E.J. Peiker was born in 1960 in Augsburg, Germany. He moved to Mansfield, Ohio, USA in 1969 at the Age of 9 and became a US citizen in 1975. He lived in Ohio until 1979 when he began attending Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana where he earned a Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering in 1983. For the past 18 years, E.J. has worked for the Intel Corporation in California, New Mexico, Oregon, and currently in Chandler, Arizona. E.J. is also a freelance Nature Photographer and has studied photography at the University of New Mexico as well as participating in photography seminars and workshops put on by world famous photographers including John Shaw and Arthur Morris as well as those offered by Nikon and the Rocky Mountain School of Photography.

E.J. received his first camera at age 7 - a now defunct 126 format Kodak Instamatic. At age 12, E.J. started to take pictures more seriously using a Yashica 35mm rangefinder with a 50mm f1.7 lens. At age 16 he switched to Minolta cameras starting with the XD-11 SLR and then progressed through the Minolta system in the 1980's up to the Minolta Maxxum 9000. In 1990, E.J. suffered a serious skiing injury that forced him to sell his Minolta equipment. After a full recovery, 3 1/2 years later, E.J. started over using the Nikon system eventually ending up using Nikon F100 bodies with Nikon's AF-S lenses. During the 1990's, John Shaw's photography was E.J.'s biggest influence. In 2000, E.J.'s photography took a different turn when he was introduced to the beautiful bird photography of Arthur Morris. The more he got into bird photography, the more it became apparent that Canon's Image Stabilization technology could result in a much higher percentage of sharp photos with the very long focal lengths needed to get full frame bird photos. Since December 2000, E.J. has been photographing with Canon equipment.

E.J. now lives in south-central Arizona with his two sons Nicholas and Gregory. Both sons are also learning and enjoying photography. Nick who is 12 years old in 2001 is currently using a Minolta Freedom Zoom point and shoot camera - he prefers to shoot people and places. Greg who is 7 years old in 2001 appears to be following in his father's footsteps taking mostly nature pictures (sometimes without film - he just loves to shoot) with an old Olympus IS-1 Zoom Lens Reflex camera. Greg can often be seen at his dads light-table inspecting slides with his own Loupe. E.J. is a pilot with Commercial, Instrument, and Multi-engine ratings and has owned several airplanes over the years but is currently without plane.

Publication credits include numerous instrument flight simulation articles in Aviation and Computer Magazines, photographs in several Photography magazines, and many technical papers on Semiconductor Processing. Current interests revolve around photography, aviation, and industrial safety. E.J. is now a Field Editor and Forum Moderator for NaturePhotographers.net.