Welcome Back to Ben's Blog

What have I been doing for the last four months? Here's a quick summary in no particular order:

•  Explored the East Coach, going through many states that I had never been to, including Maine, New Hampshire, Delaware, etc. Also, spent a week sitting in on John Paul Caponigro's creativity class in Maine
• Attended a vintage bus rally in Hershey, PA (no I still haven't purchased a vintage bus). If you're not familiar with my desire for a vintage bus, then click here for more info. 
• Did a bunch of research about vintage buses, which continues to this day, but included: 1) Meeting Kerwin Elmers who has been converting buses into RVs since 1952, 2) visiting the Museum of Bus Transportation research center, 3) visiting the RV Hall of Fame's Library, 4) visiting the Pacific Bus Museum
• Inspected no fewer than a dozen vintage buses in my search for the right one to purchase
• Followed part of the historic Lincoln Highway, shooting a few vintage gas stations along the way
• Spent three weeks visiting friends in my home town of St. Anthony Village, MN (park of Minneapolis)
• Watched the movie "Fargo" while parked in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Fargo, ND
• Spent one week each in both Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Parks
• Attended the arts festival "Burning Man" in the Nevada deser
• Had the generator in my RV quit working on me one day before I was to rely on it to sustain myself in the middle of the desert at Burning Man (had to rent one and still haven't gotten around to having mine fixed)
• Left Burning Man early due to a bit of a family emergency. For the last week or so, I've been in St. George, UT helping my 86 year old dad with some health issues. He's OK, but he needed some help getting things sorted out. 

So, what's the plan for the near future?

• I'll be heading to Las Vegas for PhotoshopWorld where I hope to introduce a set of Photoshop Actions (if I can get everything done by then... helping my dad has slowed me down a bit)
• Right after PhotoshopWorld, I plan to fly out to inspect two more vintage buses in the hopes that one of them will be "the one". 
• In late November, I'll be spending a month exploring Asia. That will include a 12 day workshop exploring Loas, Cambodia and Viet Nam while teaching Photoshop and Photography. Then I have 16 more days when I think I'll explore Thailand and Malaysia. Have also been contemplating India, but might have to wait for another trip.

Why did it take me this long to update my blog?

• I always wanted to post a "finished" photo and would often wait until I had one ready. 
• I went through a lengthy period where I was shooting a lot, but not creating any finished images. 
• By the time I had a finished image ready, I had too many items to update you on, so I put it off in general while being distracted by my vintage bus hunt.
• In the mean time, I had been updating Facebook on a regular basis, but I only allow close friends to see those posts (FYI: if your phone number isn't in my phone, then I doubt I'll approve you as a friend on Facebook). 

What's the future for this blog?

• I've given myself license to use photos taken from my iPhone on the blog, which means I no longer have the excuse of not posting due to not having a "finished" image.
• I have been updating the "Ben's Location" map that appears on the left side bar of this site. It's rarely more than 24 hours off on my true location.
• I've decided to start Tweeting for really short posts. Those are the kind of posts that I've been doing on Facebook lately. I've got it setup so that anything I tweet will appear both here and on Facebook and then I can reserve direct Facebook posts for more personal information that I might not want to share with everyone. My tweets will appear below the map I mentioned above.
• I will reserve normal blog posts for my travelog and for things that you might actually want to look up in the future.
• Finished photos will now appear on my photography site at TheBestofBen.com I'll try to remember to post on twitter or in a blog post to let you know when I've added content to that site. 
• Ideally, I'll make a blog post about once a week and I have resolved to make sure I never go more than a month without posting.

Anything else? Yes! I was recently interviewed on the Lens Flare 35 podcast, feel free to have a listen.

The image at the top of this post is of my buddy Wes who works at Wacom. I visited him on the 4th of July weekend and thought it was appropriate to do some light painting with sparklers. Feel free to click on the image to see a larger version.

Comments

[Carolyn Lim]

Hi Ben
How about dropping by Singapore too?

[Lou Adzima]

I think you have Buses on the brain.
It's "East Coast" not "East Coach"

Lou

[Michael S.]

Most excellent to see your post. Have been wondering about ya buddy! I wont be out in Vegas this time. Hope all is well and have fun in Asia. Need an assistant? LOL! Take care, and glad you will be posting again. I like the new strategy. I have been floundering about with mine lately as well.

Michael
mdsimages.com

[John G]

What is involved with having your tour bus shipped to Asia for your month long visit? Air freight?

[Acai berry]

Really you have done so many things in very short span of time.I really appreciate your work.

[Wholesale Dropshippers]

Really you have done so many things in very short span of time.I really appreciate your work.