What is a Vortex, and How it Can Benefit Your Spiritual Life

A vortex is thought to be a unique spot on the earth where metaphysical energy is either entering into the earth or projecting out of the earth’s surface. Vortexes (or vortices) are found at sacred sites throughout the world – the Great Pyramid in Egypt, Machu Picchu in Peru, Bali, Stonehenge, Uluru/Ayers Rock in Australia, etc. It is believed that the vortex energy moves in a spiral, moving up or down.

The images below I made on a recent trip to Sedona, Arizona: considered to have some of the most powerful vortices on earth. If you would like to purchase prints or wall art of these and other photographs, please visit my Print Shop

Some say Sedona’s vortex energy is so powerful that you can actually feel it and that it is powerful enough to help people take giant leaps with their spiritual development. The Native Americans believe that spiritual transformation can occur more quickly and easily in Sedona because the veils to other dimensions are thinner here. Whether or not you believe that energy vortexes actually exist, one thing is for certain, there is “something” about Sedona that has made people travel here for something more than just its incredible beauty.

Why I like Amazon Photos, Really like it!

A Malaysian Tiger surveys his environment in the San Diego Zoo. This image in a raw file consumed about 25 mB of space.

The reason I am impressed wouldn't carry near as much weight if it wasn't for the fact that I am a Prime Member of Amazon.

For the prime member, Amazon offers unlimited storage space for your full resolution full size photo files. You heard me right, unlimited storage. And they accept a wide variety of image file types. All are imported natively with no algorithms to compress space.

Recently I backed up a bunch of DVDs that i stored images on for about 10 years. I transferred the files to a four-terabyte external hard drive and then uploaded these files to Amazon. Now I have a hard copy plus cloud backup.

Once in the Amazon server universe, their system software reads your EXIF information and chronologically categories the files by year and month, making it easy to locate based on what, when and where I was on certain times.

Amazon also has an AI component that reads the images and groups them by subject matter. This gets interesting as I drill through the titles (eg. “mountain”, “ocean”, “plant”, etc.). Most of the time the software is pretty close to the actual subject matter. Even more enticing is the search function; let’s say a client needs a selection of photos of umbrellas. Type this into search and the software queries all of your photos and displays a selection of umbrella images. I realize Apple Photos and iCloud have a similar search function, but I don’t feel its as robust as Amazon’s.

Another interesting facet  is the "On This Day" feature. Every day I am presented with all photos tagged with that date for as many years of data I have.

 Finally, you can create albums with ease, and share seamlessly with your people.

In summation, Amazon Photos is a very great choice for cloud storage. In particular, the unlimited full-resolution capacity if you are a Prime member, along with the categorization and search features. Otherwise, you can still use the service but you will be limited to 5 gb of space.

The Amazing Story Behind the Monterey Bay Aquarium

Last weekend we visited the infamous Monterey Bay Aquarium for the first time. I have been to quite a number of aquariums of the world, but I most say that this is the most impressive.

There was an interesting historical re-enactment played out by staff at the facility that highlighted how the Monterey Bay transitioned over time. The area had always been rich in sea life and ancient settlers that came overland from the Bering Strait found a never ending source of food and resources from the sea.

Eventually the sardine fishing industry started in the 1800s beginning with Chinese fishermen. This led to the construction of a number of canneries that processed tons of product daily. At one point the area produced more canned fish then anywhere else.

Unfortunately as time went by the sardine population dwindled and collapsed from overfishing. This had a profound effect on biodiversity of the bay. Other animals numbers dramatically decreased such as sea otter and sea lion.

Edward Ricketts who who owned a biological supply on Cannery Row in the 1940s warned of the impending danger to the environment. This effort helped raise awareness and support for conservation efforts in the Monterey area.

The sardine industry went defunct in the 1950s

There were early plans and proposals to build an aquarium in Monterey but were unsuccessful until a group of marine biologists from Stanford University in the 1970s. The aquarium project started with construction at the site of the closed down Portola Cannery (on Cannerry Row).

The facility opened to the public in 1984 and has won numerous architectural design awards as well as awards for its marine exhibits and marine conservation efforts. The aquarium was the first to have a living kelp forest. Biologists pioneered husbandry of jellyfish and successfully cared for and displayed a great white shark in captivity for the first time. The organization is also leading local efforts in conservation of sea otters, sea lions, numerous bird species and tuna.

They also started Seafood Watch, which is an organization that promotes sustainable seafood.

With over two million visitors a year the Monterey Bay Aquarium is a vital and important institution that in my estimation has an astounding display of ocean life like nowhere else on earth. It is definitely worth a visit.

Sometimes Being stuck with a window seat isn’t such a bad thing

Mt. Adams

Normally I like to fly with an aisle seat; especially on flights over two hours. I don’t know how many times I have booked a flight online only to have that ugh feeling when you get to the seat selection and find only windows and middles left.

Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and go for a window, like I did on this Seattle to Philadelphia trip.

As we climbed out of the normal winter cloud cover of Seattle I was afforded this wonderful view of Mt. Adams in southern Washington..

It was nice that the window was clean and clear. This isn’t always the case. If you do choose a window seat, try to get in front of the wings for a more unobstructed view. It’s also wise to use a polarizing filter to mask any reflections from inside of the plane.

Next time I might just choose a window, especially if I know the flight path is passing by some interesting features below.

Pete Turner: 1934-2017

My Mentor Series

There have only been a few photographers that have had a profound influence on my own vision and work.

Pete Turner is one such photographer. He passed away about a year ago at the age of 83, and I’ve been meaning to start this series off with a tribute and information about him.

He was a master of color photography, and his ability to utilize the pure essence of various hues and saturation levels was astounding. Many of his works involved composite images created without the aid of modern digital technologies. If memory serves me right Pete shot exclusively with Nikon 35mm equipment and his film of choice was always the venerable Kodachrome (which embellished the incredible contrast witnessed with his creations). He also was a master of duplicating slide film and making composite double or more exposures in a final image that comprised many of his well-known pieces. His prints were meticulously produced using the Cibachrome process.

I do know he started his career in the 1950s as a military photographer with the Army. Later he became a much sought after commercial pro, whose assignments took him all over the world and created opportunities for many of his iconic photographs.

I have a pretty extensive vinyl jazz record collection, and most of the CTI label record covers (produced by Creed Taylor) were shot by Pete. Looking at one the other day I noticed that you could order 11 x 14 inch prints for only $25! I was also lucky to find his 1986 monograph book in a second-hand bookstore in Kona a few years back.

He was a really cool person, who was a super craftsman. The graphic power of his work will always spark my imagination.

For more information his family still maintains a website for his work at peteturner.com.

The New York Times published a great obituary as well.