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Gaol Girl

Jason Benz — Fri, 09 Oct 2015 11:30:38 +0000

This is Trial Bay Gaol in New South Wales, Australia. Building began in 1877 and inmates moved into the prison in 1886. A breakwater and wharf were built on the coast creating a harbour which could be used by ships too big to navigate the river. It currently holds a museum and is promoted as a wedding venue by the tourist board.

This image has been accepted by Shutterstock for Stock Photography and is available for download here.

Treasury Casino

Jason Benz — Fri, 01 Nov 2013 01:27:19 +0000

This is the Treasury Casino in Brisbane. It is one of four casinos in the state. Queensland already has twice as many casinos as any other part of Australia and they have plans for three more.

This shot was taken with a fisheye lens I borrowed from work (Panedia). Google has put some of our underwater panoramas on one page as they have begun adding them to Google Maps Street View.

Swan Barracks

Jason Benz — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 04:21:03 +0000

This is the Old Swan Barracks in Perth, Western Australia. It has been our home for the last two weeks while we look for a campervan to start our tour of Australia. As you can see from this image The Swan has been a host for temporary residents for over 100 years. Some may say little has changed but what can you expect from a backpackers in the most remote city on the planet. We are revisiting the Fremantle car market on Saturday and viewing a nice ’87 Sunliner on Sunday. With a bit of luck we should be hitting the road on Monday.

Belton Folly

Jason Benz — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 01:41:48 +0000

This is the Belton Folly near Grantham in the UK. I wanted to get a bit more colour and detail in the sky. This is a situation where a graduated filter would help. Graduated filters are bits of glass you fit in front of the lens to help the camera get a good exposure. When shooting landscapes the sky is almost always far brighter than the land. Although our eyes are very good at seeing the detail in the sky and land at the same time a cameras sensor will often overexpose the sky or underexpose the land. A grad filter is clear at the bottom and slowly gets darker towards the top of the picture. Unfortunately Cokin who make the filters seem to have gone bankrupt but I hear they have recently been bought out. Anyway I could not find any camera shops with any Grad ND filter kits to fit my new lens. Fortunately there was enough detail in the sky for Photoshop to apply a filter after taking the shot. Although Photoshop does give you far more control in applying filters in post processing I still think there is a place for old school filters. Using HDR is another way of solving this problem but the results often look less natural.

Jerash Arches

Jason Benz — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 04:51:41 +0000

This is Jerash in Jordan. The ancient Roman race track once used by chariots played host to BBC’s Top Gear in their 2010 Christmas special through the Middle East. The sky is blended in from this image in Egypt. To blend it in a solid colour layer with a mask to blank out the stonework was used. The blend mode is set to color.

Cairo Museum

Jason Benz — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 05:58:10 +0000

This red building is the back of the Cairo Museum in Egypt. I took the shot from the street looking up. I used Photoshops Filter>Distort>Lens Correction to restore the perspective. Making the verticals vertical.

Florence 1926

Jason Benz — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:25:20 +0000

This is Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence Italy in 1926. The original photograph belonged to my Grandfather. I used a levels layer to expand the tonal range of the scan. By moving the white point down and the black point up it ensures you have strong blacks and bright whites in your final image.

I then used clone and spot healing tool to clean up the marks and scratches.