New Gear & Vintage Bus Progress

Posted by admin in Blog on November 12, 2012

Hi from Portland… again! Karen and I usually relocate every couple days, but we’ve been hanging in Portland for a while now. We’ve got no complaints though. Portland is a good town for us. It’s got a funky vibe, and the local flavor suits us. This has been a pretty mellow week, but I do have a few fun things to report.

First of all, I ordered some new gear! I had been waiting to order Canon’s new 24-70 f2.8 II lens, but being such a new product, stores were having a hard time keeping it in stock. I finally was able to order it from B&H. I haven’t had an opportunity to shoot much with it yet, but as soon as I do I’ll be posting images here. I also ordered some new Canon speedlites (the 600EX-RT) and radio transmitters (ST-E3-RT) with plans to use them for some more elaborate lightpaintings and some daylight lightpaintings.

My new Canon 24-70 f2.8 II lens arrived this week, and I cant wait to start shooting with it!

I also ordered three Canon 600EX-RT Speedlights with ST-E3-RT Radio Transmitters.

In my last post, I mentioned that my vintage bus is now located in Eugene, Oregon at Paradise Coach, where it will be getting its all new interior. It’s going to be a long project, but progress started this week. Larry, the head of Paradise Coach, started pulling out the old floorboards and inspecting what’s underneath. The floorboards will be replaced and then the interior built up upon that.

This is the interior of my [gutted] vintage bus. You can see that the floorboards are in the process of being pulled out and the stainless steel holding and water tanks below the floor.

While I spent a lot of time working this week, I was able to process a few of the images I shot while driving the vintage bus from Tennessee to Oregon. You can see two of the panoramas below. We also replaced a lot of the lighting in the current bus. The lights that go around the windows and ceiling have been dubbed the “disco lights” and are now LEDs. We’ve been wanting to do this for a while. Not only were the old lights energy suckers, but many of them had burnt out.

Since I’m on the topic of buses, I wanted to post a video that was just posted from the Travel Channel’s Extreme RVs show. This segment features Flxible buses, the same brand as my vintage bus. This past July marked the 100th anniversary of the brand, and the video was shot at the bus rally commemorating that milestone. I have met the bus owner featured in the video, Bernard, who also happens to be Jay Leno’s mechanic (and if you’ve ever seen Leno’s garage, you know that’s a big job!)

This week, Karen and I will be flying to NJ to spend Thanksgiving with her family. More to come…

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Iceland: New Images & Upcoming Workshops

Posted by admin in Blog on November 7, 2012

Iceland has always been one of my favorite places to explore and go shooting. In fact, I’ve been there at least six times! One of the things that sticks out to most people who visit Iceland is the sheer number of waterfalls. It’s hard to go a day in that country without photographing at least one waterfall. And many of them are just spectacular.

Lately, I’ve been revisiting and processing more of my photos from previous Iceland trips, many of them waterfall images. I posted three of them below, and they should give you an idea of how big these natural wonders are. In the last photo, you can even see a tiny person standing near the foot of the falls.

I have a lot of tips for shooting waterfalls. In fact, I’m even writing an e-book on the subject. But here’s a quick tip I’ll leave you with now. There are three things I always carry with me when shooting waterfalls and can often be crucial to getting a decent image. 1. A tripod: Waterfalls usually require longer exposures, especially if you want to get that silky water effect. 2. A lens cloth: If you’re shooting close to the water, chances are you’re going to get a lot of spray, and little droplets on your lens could mean the death of your image. 3. A neutral density filter: I don’t always need this, but it’s come in handy more times than I can count. This filter will let you shoot with longer shutter speeds, even during bright days. You need longer shutter speeds to get the silky, water-in-motion look. (I used ND filters in two of the three shots below).

Click on the images for a larger view

Join me in Iceland

I’ve got two photography workshops in Iceland coming up in 2013 and I’d love for you to join me there.

Winter in Iceland • Feb. 17-23, 2013

Iceland’s winter landscape offers amazing opportunities for photographers. Ice caves, frozen waterfalls, light painting and the northern lights are just a sample of what’s in store for you in this amazing country. When we’re not in the field shooting, we’ll be in a classroom environment, editing and refining our images. Click here to learn more.

Discover Iceland • Aug. 11-17, 2013

Get ready to discover one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Iceland features black sand beaches, waterfalls, geysers, volcanos, geothermal features, glaciers, icebergs, lighthouses, turf houses, storybook horses and interesting architecture, all packed into a country that is 1/95th the size of the United States. Click here to learn more

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One week, 12 states, 3,000 miles

Posted by admin in Blog on November 5, 2012

If you know me at all, you know that my life is pretty much one big road trip. Well, that’s been especially the case during the past week or two. I just finished driving my vintage bus from Chattanooga, TN to Coburg, Oregon, where it will be getting its new interior installed. Right now, the engine/transmission is all new but the interior is gutted. By the time it’s done, it will have a modern/streamline design look to it. The bus is now at Paradise Coach, in Coburg, and what’s nice is that this will probably be the bus’ last stop before it’s completely restored. I’ve had the bus since October, 2009 and the restoration project has had a lot of setbacks. You can read the whole story on the Creative Cruiser site, but lets just say that the bus has traveled over 8,100 miles during its restoration alone.

This is a map of travels my vintage bus has taken during its restoration alone! It’s gone over 8,100 miles, and we haven’t even begun living in it!

When I finally arrived at Paradise Coach, I handed over the keys to Larry, who will be in charge of creating the bus’ new interior.

If you read my last post, you saw a lot of iPhone shots from the stops that I made during the trip. I love to shoot vintage gas stations, and there were several of them on my route. You can see a few of those shots below. I only had two breakdowns during the course of the trip and they were both due to the same thing… some loose tubing that will eventually be fixed permanently. No big deal at all. I had anticipated some breakdowns because the bus has just been given a new engine and transmission. I knew there was bound to be a few kinks to work out.

My vintage bus at Twin Arrows, a famous stop along Route 66.

The bus at a vintage Skelly service station.

I was really eager to shoot the bus at this vintage Conoco station, but I was pretty bummed to show up at dawn and find that the neon lights had been turned off!

The timing for my Oregon arrival was pretty good, because Karen had just flown in from New Jersey. While I was driving the vintage bus, she was out visiting her family on the east coast. She drove down from Portland to Coburg to pick me up and get another look at the bus. She hadn’t seen the bus in a year and a half, and she thinks it’s adorable.

Karen and I both returned to the current bus in Portland, and plan to stay in the area for the next few months. We’ll also travel to Coburg/Eugene to keep up on the vintage bus project. More to come…

 

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About Ben & Karen

Ben: I'm a traveling Photoshop guru who loves to explore everything unique and extraordinary. I'm a photographer, former graphic designer and world traveler. Back on March 14th of 2006, I got sick of sitting still and waiting for my next vacation, so I sold 98% of my material possessions and started living on a tour bus ...for more visit my blog, photo site, or photoshop training site. Karen: I’m a photographer and graphic designer with an aptitude for anything involving pixels. I love being on the move, exploring the world and capturing it all with my camera. I joined Ben living on the road January 24th, 2010. For more on my work and play, visit my blog or photo site.

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