlife Photography: Stories from the Field, Golden Poppies of California, Beyond the Basics I and II: Innovative Techniques for Outdoor and Nature Photography, Vintage Automobile Racing, and Bonneville Salt Flats. He has presented lectures and workshops all over the world, has taught at Photoshop World, Santa Fe Workshops, and Palm Beach Workshops, and in 2000 founded the Lepp Institute of Digital Imaging, one of the first field/lab workshop venues designed to train nature photographers in the transition to digital technology and inkjet printing. He often serves as a judge for international photography competitions.

George began to work with Canon USA in the late 1980s, and in 1995 was named a founding member of Canon USA’s Explorers of Light program, featuring the industry’s most influential photographers. In 2021, he was named a Canon “Legend.” For more than 35 years he has served as field editor and regular contributor to Outdoor Photographermagazine. A founder and fellow of the North American Nature Photographers Association (NANPA), Lepp has won many awards for his work, including Photo Media Photography Person of the Year, the Photographic Society of America’s prestigious Progress Award, and NANPA’s Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Kathryn Vincent Lepp

Kathryn Vincent Lepp is a writer and editor and former Assistant Dean of the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at the University of California, Riverside. In addition to her collaboration with her husband, photographer and writer George Lepp, she often undertakes writing and editing projects for popular and scholarly publications.

With George Lepp, Kathryn has co-authored three books on nature photography: Wildlife Photography--Stories from the Field (2010); Beyond the Basics: Innovative Techniques for Nature Photography (1993); and Beyond the Basics II: More Innovative Techniques for Nature Photography (1997); and many articles on photographic topics. She was consulting editor of Lepp's quarterly publication, The Natural Image, from 1987 to 1996. Her publications also include authored and edited books and articles on a wide variety of scholarly and popular topics, including U.S.-Mexico relations, Mexican history, environmental issues, and the law. Representative of this area of her work are Myths, Misdeeds, and Misunderstandings: The Roots of Conflict in U.S.-Mexico Relations (Scholarly Resources: 1997) with Jaime E. Rodríguez; Alternative Futures for the Salton Sea (University of California, UC MEXUS: 1999); "Redefining Poverty in California: Public Policy and the Mexican Rural Poor," (University of California, UC MEXUS: 1996); and, with Juan Vicente Palerm and Bobby Vincent, "Mexican Immigrants in Courts" (University of Washington: 1999).