Benz World Blog » Beach

Ningaloo Coast

Jason Benz — Sat, 21 Sep 2019 14:34:26 +0000

This is where the pristine sands of Nature Bay meet Ningaloo Reef in a remote corner of Western Australia. It is just outside the tropics so the water is as warm and welcoming as it looks, without the nasties which keep people on the beach further North. There are reef sharks here but they are easy to scare off if needed. The real danger is being caught in a rip which I discovered can pull you out to sea from a seemingly calm lagoon. Fortunately, I was rescued by a surfer called Sam Kinney.

It seems this area is dangerous for me. Last time I visited, 23 years ago I had another near-death experience when we lost our car after a short evening walk in the Cape Range National Park. We had to use the moon and stars to navigate halfway across the peninsula and rejoin the main road. At least I had the excuse of being young and stupid then. My recent experience proves I can be old and stupid too.

When snorkelling on my first visit I had never seen coral or swam with fish before. The experience forced me to redefine how intense colour could be. 18 years later I would be employed to process over 1 million images for the Global Reef Record.

Underwater photography has some unique challenges. Colour temperature changes with depth and distance. In addition, the blue shift is so extreme a cameras auto white balance will not work. The only way to colour balance underwater is by eye. Your brain does it automatically so you see a kaleidoscope of colours in the reef and fish but a camera will just see shades of blue. To create digital images with the range of colours you perceive requires heavy processing of the RAW camera file to get the colours looking right. My only reference point was this one memory of coral and fish when I was half my age. I used to half-jokingly ask my boss for a field trip to remind myself of the colours of coral.

I was interested on many levels to see Ningaloo Reef again. I started at Point Quobba were I first swam with the fishes. There were still colourful fish but the coral was in bad shape. To find some living coral required travelling an extra 100km of dirt roads to Gnaraloo. Once you get there the fringing reef is very accessible, only a few meters from the shore. I found the most impressive coral structures at Nature Bay but spent most of my time swimming in 3-mile lagoon as it was only 100 meters from the camp and a clean gas-heated bore water shower. I recommend a visit if you are in the area.

I am following the west coast up to Darwin for the start of the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge on the 13th October. I will then follow the race to Adelaide.

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

Island Life

Jason Benz — Sun, 02 Jul 2017 08:48:00 +0000

This beach is the shortest route to the bar when you arrive by ferry on Keppel Island in Queensland, Australia. This place reminded me of Jamaica and Cuba. People who live in remote islands seem to approach life differently to city dwellers. There is a slower pace in tune with nature which is more like surfing than a busy driven urban lifestyle.

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

Ian’s Boat

Jason Benz — Mon, 15 Aug 2016 23:03:09 +0000

This is one of the Keppel Islands. I don’t remember which one as Ian was good enough to take us to a few islands in his boat on 1st Jan 2016. This is one of those rare occasions when I wish my camera had GPS. It is fondly remembered as the best New Years Day ever.

Long Beach

Jason Benz — Sat, 30 Apr 2016 10:03:18 +0000

This in Long Beach on Great Keppel which is an island 15km off the coast of Queensland in Australia.

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

Keppel Return

Jason Benz — Wed, 23 Dec 2015 07:26:22 +0000

This is Great Keppel Island in Queensland off the coast of mainland Australia. If you are reading this I have posted it using solar powered pre-iPhone technology, a Nokia N-95. This is the first place Karen and I have re-visited in more than a decade of travel. It has everything you would expect from an exclusive resort without any of the cost.

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

The Broadwater

Jason Benz — Sat, 12 Dec 2015 10:50:18 +0000

This is the Southport Broadwater on the Gold Coast. It is a shallow estuary of water fed by several rivers including the Nerang and Pimpama. The area is one of the fastest growing regions in the developed world and contains 90% of Australia’s canal estates. After local protests, plans for a cruise ship terminal were rejected by the Queensland Government in 2015. However this issue keeps returning around each election. Sand banks which have built up due to lack of dredging are now being used by endangered migratory birds. Plans to name them, effectively turning them into islands should give them greater protection from developers.

Climate Change

Jason Benz — Sat, 21 Nov 2015 09:35:49 +0000

We saw this grass fire on The Spit this morning on the way back from cycling to the post office. Apologies for the quality as I only had my 8 year old N95 phone to take this picture. Queensland is currently experiencing +10C above average temperatures. Despite seeing plumes of smoke drifting over our house in Southport, this has not been the most alarming effect of climate change I have seen this week. For the last few years I have been working for a 360 degree photography specialists called Panedia. My main project has been producing content for the Global Reef Record. I have processed over 1 million images in Photoshop to create a control base line for coral reefs around the world. A handful of reefs have been re-visited. In preparation for COP21, I processed 2 sets of images from Kahaului Point in Hawaii taken 10 weeks apart. If I had not checked the GPS myself I would not have believed it was the same reef. The extent of coral bleaching was frightening. I saw a lush oceanic forest transformed into a dying sea bed.

360 Before / After Coral Bleaching hyper-lapse video

Pirate Set

Jason Benz — Sun, 28 Jun 2015 08:00:44 +0000

This is one of the sets of the new Pirates of the Caribbean film “Dead Men Tell No Tales” which is currently being filmed on the Gold Coast in Queensland. They have fenced off a long sand beach on the Southport Spit until the 17th July 2015.

I am sending my camera and lens back to Canon for repair so I will have to keep the photoblog going with new processing of old files from Australia, Egypt, Jamaica, Cuba and the UK.

The Spit

Jason Benz — Mon, 08 Jun 2015 12:08:28 +0000

This is The Spit on the Gold Coast in Queensland. It is a sand bar off the coast of Southport and our largest local beach. We biked down there yesterday to look for one of the sets for the new Pirates of the Caribbean film. We heard they had been planting palm trees here for the movie but we found no sign of Johnny Depp.

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

The Apostles

Jason Benz — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 11:28:19 +0000

These limestone stacks on the coast of Victoria, Australia are know as The Twelve Apostles, despite only ever having nine of them. On 3rd July 2005 a 50 metre tall stack collapsed into the sea leaving eight. Then in 2016 five under water stack were discovered by sonar mapping.

We are planning a road trip from Southport to Sydney to drop off Karen for her flight back to the UK in a few weeks. There will also be a chance to add to mining stock photography and visit an observatory.

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