He has photographed and written extensively about southeast Asia, including Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Bali, Java, and India.
At the age of 20 he made his first journey to India and Nepal where experiences in the Himalaya focused the direction of his photography.
Ortner's photography in Asia has focused on the highest mountains and deepest gorges on earth, and the meditative philosophies of Hinduism and Buddhism that evolved there.
The importance of pilgrimage, symbolic architecture, and the sacred topography of the Himalaya has been a recurrent theme in both his photography and writings.
Ortner's photographs have been shown at the Nikon, Kodak, and Neikrug Galleries in the United States.