Where is Ben?

Exploring New Orleans, LA

I've settled in New Orleans and plan to stay here for a full week. I'm parked within walking distance of French Quarter and have found many interesting potential shooting locations.

I've been spending a good amount of my time refining my Route 66 images and I now have twelve that are ready to be printed at 24x36" Above is one example of an image ready to be printed big. I'm 1/3 of the way to my goal of having 35 images ready for a gallery show.

The version below is the unrefined version that I originally posted on this blog.

Orlando, FL to Mobile, AL

Today I drove about 495.7 miles and will spend the night in Mobile, AL. Tomorrow I plan to continue on to New Orleans, LA. I might spend a few days in that area before heading toward Texas. Let me know if you have any suggestions for what to explore on this journey.

Venturing North

I've started to head North and am planted in Orlando for a few days. I think I'm going to drive towards Texas and then continue on to California (I'll drive down the East coast in the fall). I should be in Austin by March 26th.

The photograph above was taken along Route 66 in Texas. I found this abandoned house in the middle of nowhere.

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.

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.

Bubblegum Alley

The photo above was taken of bubblegum alley in San Luis Obispo, CA. This is a half-block long alley that is completely covered with used chewing gum. It starts at ground level and extends at least seven feet up the wall on both sides of the alley.

I made it back to Atlanta and should start driving the bus towards Florida any day now. I'll start processing images from Route 66 again tomorrow and will try to keep up with posting an image a day for as long as I can stand it.

Route 66: Amarillo, TX Revisited

This photograph was processed in Adobe Camera Raw and has never been opened all they way into Photoshop. I ended up adjusting just about every slider that is available to create this look. You can see what the image would look like with default ACR settings below:

I took this shot specifically for a friend who participates in an annual event known as Rib-o-Rama. That's where each year a bunch of guys get together, cook ribs and vote for the best of the bunch (hi Chris).

Route 66: More Shamrock, TX

This photograph is the result of combining a three-shot bracket of exposures into a single HDR file and processing the image two and three times. The 2x version was used as the base image and the 3x version was placed on top of it and masked so that it only appeared in areas that I wanted to emphasize. I also ran a few actions and masked them as well and applied a few hue/saturation and Curves adjustment layers as described in my new on-line HDR class.