The Odd Couple: 8 Unexpected Animal Friends

For Mark Taylor, it all runs in the family. Mark's mother, Jane Burton, spent over half a century honing her skills as one of the leading nature photographers in Britain (and all over the world, for that matter) developing a unique studio-style in the process. Ms. Burton's extraordinary shots of animals in a studio setting, in which she often managed to combine odd-pairings of critters not typically seen together, are the stuff of legend in animal-lover circles near and far.

She passed away in 2007 after a brave battle with cancer, but these days, her son, Mark, is continuing the very tradition his mother pioneered through the studio she started, Warren Photographic, with his own wildly clever take on things.

And they really are "must-see" images!

Aside from his high-ranking amongst landscape and natural pattern photographers, Mark Taylor's photos of dogs and cats and chickens and badgers and a host of other animals paired-up, or even grouped-up, with each other are creating extremely high demand for his work.

These pictures are often referred to as cute, and it's easy to see why upon first glance, but even beyond that, Mr. Taylor's stuff seems to hint at something more to me; there is a kind of unspoken young magic in the softly-lit calm of various creatures and birds standing shoulder-to-shoulder, cheek-to-cheek, without any visible reservations or trepidations at all.

These pictures are enchanting, comical, and yes, cute. And in my mind, at least, they also play at a little something called peace.

And I find that to be very cool, indeed.

Check out these 8 unexpected animal friends!

- By Serge Bielanko
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