2007: A Window Into The Future

As we end another year on this beautiful planet Earth, an underlying combination of sadness, denial, and ignorance lingers in the background. Scientists predict fish populations to be depleted by 2048, and global warming will cause the sea to take more island paradises and effecting the polar bears' ability to survive man's effect on climate change on the planet.

MarineBio.org posted a thought provoking piece entitled "The Case of animal Versus Man". It's a good read.

You'd think that as advanced as we are relative to the rest of the food-web, that we would have evolved to have less reliance on destructive methods of food harvesting, and regulated envronmental outputs - seems like part of the definition of an advanced society to me...did we learn anything from Easter Island?

Over time, we have commoditized animal cruelty, not for sustinance, but for "luxury", an energy that man has projected into the universe around us. A good friend shared this PETA video with me. I warn you, if you are sensitive to animal cruelty, you might not want to watch this, but it will certainly put a new perspective on elements of society that we all support by living on such meat-intense diets. I am by no means a crazy or radical conservationist, or preaching the vegan lifestyle - I love my cheeseburgers, filet mignon and pork chops just like everybody else, but - I'm starting to wake up to the element of animal cruelty that has been created to fulfill the mass demand for meat products at "affordable prices". I just can't turn a blind eye to what we as a society have deemed "acceptable as long as you don't remind us how it's made".

Remember, it was not that long ago when society deemed slavery acceptable too. Is bringing life into this world for the sole purpose of cruelly exploiting it acceptable?

When we say "peace on earth" - are we talking not only about human conflicts with one another, but also how we interact with the rest of our planetary ecosystem?

Let's all go into 2007 with a keener eye for how our own actions impact the people, animals and planet around us. Unfortunately there is a lot of evil, greed, and ignorance in the world today, but the more of us who harness positive energy, and project that energy out into the world around us, the more we can make a difference. Levels of awareness for environmental and planetary sustainability are higher than ever before, but not enough action is taking place to ensure the seamless continuance of our world as we know it, with us being a part of it.

Here's to a happy and safe 2007 to all of us residents of planet earth..

From Guatemala With Love

We just spent the last week with our little cousins from Guatemala and Wendy's Aunt. This was their first time to the US and we all had a blast.

It was nice to be with such loving family during the holidays. Our home was host to a couple of delicious dinners that Wendy (aka the next Iron Chef) prepared for both sides of our families.

Having the kids We had a holiday breakfast with Elmo & friends at Sesame Place, went ice skating, saw dinosaurs at the museum and sat under the stars in the planetarium, they saw an IMAX movies, were awed by the flare of Times Square, ate at some of our favorite gourmet restaurants...and... they saw snow for the first time, and even built a snowman.

Although there are few better feelings than making kids smile, learn and enjoy themselves, having them live with you for a week puts into perspective just how much work it really is. So we're not having any kids anytime soon. We can just enjoy the cute little kids in our family until we're ready.

Happy Holidays!

Jan 7th Deadline for International Underwater Photo & Video Competition History

Never before have 2 international competitions associated with dive expos on opposite sides of the world cooperated to establish a complementary series of categories and prizing opportunities. The Jan. 7th deadline is quickly approaching!

The 2nd Annual Wetpixel & DivePhotoGuide International Underwater Photo and Video Competition, in Association with Chicago's Our World Underwater now has a sister competition - The 1st Annual DEEP Indonesia Competition, in association with Indonesia’s first-ever Diving, Adventure Travel and Water sports expo. Photographers will compete in 6 technical categories (OWU), 7 themed categories (DEEP) and 1 video category (OWU), to win photo equipment, dive gear, premium dive travel packages to some of the top photo destinations in the world, and more! Dive packages include trips to Wakatobi, South Africa, Socoros Islands, Vietnam, Raja Empat, Komodo, Malaysia, the Galapagos, Bora Bora, the Solomon Islands, Bali, Palau, Manado, Lembeh Strait, Yap, Cocos (Keeling) Island, Philippines, Grand Cayman, the Red Sea and the Bahamas! The contest includes a categories for images that focus on conservation and the marine environment, one specifically for entries taken by compact digital cameras.

This year, a new website has launched to support the competition at: www.UnderwaterCompetition.com. Entry forms, rules & regulations can be found on the website.

15% of entry proceeds will be donated to marine conservation efforts.

Esteemed judges Eric Cheng (Wetpixel), David Espinoza (Scuba Diver AustralAsia), Steven Frink, Dr. Alex Mustard, Berkeley White (Backscatter) and Tony Wu (Fins), will select winners after the Jan 7, 2007 deadline. Winners will be announced online and displayed during the film festival of the 2007 Our World Underwater show in Chicago and on display at the DEEP Indonesia Expo in Jakarta, Indonesia (February 8-11, 2007).

JasonHeller.com Launches!

I have finally launched my photography site JasonHeller.com.

The website represents the high color saturation, contrast and emotional impact of my body of work. It allows you to browse through or create dynamic galleries based on specific keywords. You can purchase stock images or prints, stay up-to-date on my features and published work.
In early 2007, I will be adding some of my father's old images to my collection. My father, who passed away when I was younger, must have been a subconscious influence on my creative style and intentions. Many of his images from the '60's and '70's that I have never seen before, share a similar perspective and style to my own. My father was a big influence on my life, and the older I get, the more ways I discover that this is true.

You can always stay up-to-date on my new images by coming back to this blog regularly or checking in at JasonHeller.com.