Where is Ben?

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 :-(

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.

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.