Seattle, creativeLIVE, good friends & geekery

by Ben Willmore | Sep 24, 2012

Hey everyone! We just wrapped up yet another week in the Seattle area. (For various reasons, we had decided to extend our stay.) There was a lot going on this week… from meeting friends, to creativeLIVE, to the new iPhone, to hanging out with the “original” technomad. Here’s a summary of our week:

Lesa Snider & creativeLIVE

As you may already know, creativeLIVE is based in Seattle and my great friend Lesa Snider was there teaching her Photoshop Deep Dives classes. We met up with Lesa and her husband, Jay, early in the week and then attended one of her classes. It was great to re-connect with the creativeLIVE gang to start planning some new classes.

Me and Lesa Snider on the set of her creativeLIVE class, Photoshop Deep Dives.

The “Original” Technomad

If you know anything about my lifestyle, you know that I live full-time in a 40-foot tour bus. There are actually a whole group of people who live and work on the road, and we live to call ourselves technomads. This is because we use technology to make our “nomadness” possible. This technomad idea is far from new though. Back in the ’70s, one man kind of started it all, traveling the country on a recumbent bicycle, decked out with loads of cutting edge technology. Decades later, he’s still living a nomadic lifestyle, now on a sailboat he’s in the process of “teching out.” This is Steven Roberts, and you can check out his life HERE. Steven was docked on the San Juan Islands, which isn’t far from Seattle, so I ventured up there for a day and spent some time “geeking out” with the original technomad.

The two photos above show me and Steven with his sailboat, Nomadness.

Karen forced me to include this photo. I got this iPhone photo of Steven’s boat when his little feline travel partner decided to photobomb the shot. Karen gave it the funky oil paint look.

Exploring Whidbey Island

Later in the week, Karen and I met up with our friend Peggy, who we originally met during my Iceland workshop back in June. Peggy lives in the area and took us exploring on the nearby Whidbey Island. The weather was pretty overcast and the light was dead but we still had a great time exploring and reminiscing on all our Iceland adventures. One of the greatest things about workshops like that is the new friends you make.

Karen got this shot of me on Whidbey Island. We stopped to shoot in this little town called Coupeville.

Peggy, Karen and I have dinner at an excellent little place in Coupeville called Christopher’s. If you’re ever in the area, we HIGHLY recommend this place. We all loved our meals and their caprese salad was just mouthwatering (and huge).

More Seattle explorations

Saturday was our last day in the Seattle area, so Karen and I went exploring one last time. We took an hour-long harbor cruise, which circled the harbor while a tour guide narrated the trip. It was a beautiful day, and the boat was a lot of fun. Afterwards, we went on the new ferris wheel that’s right on the water. At 175 feet tall, we got some nice views of the city. If you ever want to give it a shot, it’s $13./per person.

Karen and I ride the “Great Wheel” in Seattle.

After moving on from Seattle, we’re going to be exploring North Cascades National Park, so stay tuned for posts on that!

Before I wrap up this post, I wanted to remind everyone that the California Photo Festival is coming up in less than a month! If you’re in the Los Osos/ San Luis Obispo area and haven’t signed up yet, definitely check it out! Here are the classes I’ll be teaching:

-High Dynamic Range Mastery
-Sunset on the Beach (live shoot)
-Getting Started with Lightpainting
-Directing the Viewer’s Eye
-Panos & Beyond