Where is Ben?

Two-part High Dynamic Range (HDR) Video

I showed up as a guest on Bert Monroy's Pixel Perfect show to do a two-part installment about High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography. In the show I run through the basics of shooting for HDR, merging the exposures and tonemapping the result into a usable image in the first installment. In the second installment, I show you how I refine an image to make it look much better than what comes out of the HDR software.

This info is nowhere as detailed and comprehensive as my HDR Mastery DVD where I pretty much spill my guts about how I do my HDR photography, but it should be enough to get you started.

Surviving my first Earthquake

Today, I was on the phone with Regina (the other half of Digital Mastery) when it felt like something was shaking the bus. I've had people attempt to shake the bus before but even with 3-4 people putting all their weight against the side, it's really hard to notice any shaking. This was different. This felt like maybe 10 semi trucks where passing me at once... the bus was really shaking. It was being tossed about as if it was 1/10th of its size. That's when I leaned that I was going through my first earthquake?

Nothing was damaged and it was largely not a big deal... the bus was simply shaken a bit and then calmed down about three minutes later.

A Month in Van Nuys

I've moved the bus to Van Nuys, CA and will be parked here for one month. During that time I'll be writing a new book... no details on the book yet though.

Over the last week I've been visiting with friends including Greg Gorman, Vincent Vercase, Jesse Diamond, Sibi as well as Tom & Susan Gast.

I haven't taken any photographs this week, so I thought I'd post this odd image. You'll have to click on the image to get a larger version to see that it looks a bit odd to my English-speaking friends.

Route 66 Panollage®

The image above is what I call a Panollage®. It's a combination of a panorama and collage... although this particular one isn't a great demonstration of a panorama since it could have been taken as a single shot. This is four photographs that have been combined to form one image. I captured this image last year while following route 66.

Since my last post, I moved the bus to Tarzana, CA. I should be in the greater Los Angeles area through this weekend... then I don't know where I'll be.

Light Painted Plane

Yesterday, I got together with Eric Magnusson and Lee Varis. After dinner, we went to the local airport and light painted Eric's plane. The plane was lit using flashlights and portable flash units.

Bus Shopping in Columbus, OH

I spent all day today hanging out on a 1947 bus. I'm thinking about picking one of these up and selling my bus. It's five feet shorter than the bus I currently live in. The photos below should give you an idea of what it looks like. Most of these shots were taken with a fisheye lens.

98% of this bus is made out of aluminum. It has an updated engine, automatic transmission, power steering, modern brakes. All that stuff is about as modern as my current bus, which should make it relatively reliable.

The driver's area has the original steering wheel, which is hooked to modern power steering. It also has a pushbutton automatic, cruise control and a transmission retarder, which slows you down without needing to hit the brakes.

Here's what it looks like looking toward the rear... the front door is on the left edge of this shot. The brown things near the ceiling are storage bins that have roll top desk-like doors on them.

The two seats on the passenger side swivel and recline with foot rests. I'd consider removing one of those chairs if I would be able to fit a 24" wide Epson printer.

The kitchen features a three burner stove, oven, fridge/freezer, nukerwave, sink, etc. The sofa also folds down into a bed.

The bathroom is rather small, but is complete with toilet, sink and shower.

The bed room has a queen sized bed, television, supplemental air conditioner and storage under the bed. There is also a closet with drawers that you can see on the left edge of this shot. Between that closet and the booth is a space where I could fit a small desk (about the size of the one I use in my current bus).

I'm not sure if I'll get this bus or not... I have to get back to my current bus and measure up some of my equipment to make sure it will all fit. This bus also has a bunch of storage space in the baggage bays under the bus.

Mini Update

As I write this, I'm on the Flyaway bus service to LAX airport. I'm flying to Miami to present my Photoshop for Photographers seminar. While I'm there, I'll be meeting up with a few friends before I fly to Columbus, OH to look at a 1947 Greyhound Bus that I'm thinking of purchasing.

Here's an update on what I've been up to since my June 1st post:

• Drove from Los Osos, CA to San Francisco
• Parked the bus in Berkeley, CA and met with my publisher
• Did a quick tour of Canada (Ottawa, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto) to present my Photoshop for Photographers seminar. 
• Replaced my 15" MacBook Pro with a 17" model that has a much higher resolution screen
• Presented my Photoshop for Photographers seminar in San Francisco
• Shot some models in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco
• Met up with Bill Atkinson (inventor of the drop down menu, creator of MacPaint and a good photographer) and Charlie Cramer
• Was a guest on Bert Monroy's Pixel Perfect podcast (I don't think they're available yet, but I'll post here with a download link once I hear that they're live.
• Drove to Healdsburg, CA to visit a friend
• Went to lunch with a bunch of people from Adobe
• Drove to Los Angeles and parked the bus in Venice Beach
• Test drove a 1950's Flxible Clipper Bus... the same kind that was seen in the movie "RV"
• Did a bunch of light painting with a few friends and got together with a bunch of people I met during my last visit to Maui
• Spent the 4th of July at a party in Malibu right on the water
• Had a friend from Maui drop by for two five day visits (one in June and one in July)
• Completed a new biography, artists statement and price list for my photography site. I haven't posted them yet, but should get them up there within the next week or so.
• Did some light painting at a rehearsal studio
• Met up with a at least a dozen individual friends in between all the stuff I did above

The photo above is a composite of about 15 photographs. It's a light painted self portrait using two flashlights... one in each hand.

The Blog Is Back!!!

After dealing with terrible tech support for a full month, the switch has been turned back on and you can now see my newest posts. I haven't been posting over the last month because anyone visiting the site via www.whereisben.com could not see any new postings. A setting got changed on TypePad's side that make that URL point to old blog posts. It took what felt like forever to get them to respond to my messages and figure out what was going on. I will switch to another blogging platform at sometime in the future because TypePad's support was so bad that they do not deserve my business. I just don't have time to make the switch right now.

I'll post an update over the next few days that will fill you in on what I've been up to. Right now it's 1:15 a.m. and I'm going to go to sleep. Tomorrow, I plan to shoot a vintage gas station in San Jose, CA, drop by Adobe's headquarters and go to dinner with an old friend. The next day I'll be driving the bus to Los Angeles and will be parked there for a few weeks.

The photo above was taken during my Canadian tour in Toronto by Larry Lee who was attending the event.

Exploring California

I've done a lot since my last update:

• Presented seminars in Chicago, Nashville and San Francisco
• Created a portfolio of 12 finished images from my Route 66 series that are ready to show galleries
• Visited by buddy Robb Kerr in Nashville who's been battling cancer for many years (he used to speak at events like PhotoshopWorld)
• Hung out with Bill Atkinson (the guy who created MacPaint and invented things such as the pull down menu and "marching ants")
• Explored the California coast near Monterey with my friend Dianne from Maui
• Shot some models in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco
• Lost my iPhone (it's been found and is being fedexed to me for Monday delivery)

I'm currently parked in Berkeley, CA where I'll be visiting with my publisher and a few business and personal friends.

I'll be starting a Canadian tour at the end of this week and will be visiting Ottawa, Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto.

The photograph above was taken in a recording studio in Nashville. It's a wall that's covered with thousands of square-ended sticks that are all at different lengths. I believe it's designed so that the reflection of sound off the walls is uneven. I did some light painting of a band in this room and listened to some recorded music which sounded amazing... but they said they couldn't recreate walls like this in my bus... it's just too small :-(

Teaching at the LEPP Institute

This week I'm spending my time in Los Osos, CA teaching a Digital Fine Art Nudes class. Today we looked at many example images, discussed a few general concepts and did a lot of light painting. Above and below are two of the images I created today. The image above is lit with only a flashlight, while the image below was lit was a green glowstick that was suspended from a string. Our model "Sam" was a great sport since we had her flinging around Christmas tree lights and holding still for quite some time while she had no idea what the end results would bare.

Back from Dubai

I started my Dubai trip with an adventure in the desert. We took a Toyota Land Cruiser into the dunes with a group of about forty vehicles. We power slided across dunes and went down hills that were so steep that I thought the back tires might come off the ground in the process.

Here's the view from the edge of the dunes.

Once we were done cruising around the dunes, we headed to a private desert camp where we enjoyed a nice dinner buffet.

Live entertainment included a belly dancer (the image above should show up as an animation if all goes as planned).

The day after exploring the desert, we paid a visit to the markets. You could buy just about any brand of watch or handbag (all fake). The vendors were more than happy to have their photos taken, like the one above who had a huge collection of watches.

Interesting characters greeted us while exploring the gold market. I bought a bottle of water from this gentleman who is posing next to David Nightingale from Chromasia.

Here's an example of the gold that was for sale at the market.

Back at the hotel I had some fun light painting Chris and Jaclyn from cubangroove.com who happened to be staying at the same hotel.

After speaking at the Gulf Photo Plus conference, I headed to Abu Dhabi to photograph the grand mosque with my friend Charlie Borland. On the way there, our cab driver took the wrong exit and decided to back up and cut across the two-lane exit to get back to the freeway. That's when we got t-boned by a small Toyota. The drivers door was smashed in and we were all shaken. The driver of the other car was taken away in an ambulance. This happened within view of the grand mosque and we eventually flagged down another cab and made it to out destination.

Here's an other all shot of the mosque that is a composite of about 35 photographs.

The interior was amazingly beautiful... those little blue specks on the left are normal-sized people.

After returning to Dubai, I looked into using  blogger as a possible replacement for the service I use to host this blog, but had little luck since the site didn't appear in English.

Since returning to the states, I've been visiting friends in San Diego and will be heading North starting tomorrow morning. I'll be making a stop at Vintage Vacations to talk to Craig about the possibility of outfitting a 1940's bus was a new interior. That's just a little research related to a crazy idea I have. I haven't acted on anything yet... I'm still in the research phase. I should end my day somewhere near Los Osos, California which is where I'll be teaching next week.

Lightpainted Salsa Dancers

I took the Photograph above at my hotel in Dubai. That's Chris and Jaclyn from cubangroove.com who are three time World Salsa Champions. I met them while enjoying a beer in the bar at the hotel I'm staying at here in Dubai. After showing them some of my photos, we decided to do a quick photo shoot at the rooftop bar.

The only light source in the shot is a simple flashlight. I opened the shutter and started painting them with light. The white streaks indicate where I had the flashlight pointed at the camera.

Exploring Dubai

I've made it to Dubai after crossing eleven time zones and spending over 20 hours in flight.

Today I went on a jeep trip through the sand dunes, rode a camel and had dinner in the desert along with a belly dancer.

The shot below is my buddy Charlie having a beer.

Yes, I know that I've been using my fisheye lens quite a bit lately. Both of these photos were taken at ISO 3200 on my Canon 5D.

Digital Fine Art Nude Class

I have a Digital Fine Art Nudes class coming up at the Lepp Institute on May 12-16. This will be a great combination of theory (how to think about capturing a 3D subject in a 2D medium), shooting (both studio, outdoors, under natural and artificial lighting) and Photoshop (how to enhance your results to bring them to the next level). You'll learn how to interact with the models, how to make sure the lighting is flattering, how to pose them for dramatic effect and special techniques for making sure you end up with an image worth framing. I'm really excited about the class since this has been a passion of mine since I started college.

We need a few more signups to make this class a reality, so please let anyone you know that is interested in the subject matter know about the class (I'd really appreciate it). You can see some examples of my nudes after the jump (if you're offended by nudity, please don't click). I have many other examples that I am not allowed to show on-line since the women pictured don't want to be able to be recognized. This class is about fine art nudes, not anything raunchy.

Heading to Dubai

I'll be flying out to Dubai tomorrow morning and will be back in just under two weeks. I'll be speaking at an event called Gulf Photo Plus. This should be a fun trip because, unlike last year, this time around I have at least three full days off to explore (last year I only had a half of a day). There will also be a bunch of friends at the event, so it should make for a grand time.

The photo above was from last years visit to Dubai.

Tucson, AZ to San Diego, CA

I drove the bus to Mexicali, CA yesterday and then continued on to the outskirts of San Diego today. I really should give myself more time between international trips since it doesn't look like I'll get around to doing simple things like laundry this time around.

Back to Quito, Ecuador

I've made it back to Quito after spending about a week exploring the Galapagos Islands. I had a great time and shot many gigabytes of photographs. I'll be in Quito for another day before heading to Orlando for a night and then Phoenix for a night before jumping in the bus and heading toward San Diego, which is where I'll fly out of for my next international adventure.

The photograph above was taken with my Canon 15mm fisheye lens. It's a bracket of three shots that were shot hand-held and merged into an HDR image (as described in my HDR DVD).

I'll be marking all my blog photographs with obvious copyright notices since people have been steeling the images and using them without crediting me or linking back to this site.

Lazy Blogger Update

Since my last post, I've driven the bus to Tucson, AZ. I then drove my Jeep to Phoenix and shot an abandoned mine with my buddy Jim and looked into a 1950's bus as possible future vehicle (it's just research, I haven't made any decisions or changes yet).

I just finished speaking at PhotoshopWorld in Orlando and I'm now exploring Quito, which is the capital of Ecuador. I'll be spending a few days here before exploring the Galapagos Islands with a group of photographers.

When I return, I'll have about a week to get the bus to San Diego before I fly out to Dubai for a while.

The image above is a shot of the type of bus I looked at in Phoenix (yes, it's the same kind that was used in the movie RV). I'm considering having one restored and using it to promote a future book on Route 66. It's just a dream at the moment and would take a lot more research before I'd know it things would work out.

Austin, TX to El Paso, TX

This morning I met up with Trey Ratcliff from stuckincustoms.com. He travels the globe as part of his work for a computer gaming company. He mainly shoots HDR and posts an image almost every day on his blog. We had a great time chatting about international travel, HDR and photography in general.

I also drove about 576 miles today and made it to the outskirts of El Paso. I plan to continue on tomorrow and want to end up in Phoenix, AZ by the end of they day.

New Orleans, LA to Ft. Worth, TX

Today, I drove to Ft. Worth, TX where I will have a brake job done on the bus. I will then drive to Austin Monday night. I had a great time in New Orleans and now need to buckle down and get some work done.

What to Shoot in South Dakota: Dakotagraph

If you ever plan to visit South Dakota, be sure to visit the Dakotagaph web site before you leave. This is the web site of Chad Coppess who has been the senior photographer for the South Dakota Department of Tourism since 1993. His web site describes the best time of year to shoot different subject matter and gives you all sorts of useful tips for shooting in South Dakota. Go take a look... I think you'll be impressed by the depth of his posts.

I met Chad when he took one of my workshops last year.