About The Grotto
A Grotto is a shared, yet secret space… although difficult to find, they are more common than thought, but overlooked by most… Places like a deep cavern, revealed by the low tide, or a particularly green glade marked by a ray of sunshine… a lofty resting place high above the ground where the horizons expand and the silence pervades… Although, unseen by most whom wander by, grottoes are illuminated with clues, signs and intuition. Those whom are aware might find a bit of peace, solitude, and rejuvenation in these places.
This blog is an attempt to find a space such as this on the web.
Alex
Building Momentum
A friend reminded me the other day about a self portrait I did a few years ago... He was asking for advice about how to make his self portraits less "cheesy"... I said, "I don't know man, I've always done dreamy one's..." The day I took the self portrait above, I...
Chamonix’s Finest – Banff Mountain Film Signature Image of 2015
Earlier this month I attended the 40th annual Banff Mountain film festival at an intimate theater on the coast of Southern France. While listening to the excited young college students banter among the rows of soft seats, in a language I can understand bits and pieces...
Le Grand Morgon Time-lapse – 4K
It's funny how a mistake can lead to a random success. Yesterday had I planned on going to photograph at sunset. I had the idea of going to this little French village and photographing right as the sun was setting on large stone tower attached to the archaic church...
Alpin Timelapse – Pic Saint-André
Well, we've gotten settled in to our studio for the next month nestled atop the old foundations of a castle rampart in the medieval village of Embrun, France. Needless to say we have a spectacular view... and I'd thought I'd share this time-lapse I made yesterday of...
1st Metal Print has Been Delivered!
Over the last few years many of you have followed my adventures, growth and shenanigans across the globe. I'm incredibly grateful for all of you, and I'm excited for what I've got in store for this coming year... It will be my fourth revolution around the sun,...
The Sky Above Leh
In India they say, the God that brought life into the world was himself, born in Leh… The first thing God saw when he opened his eyes, was the sky… Henceforth, the god tried and tried to create things in the world as blue as the sky, but never could. It seems his...
Journals
- Journals - Stacks of journals on the floor. Piles of pages of insight. Filtering back through time. searching... finding old threads and grasping. Reliving the passion and dusty emotions. Turning more pages, back deeper and deeper. Crawling into the layers. Finding...
Clipped Crescent Moon
With no one else present I relate to the Self. Full-brimming with emotional solvents I dissolve all thats left. Riding no-hands smiling beneath a clipped crescent moon... With so much room, so much room beneath myself and above the sky so black and bluely true. White...
Salutations to the Sun
Emerging early, to catch the first rays, I walk to the knoll beneath the cherry trees. My unfurling of this tattered mat is a quiet gesture of self-love... of devotion. An embodiment of a fiery passion for life. My intention this morning... as the mat softly lands on...
Acts of Devotion
Patience is the science of peace. I stand here writing a love poem to the world, on the street corner of a grocery store. Watching the cars drive by, sweeping leaves away from the sliding glass door. Inside I feel the lights, the hours, the familiar faces... I feel my...
The Practice of Being in the Flow
A state of being, an art of non-thinking, A quiet meditation. Walking silently, aware of a billion sensations. Fine tuned, humming harmony, subtlety and with grace. Gently suspended between two goddess elms. They hold me protected and I settle into the moment. An...
Something about Sunflowers
Something about seven sunflowers.. Collected by bicycle, a busy bee, flying from one stand to the next, seeking beauty and feeling the Sun shine rain joy on a cloudy day. Humming old songs from Jamaica, soft green-blue harmonies under a grey and threatening sky, the...
Memories and Making Masala Chai
Melding together flavor, metal pot on the stove. Digging through the pantry, roots, seeds, bark and leaves. Cardamom, black peppercorns, star anise, ginger, cinnamon, clove, black tea. Brewing together the elements, pinches, dashes, splashes, stems, seeds, leaves....
Questioning Trees
Walking alone through the forest, I came upon two great grand-mother trees. Compelled by their size and age, I asked them each a question. Resting my hands on the scaley-yellow bark of the first I asked, "What do you have to teach me?" Through images and feelings she...
Good Words of the Morning
Rising early, standing on the balcony breathing morning air. Noticing myself feeling mixed and anxious. Praying for guidance, asking the divine for comfort. Compelled to walk, I let myself be led to the river. Sitting and breathing, awaiting the rising sun. Sitting...
Triangles are my Favorite Shape
The Delta leaves me shifting, a change in: breathing, sensations of lifting. Where the river meets the sea, coming together of what was, and all that potentially be. Designed simply, three points where two lines meet, with strength, embracing the "let right now be"....
The Path and its’ Wandering
I've left my home and journeyed to the other side I've gone where others told me not to go I've climbed the tall peaks of humanity and delved into their depths And to get there I traversed through my own heart there upon the crux I sat and looked around I felt it all...
The Conclusion: The Kashmir Analogs
How to sum this up... I've been in the process of writing The Kashmir Analogs for almost a year now. But it feels like there is more to be said and gleaned from these experiences in India and the Middle-East... And here I am writing the concluding paragraphs to the...
The Crux – The Kashmir Analogs: Part 5
Here we are at the Crux. The Crux being the move we take to make it all come together... all coalesce... It's been seven weeks since I started posting The Kashmir Analogs. Traveling and working in Kashmir was a journey for sure. And so far, I've only told stories...
Transcending the Language Barrier – The Kashmir Analogs: Part 4
It is funny where you find yourself sometimes… after I opened my eyes and let them adjust to bright, early-afternoon sunlight, I saw, sitting in front of me, a young boy wearing a brown tunic, staring at me with a big curious grin… as I regain my senses, all I could...
Finding the Good Light
I went for a walk the other day trying to find good light... You'd think it being easier since it was the middle of the day... Photographing from 10am to 4pm here in Colorado is hard. We get close to a solid 300 days of beautiful sunshine... which is sweet for most...
The People and APDP- The Kashmir Analogs: Part 3
- The People – Shoving a camera up to a strangers face requires a lot of nerve. It's a trip walking up to someone on the street who speaks a different language than you, and saying, "can I take your picture" while using your hands and pointing and the camera to get...
The Separatists – The Kashmir Analogs: Part 2
At this point in my journey in Northern India and my stay in Kashmir, things started to move fast. It was on our second day in Lal Chowk, Srinagar that we began meeting leaders of different separatist parties in Kashmir. For Nelson’s project, his intention is to meet...
Introduction and Connections in Lal Chowk- The Kashmir Analogs Part 1
-Introduction - Kashmir, Kashmir, Kashmir… In the blossoming age of global communication, media, and technology, the inaccuracy of information the average Westerner has access to, with regards to Kashmir is astounding... Kashmir and the surrounding region, holds what...
Before we get started… an intro to “The Kashmir Analogs”
It has been six months since I returned to the U.S. from India, and I'm still feeling her irresistible and at times overwhelming pull... India never really leaves my mind. The experiences I accrued while traveling there, the people I got to meet and all the...
The Path to Peace goes Through Kashmir
I'm sitting in my room going over the final details of the presentation I'm giving on Kashmir. Tomorrow at 7pm, I'm bringing home a story that changed my life... and presenting it to my community... bringing it all the way home... My experiences working in the...
What I Be…
The opening track to Micheal Franti's album, Songs from the Front Portch is "What I Be"... and It is fun to take a second and think about What it is that I Be... I've been devoting much of my time to growing into a new shell. Adorning the shell with bright scales...
A Tribute
The Poem below is a tribute to the photograph above... which is a tribute to all the beautiful things in life. "Life is like a river. Ever churning... bubbling and flowing over. I feel that, throughout life we get to taste many different rivers... Sometimes we get to...
Tools
We must learn to use our tools well...We are given hands to change the world, eyes to see it as it stands, and an imagination to envision the possible futures. Tools are extensions of our hands... And we must learn to use them proficiently... All of our tools, we...
Perins Peak
It's funny to think that I've been in the same place for six weeks. Yesterday afternoon, I went on a hike to one of my favorite spots right outside of Durango and had lunch. I made my way onto a carved white pillar of sandstone, that hung prow over the valley, and was...
The 10,000’th Picture
Yesterday afternoon a funny thing happened. I went on a hike up Animas Mountain, which is a large forested open space right in Durango's backyard, to get out and enjoy the prime weather that late summer and the first few days of fall provide us. Since I'm working...
Moving Forward to Durango
It was just a month ago that I arrived back in the U.S., and in that short time I have had so much fun visiting with my friends and family. I've been on a few road trips and outdoor adventures, and had some time to pull my life together. I got to spend my first two...
Upon Arrival
Just hit American soil… After thirty sleepless hours standing in airport security lines, being an anonymous face in the blur of eastern travelers and wayfarers… single Indian mothers and their daughters traveling West, grandmothers in saris wearing golden earings and...
An Epic Ride to Tsomoriri
Alex: Have you ever ridden a motorcycle before Nels? Nelson: Never driven one, but I loved riding them with my friends in Nairobi… Alex: Are you any good on a mountain bike? Nelson: eh… Guy renting us the motorcycles: Don’t worry, here’s a map (hand drawn)… no, no,...
Leh – Ladakh
They say the color blue… has a deep connection with the city of Leh… … They say the god that brought life to the world was himself, born in Leh... And, the first thing that the god saw when he opened his eyes was sky... henceforth, the god tried and tried to make...
Srinagar held on to us… and the Dalai Lama
So... sitting here laughing on the verandah of our house boat on Dal Lake... because, the universe can throw curve balls... Nelson and I were supposed to leave for Leh two days ago but we got delayed. The night before we were to make the journey to Leh (on Friday),...
Saying Goodbye to Kashmir and Moving on to Ladakh
So, after an amazing, and at times emotional and intense three weeks here in Kashmir, Nelson and I are headed off to Ladakh… Today we spent saying goodbye to all the good friends we made, running errands around town and packing our bags for the next and last leg of...
Houseboats
It’s early evening now, I’m exhausted after another long and hot day traversing Srinagar and the surrounding areas to meet people for Nelson’s project. I’m sitting in the airy front verandah of a houseboat, watching the sunset over the sheet-metal roofs of the stilted...
Lal Chowk – Srinagar
Sitting in our hotel room overlooking Lal Chowk the main square in Srinagar, I try to comprehend how different people’s lives are here in Srinagar, Kashmir. Peering through the window from my chair, I can see two armored Humvees, two sandbagged pillboxes with machine...
Traveling from Mcleod Ganj to Srinigar, Kashmir
After a pretty thrilling 12 hour taxi ride through the Himalayan passes, we made it from Mcleod Ganj to Srinagar, Kashmir. We spent the entire day driving through very diverse and desolate landscapes. We started by driving the through military checkpoints in the dry...
Week one – Stories
Tashi Delek Everybody, Thought I would give another update on how things are going... It has definitely been an interesting change of pace for the last week. Now that Nelson has arrived, I have been helping him get connected in different places around town and helping...
Cosmopolitan Monk Society
Whoa!!!! Things are speeding up... Nelson got into Mcleod Ganj on Saturday and we have spent the last few days hanging out around town and having many conversations about working together on The Enemies Project. I am really excited to work with him here in asia. He is...
Tashi Delek! Hey everybody, I finally have some time to sit down in the internet cafe and give you all an update. Things have been going really well here. I've been trying to stay cool as it has been in the high 90's here... That means trying to stay out of the main...
Mitse Sa-ching-bo Rey
It's hard to believe that two weeks have gone by since my last post... so much has happend and yet not so much ha ha. Just been hangen' out... Things have been good. I've been teaching English at Lha and exploring around town, making friends and getting out on some...
Pics of Mcleod and Around
Thought I would update some more photos... Things have been going well here. I finished my first week of teaching English and am excited to keep doing it. I teach the English Intermediate class and there is between 8 and 14 students everyday (Monday-Friday). The class...
McLeod Ganj
Thought I would give you all an update on life in McLeod Ganj... McLeod is the uppermost section of a larger urban area called Dharamsala. It's a haphazard network of rugged streets and allies that follow the steep terrain of the hill it sits on. From most places in...
Ashoka
Thought I would share this photo with you all... This is an image of the Ashoka Prayer Wheels in the Dalai Lama's Temple. The prayer wheels are engraved with the om-ma-ni-pad-me-om mantra. Among many things mantra represents generosity, ethics, patients, diligence,...
Movin’ Up
It feels like the dam has let loose...The potential has turned to kinetic.... the theoretical, is now actual, and the dream has now become a reality. After years of planning, researching, saving and aligning action with intention, I find myself sitting on the roof of...
Gettin’ Down in Delhi
Jet lag is an interesting phenomena. I heard once that when one travels to a distant place very quickly, that it takes a while for your soul to catch up with you. I'm not sure about my soul yet... but, my body was definitely a bit aggravated being tossed on the other...
Shifting to India
The 12 hour countdown commences... It is a funny feeling not being able to fathom what the day after tomorrow will look like. Definitely exciting, a little hecktic, and slightly overwhelming. But, this is what it's about and what I've been waiting for. After years...