This is Nigeria

I've recently been going through the images from my trip to Nigeria back in 2006 and wanted to share a couple that you more then likely haven't seen.  For those of you that don't know, I traveled there for a month with Eze Anamelechi and musician Norman Baker to take photos and experience life in West Africa.  From the minute we landed in Lagos, I was blown away by everything happening around me. Imagine 150 million people in a country twice the size of California.  Aside from the first and last couple days of the trip that we spent in Lagos, most of our time was spent in a village just north of the city of Owerri.  I realize the country has a bad rap with all the corruption and oil money and email scams but Nigerian hospitality is by far the best I have ever experienced in the world, even compared to the US.  Click on the images to see a larger version. Hope you enjoy them!  

25 more images after the jump....

Recent Work

Here are a couple tear sheets from a recent job I shot for WA-Magazine.  The story is about winery owners that are alumni from either Washington State or The University of Washington.  Check out the fall issue of WA-Magazine.

Manny Eats a Doughnut

This is just a spur of the moment personal I shot basically to test some lights and have a little fun.  Thanks to Manny Insixiengmay for eating a jelly doughnut even though she hates jelly doughnuts.  She started to get ready for work after the shoot and found out she had a Scorpions tee and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to shoot that.

Hope you like them!
Ben

Test Shoot with Luis

At last, here are the selects I promised you awhile back.  I got to do a test shoot with Luis Simoes while I was in Prague and had a blast. At first I wanted to just walk around the neighborhood(Mala Strana) and shoot at a couple locations I scouted the day before but the apartment I was staying at was so sublime that we ended up just shooting there.

Hope you enjoy them!
Ben

Test Shoot Teaser

I did a test shoot while in Prague with model Luis Simoes.  It was a ton of fun and overall it went really well.  I shot both film and digital and can't wait to develop the film when I get back stateside.  Here are a couple images from the shoot as well as a quick video clip.  The rest of the images will be posted as soon as I get home.

Enjoy!
Ben

Baker Lake

Heading to Baker Lake soon for another camping trip. Last years trip out there was very eventful, getting lost on the way out, intense Connect Four tourney, swimming in cold water.  Looking forward to going back out there so I thought I would post some photos from last years Baker Lake camping trip.

Enjoy the summer!

Expired film and Artwalk

You never know what you're gonna get with film that expired in 2002.

2 Big Anouncements...

I know its been awhile since my last post.  I'll try to not do that anymore.  First off, I am pleased to finally announce the launch of the Spaces, a stock collection that I am honored to be a part of.  Jonathan Ross of Andersen Ross has put his blood sweat and tears into putting this collection together and the results of his efforts has paid off.  So far the collection has launched at Corbis with a number of other companies waiting in the wings.  Click on the link below to check out a portion of the collection and let me know what you think.

Spacesimages

In other news, I just booked a trip to Europe in August with my good friend Kaylynn who just graduated from law school.  It will be 4 cities in 18 days.  We start in Vienna, take the train to Prague and stay there for just over a week. Then off to Amsterdam for a couple days before taking a ferry to London where I hopefully get to make my pilgrimage to The Emirates for an Arsenal match.  This will be a great opportunity to add to the Spaces collection so be on the lookout for future posts with pictures.  If any of you have been to any of these cities and have recommendations on places to eat or things to checkout, feel free to send me an email.

Thanks
Ben

Mustaches!

I've been trying to take a picture of my friend Peyton's mustache for some time now.  The first time he grew it out he had to shave it suddenly before I had a chance to take the picture.  Luckily for me, he grew it out again for Seattle's Beard and Mustache Festival.  Hope you like it and thanks Peyton!

Ants marching...

This is a time lapse from one of the last shoots at the old Andersen Ross studio. Its one of those marathon, 175 shot days.
Enjoy!
Time Lapse

Switching over to video

As some of you might know, I spent the last few months working with Andersen Ross and HD Cinema Group shooting stock video. It was a great opportunity to work with a Red One camera and see the contrast of working with video as opposed to stills.
Here is a link to a reel of some of that work. Demo Reel

Here is a quick shot of the crew on set shot with my iphone. Laura looks as happy as ever.



Thanks Jonathan, Laura, Tim, Ivan, Tre, Herman, and Eric!
Enjoy!
Ben

Yeah for 2010!

I'm always excited to start the new year. The holidays always seem to be pretty hectic, flight delays, riots at Walmart, stressing about deciding what to get people. Its always a breath of fresh air when the first of January comes around. This year especially because 2009 was a bit of a drag.

People are always asking "What's your New Years resolution?". I really can't say that it is one thing. Instead, I made a list of goals I want to achieve in 2010 and divided it into three categories, business, financial, and personal. I plan on checking them off as I achieve them. One of which is posting on this blog at least once a week so keep an eye out. There are a number of other blogs with posts similar to this, check out Nick Onken's.

Hope everyone has an excellent and fruitful 2010!

Cheers,
Ben

PS The new website is almost done and should be up soon!