We all know Ben Willmore as an extraordinary Photoshop author and trainer. What you may not know is he's sold his house in favor of traveling the country, living in a motorcoach bus, and documenting his adventures on his blog: Where is Ben?.
I was able to get a tour of Ben's new wheels/home during Photoshop World, Miami. I was amazed at the number of groupies on his bus - if you can consider Bert Monroy, Bruce Fraser, Stephen Johnson, and Vincent Versace “groupies.”
I decided to catch up with Ben and see how things were going, and maybe find out a few new things about him:
So, Ben, where are you?!?
I'm parked at an campground just North of Gainesville, FL.
You're originally from the Midwest, correct?
Yes! I grew up in a Minneapolis suburb known as St. Anthony Village. I lived there for 30 years before moving to the mountains of Colorado... and now I've sold that house to live on a motorcoach.
What did you enjoy most about Minneapolis?
Growing up in Minneapolis was great. You get a good range of hot and cold, which makes it easy to move to any part of the world (glad I didn't grow up in Florida, which would have really limited my options). The arts scene was great and the lakes make for great recreation. Minneapolis is also a hub for graphic design and advertising, which helped me as a graphic designer. I didn't realize how friendly everyone is until I started traveling the country and noticing a lack of eye contact and conversation when I run into strangers.
How did you get into Photoshop?
I used Photoshop before it was a product. I got a hold of a beta version and played around with it. I didn't really do all that much serious stuff until 2.5 came out. I was using it to modify photos that were used in advertisements... removing backgrounds from images, adding artificial shadows, performing color correction, retouching, etc. I mainly used QuarkXPress, Freehand and Photoshop and was an expert in each one. As time has gone by, I've focused more on Photoshop.
What are you currently up to?
I'm currently touring the country with my Photoshop for Photographers seminar and working on some new training DVD's. You can see where I'm heading on my website at www.DigitalMastery.com.
What's been the best thing about being involved with Photoshop?
Getting paid to spend all my time playing with Photoshop... stuff that I'd do in my free time if it wasn't my job. The other thing I love about it is that going to national parks to take photos can be considered "work" if those photos might end up being used in one of my books or seminars :-)
What's your favorite feature in CS2?
Smart Objects: I love how they let me embed RAW files into my layered .PSD files, scale & warp images non-destructively and use one image in multiple areas while keeping all of them up to date while I make future edits.
What's the least understood feature in Photoshop?
Color Management is the least understood. Some major changes are necessary before this area becomes easily understood and the problem is that too many parties are involved: Adobe with Photoshop, Apple/Microsoft with their OSes, and printer manufacturers with their printer drivers. It's a complete mess and I don't see an end in sight. It affects everyone from photographers, web designers and grandmothers... we all want consistent color and don't want to have to get a PhD, or spend hundreds to make it work.
What's the most under-utilized feature in Photoshop?
There is a long list of under-utilized features:
- Most people don't even know that you can hide menu commands to simplify Photoshop
- Variables, which allow you to create many documents that contain a common design (like business cards)
- The Color Replacement tool, which makes easy work of changing the color of everything from people's eyes to the color of your car
- The Background Eraser, which can save eons when you need to isolate an area
How's the bus been treating you so far?
I'm loving the lifestyle so far. I keep having to remind myself that I'm not on vacation. I've been living this way for just over a month and tonight is the first one where I've paid to park somewhere overnight (read... it doesn't have to be expensive). I've really enjoyed meeting my of my blog readers and they have been overly helpful in finding me stealth parking spots.
Thanks, Ben. Have fun and keep in touch. We'll look forward to seeing you in Minneapolis in June.
