Why Film Photography is Important to Me

I guess I have become somewhat jaded in my philosophy about where photography and by extension, culture in general, is today because of the “digital” revolution.

What would it be like to put away the Nikon DSLR for a year and work exclusively with my old Nikon film gear, and perhaps have my Rolleiflex TLR f2.8 Planar repaired?

What would it be like to concentrate on producing 20 phenomenal prints in a year, rather than weeding through 20,000 digital image files?

This point of view is intriguing to me because it would promote patience power with the gratitude of real craft.

Oh, I would probably have a hard time putting down the iPhone, I admit. I would consider it a sketchbook of ideas.

I wonder how other photographers of my generation that were raised on film feel.?

Any ideas?

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!

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.