The sun was setting over the Gulf of Thailand as we arrived on the other side of Koh Samui. The fishing boats were already coming in, their colorful sails waving in the breeze. But I was drawn to the oyster farmers who were working in the shallow water. I waded out to join them, curious to see how they worked. They were using a simple technique: they would make a small clicking sound with their fingers, and the oysters would react in the sand below. I didn’t know why this worked, but it did!
Sometimes in moments of fear, or from fear of death, the root from which all fear begins, people turn to faith and religion to try to give it all some sort of meaning. As I’ve traveled around to all seven continents, I’ve talked to many people I meet about religion… from taxi drivers to locals in restaurants to people who work in places of worship. Even though I don’t subscribe to any set of rules laid out by any religion, I think in most cases it’s a pretty decent thing, as long as no one is getting hurt or trying to make another group feel bad. I personally used to be a fairly hardcore atheist until I tried Ayahuasca and a few other plant medicines that have shown me there is something else going on. I don’t know what it is, but there are some entities out there that are helping us along. One message I continue to get: Everything is exactly the way it is supposed to be. And that’s comforting, although it is easy to view that via a nihilistic lens.
This is a first collection of images from a range of impressive and often inspirational places of worship around the world. View it here on Foundation.
Launching the quadcopter from a boat is always a bit nervy but the real problem is getting it back onto the boat when you’re done exploring. I would be lying if I said I’ve been successful every time… 🙁
I stayed here at the Ritz-Carlton and the architecture and scenery were amazing. I have a great deal with them where I get to stay for free (plus some $$ cash), and, in exchange I give them about 10 photos of each location. There is no requirement for me to do social media or even share here on the blog, but I do it anyway. Also, they don’t really care what I take photos of… so I don’t have to take photos of the hotels or the rooms or food or anything. I often will do that, though, if the scenes are as cool as this one! And there are plenty of chances for that.
How cool is this little pirate cave? I was boating around a bunch of the smaller islands near Krabi, Thailand and came across this little cave. I really wanted to go in anyway, especially when I see a sign that says “Do Not Enter” – that only makes me more curious!
Krabi is right on the coast of Thailand and it’s a fun day to take out a boat and explore all the little islands. This is a cool secret bay that you can’t see when you’re zooming by this island so I decided to get the quad up in the air to get a new perspective.
If you’re a Passport Member then today you’ll get to see how I made the daily photo. This is one of my shorter videos, but you can see how easy it is to create a photo with this look.
The Making Of
In today’s video, you’ll see I do a fairly extreme HDR treatment, but I think this photo deserves that. I feel quite lucky that the moon was out and in the right place!
Daily Photo – Dinner at the Ritz-Carlton in Thailand
On my first night here, they prepared an amazing dinner for me upon arrival. I was really lucky the moon was out and was so bright. This is one of my favorite situations for HDR where there is a mix of natural and artifical light.
Out on the island of Koh Samui, pretty much everyone seemed to have a boat, and pretty much everyone had a perfect upper body from moving the boat around all day. I thought, man, it might be fun to move here for a year and just get in super good shape and enjoy the island life. I can actually see the appeal of moving here for a while!
If you’re a Passport Member then you know every Sunday has a brand new video! This week’s is a bit more complex than others because there is quite a bit of work to do in Aurora and Photoshop to make it even better. Enjoy!
The Temple Edit
This has one of those extreme saturation problems that can be difficult to fix in Aurora, but I show you a little bit about how I do it. There is a final cleanup in Photoshop as well in a last step.
I sneaked down through security to get this photo right at dusk. I don’t know why they didn’t want people down there… probably because it is under construction and they didn’t want anyone to get hurt. But I wasn’t worried about that… I did actually go inside for a while… it was really wild to be in here totally alone.
Daily Photo – Heading out for a Snorkel Near the James Bond Island
When I was staying at the Ritz-Carlton at Phulay Bay, one day we jumped into a boat and headed over to the archipelago in search of that cool island from one of the early James Bond movies. It turns out there are lots of islands that have that same look with the undercut limestone. The snorkeling is great around here and the water is always perfectly clear. Sometimes, however, when you get out into the ocean, you can see a big floating pile of trash, and that is really kind of depressing…
Heading out for a Snorkel Near the James Bond Island