Where is Ben?

Exploring Phoenix, AZ

I'll be presenting my Photoshop for Photographers seminar in Phoenix today. I'll then get tempted by other bus possibilities at a place called Desert West Coach before spending tomorrow shooting an abandoned mine with my buddy Jim.

I'm thinking about heading up the East coast in a few weeks... possibly making it all the way to Maine. Let me know if you can think of any essential stops on my way. Especially unusual subject matter to shoot.

The image above was created my Regina in my office as a promo for this web site. I'll be using it when I speak at events like the one I'm teaching today.

Exploring West Coast of Florida

I had a great time on my first cruise and am now near Ft. Myers, FL. I'm exploring the area with Lewis Kemper, Adam Jones and Curt (I can never remember your last name). We'll be shooting the Venice Rookery, Sannibel Island, Corkscrew Swamp and more before I fly out to present my Photoshop for Photographers seminar in Phoenix. I won't even return to the bus to refresh my luggage before I get back from those two adventures.

The photograph above was captured on Grand Turk during the cruise. It's a single raw capture adjusted in Adobe Camera Raw... nothing fancy.

Caribbean Cruise Starts Today!

I'm heading out on a Caribbean cruise starting today. My itinerary includes:

Sun: at sea
Mon: Grant Turk
Tue: San Juan
Wed: St. Thomas
Thur: at sea
Fri: Half Moon Cay

I'll be speaking at the Photoshop Fling 5 during this cruise.

Route 66 Poster #3

Here's one more poster version from my Route 66 series. This image received a great response when I unveiled it as a large print during Fotofusion 2008 in Florida.

Severe Weather in My Area

Here's what's going on right now. The red boxes are tornado warnings and the red outlines around stuff are tornado watch areas. That curvy shape is the lake I'm parked on the edge of... I'm located near Pahokee on the map. The white lines indicate severe storms and their expected path.

Of course the tornado watch doesn't end until 7am, which makes for a difficult night since I'll move from the bus to a solid building the second a tornado warning is issued closer to my location. There is a solid place I can go that's only a 60 second drive away.

In trying to keep up with things, I've found the following two web sites to be the best:

Weather warnings list auto-updated every two minutes:
http://kamala.cod.edu/svr/

The weather map shown above (just make sure you turn on the Severe setting at the top of the map), so you can see where tornado warnings are):
http://www.wunderground.com/radar/

Opening for Galapagos Trip

A spot just opened in my Galapagos trip for April 7-17. It's been sold out since two weeks after it was announced back in August of last year, but someone had to cancel. If you're interested, please contact them soon since it's only one seat the has opened up. This is a rare opportunity since the ship only accommodates 16 people. The image above is of the sailing ship we will call home for the trip. This is why I bought the Canon G9 and it's underwater housing... we should be doing quite a bit of snorkeling during this trip. This should be an amazing trip... I can't wait for it.

Image Refinement

I've been spending a good amount of my time refining images that I've already posted to my blog or photography web site. I thought you might enjoy seeing a blog version and the final "ready for a big print" version, which is sometimes radically different and other times almost identical. The main thing is that many of the image were posted to this blog the same day they were shot and I might have been shooting well into the evening and was in a hurry to get something posted before I went to bed. Also, some of the images were originally processed low res to save time and now have to be redone in order to get the quality needed to print them large.

The photograph above was taken in Cuervo, New Mexico. The top version is the final refined product, while the lower version is what I posted on this blog soon after the image was captured. You really have to see these images as a minimum of 13x16" in order to really get a true feeling for what's there. Eventually they will be printed at least 24x36" and that's when you should come take a look.

Route 66 Poster #2

Here's another finished image from my Route 66 series. This is again one that I've posted previously, but I have refined the image and it is now ready to print large.

Route 66 Poster #1

Today I finished refining one of my Route 66 images and was about to print it on 13x19" paper. That's when I discovered that I'd have a little empty space on the sheet, so I decided to turn it into a poster or sorts. This image is now hanging in the bus to remind me of all the hours I've been putting into these images.

You can click on the image to see a larger version.

Ben Update

Just thought you might like an update on what's going on in my life. I've moved the bus to the shore of Lake Okeechobee, which is the largest lake in Florida. The front of the bus is pointed straight at the lake and I'm only a few yards from the water, so all I can see out the windshield is water. I'll be in this location for a week while I try to finish catching up on all the work that I lost when my hard drive failed. I should be caught up in about a week.

Here are some highlights of what's been going on in my world:

• I had a great time at the FotoFusion conference in Delray Beach, Florida. I spoke at the event, learned quite a bit about publishing fine art photography books and getting into galleries, which I plan to do with my Route 66 images.
• I've been shooting quite a bit, but I haven't processed any of the shots because I'm concentrating on refining my Route 66 images right now (the ones that have already been posted to this blog).
• I've decided to get back into shape this year and have lost about 15 pounds since the first of the year and am on schedule to burn off about two pounds a week for the next few months.
• I had new mug shots taken of me by Harrison Funk that you might start to see showing up in promotional materials. Some of these photographs were taken at my friend Jay Koenigsberg's studio in Miami (the photo above is of Jay telling me he better get some credit on my blog for letting me use his studio). Jay also scored me a nice parking bus parking spot in the marina near his place where I could walk to the water in about 20 seconds. Thanks Jay!
• I printed a bunch of large images that I will use to decorate the bus with (thanks again Jay for allowing me to use your printer). That includes a huge panorama that is over 80" wide that will appear on the lower wall between my office table and passenger seat.
• My next trip will be a seven day Caribbean Cruise known as Photoshop Fling 5.