PHOTOS: Tying models to bottom of the sea for sharks (and more).

The 10th annual Entertainment Gathering made its audiences cry, gasp and stand up to cheer.

"EG" also served as a reminder that it's tough to put a price tag on inspiration—though there was enough inspiring stuff on hand at Sunset Center late last month that it may have merited the $4,000 ticket price.

Ocean advocate and all-around aquatic legend Sylvia Earle talked about the importance of introducing kids to the ocean ("no child left dry") and bringing together 7 billion minds together to save 7 billion people from themselves.

War photographer Giles Duley talked about the power to do good in the face of seemingly insurmountable heartache ("Each one of us, in our actions, will affect others, and we may never see what the outcomes are, but it doesn’t matter how small the action, the effects can be vast").

Wildlife television pioneer Sir David Attenborough talked about the childlike curiosity of exploration ("If you’re lucky, you retain that and it’s a source of joy and excitement") and what it's like to be picked over by a wild gorilla while her baby lays on your legs.

Dozens more luminaries weighed in.

New technologies debuted.

Coffee breaks burst with creative exchanges across endless industries.

In what felt like a wink, I filled a document with 7,038 words just scrambling to get any kind of harness on the available wisdom.

•••

Some of my favorite moments from the day and a half (of three total) I was able to attend—which prompted the piece "Entertainment Gathering mixes food lessons into amazing lineup"—came from surrealist/viral photographer Benjamin Von Wong.

They were certainly the most visually dizzying, which inspired this photo gallery. 

Von Wong wove a narrative of how he went searching for meaning in a modern way, and how it led him to chase massive storm patterns for super-accelerated photo shoots right on the apron of looming tornado/cyclones/thunderpatches.

(Check out "Surreal Stormchasing Photos" for more.)

He originally quit his job as a mining engineer to work as a concert and portrait photographer, but found himself drawn to portraits with more artistic control.

He quickly discovered if he revealed the tricks of his increasingly surreal photos—whether done with liquid latex, dry ice or advanced lens—engagement with his audience increased exponentially.

But he needed something to go viral, he felt, "to get his vision and voice across the world and be inundated with exciting projects."

He pulled off Game of Thrones fan-fantasy shots with film students in Orlando, went all multiple exposure pyrotechnic in Paris and did funky underwater shoots in a London pool.

Popular, riveting and pioneering. But not explosively viral.

A forced vacation from his parents, who insisted he stop working for a second, backfired after his scuba dive certification served inspiration for an underwater shoot.

After he anchored models to the bottom of the ocean—with scuba tanks nearby to keep them breathing and photographers circling with their own tanks strapped to their backs—he suddenly had something "creative and unexpected in a beautiful way."

He had found the global traction he sought.

Only it wasn't as fulfilling as he anticipated. 

Even after a "dream project" global campaign where he combined fire with models in striking ways—his "How I Designed The Craziest Photo Ever Taken With A Smartphone" is a must-see—he was at a loss.

"I felt empty," he said. "I wondered, 'What do I hope for?'"

Eventually, he found what he needed in the spirit of a chronically ill South Carolina kid.

When he helped the family develop a viral video that smashed a $1 million fundraising goal, he had his calling.

As he put it on stage, "Take what I had learned and put it at the service of others. The [projects] that mattered the most were the most meaningful, not just for me, but for others."

That ultimately led to two stirring endeavors.

One was the stormchasing, which allowed audiences to understand global warming on a visceral level with one striking image. (And days when they would pursue storm patterns for upwards of 8 hours for a sudden, rushed, 10-minute shoot.)

Another was Shark Shepherd, in hopes of spurring interest in a Malaysian shark sanctuary. Today more than 80,000 signatures have helped put a sanctuary significantly closer to approval.

Check out images from both at right.

Now Von Wong, as he puts it, "is currently taking a break from all work that doesn't have an impactful environmental component."

Like many of his fellow EG speakers, he lives the belief that it is possible to get paid to make the world a better place and is experimenting on how to make that happen.

Learn more about that at Von Wong's website, where an avalanche of images and insider tips also appear, and submit your own idea.

Because inspiration is contagious.