Time Machine

I have been shooting for a few years now. And my roots are in film photography. I learned the fundamentals of making images using a full manual camera that had an only partially working light meter. This forced me to understand lighting and how it effects the optics and the medium in which it’s being recorded.

Digital photography has made me lazy.

Recently I dusted off my old Olympus I started shooting when I was 15. I even bought a Canon AE-1 as well. I figure now more than ever I need to get back in touch with why I fell in love with this artform and how it needs to be treated.
Something about the way a film image looks, and the way it handles light and multiple light sources… It’s something that I have always felt that my DSLR can’t touch. So many people argue with me on this, but it all comes down to something very simple. I love the way that it feels to shoot on a film camera. The physical winding of the film. The anticipation of not knowing how the image looks right away. How much better I can connect with a subject when I’m not staring at a screen and histograms. It’s a beautiful thing.

Here is one of my recent favorites shot on film. See my 25 favorite recent film shots at http://www.helloimben.com/film

Motivational (maybe?) Ramblings of a 20-Something Entrepreneur.

It is in times such as this, where it feels as though the world is crumbling around you, that you must brave the storm. Times when everything is falling through the cracks. Your business is flailing, your relationships are heart-wrenchingly difficult. These are the times I have started to shut down. Creativity is drying up. Motivation and morale is now something I only think about as I’m laying face down in a pillow.

Here’s the kicker. I have so much going on around me that I can barely keep up. I am working on 2 new startups, trying to keep my photography business going through the slow winter months, and not to mention trying to better myself as a person, which could be the tallest order of them all.

I think there has to be a strong correlation between the two.
I think I have been burying myself in work to try to keep my mind off the shittiness that has recently consumed my life.

Suppose this is the time to keep the nose to the ground, do the best that I possibly can, and apologize for my shortcomings.

Stay in touch, I’m sure I’ll be letting you know how well I succeed/fail.

Therapy.

Alluring title right?

The last few days have sucked. I won’t get into it, but it has. I escaped to a family cabin further north from my home camp of Boise. This served a few purposes; time to think, time to improve and refocus where my priorities are, and lots of other stuff on my mind.

A fringe benefit of this was a exuberant amount of time to work. Working has, and mostly likely will always be, a way for me to shut my mind off of other things. Possibly why I’m often working, even when there appears to be nothing happening.

Editing photos is always a daunting task, and it admittedly is my least favorite part of the photographic process.

But it does have a healing and therapeutic benefit. Its relaxing seeing something you created come to life. Its amazing to be able to take yourself back to that very moment frozen in time. Not only that moment, but that emotion. Photographing weddings is a brutally tall order. But seeing people truly happy is an unrivaled experience. Now, I’m not some dark emo kid, I have been fortunate and happy for a beautiful portion of my life. But peering into somebody else’s life for that one day and see a no-limits emotion such as love unfolding before you and capturing it with each shutter click… It’s like catharsis for me. A restoring in the sanctity of love and marriage. Its an awesome thing. It makes me look forward to everything in life.

Editing the aforementioned images is crazy. You don’t always get the whole effect until you take a few minutes to really read the people’s faces. Its a beautiful thing. And reliving some amazing moments through images is a pretty awesome thing.

Chase Kauffman

I got the opportunity to work with Chase the for the first time this week and was not disappointed. Such a laid back, very easy to work with dude, who some great ideas. Chase came to me wanting to shoot and proposed a very editorial style look with fall fashion attire. We put together a very modern business casual look using some really simple clothes.

This was one of those shoots where everything just seemed to click and work as you envisioned it. These are only the digital images that I shot that day, and I’m waiting to get the scans back from my 35mm Canon, and a Mamiya 645 I was borrowing that day from a friend. 

Although, as an artist, I always see room for improvement in my work, I can honestly say I am completely happy with how these turned out. 

Did you know…

That deep down, I mean REEEALLY deep, I am a big nerd. Shocking, I know. I’ll give you a moment to catch your breath.

But my senior year in high school, I won this piece of hardware.
I was the 2008 Idaho NCEE/ Goldman Sachs Economic Competition Champion.

Yeah. I was an economic champion who barely can pay bills now. Get your jokes out now.

-Ben
HelloImBen.com

First Post

Hello. In case you haven’t noticed yet, my name is Ben.
This is my first post in a new blog. I haven’t written a blog in quite some time. I have written for various places as my actual job. Truth be told, I hate writing. I’m slow at writing, and I could be spending my time otherwise. Making the transition from writing for a job to writing for ‘fun’ is kinda tough. I like to keep it light, and although this is my photography site, I like to be a bit more personal with people who are so bored they decide to read. Because I’m not a big-shot celebrity photographer/blogger/badass. I’m still basically a kid. And personally I don’t like a lot of my work. But it’s getting better.

So when you read my posts, sometimes you’ll be like ‘dude, this Ben kid is an idiot.’ Which is cool, I have thick skin. AS most artists should. What I aim for is the other posts where you say ‘Wow, that really hit home for me, I think I’ll read some more.’

As always- I’m open for post suggestions and all that Hooplah.

Much Love.
-Ben
HelloImBen.com