Benz World Blog » Black&White

Jason Bournee

Jason Benz — Fri, 23 Jun 2017 08:31:49 +0000

On Thursday I picked up my first Australian Passport. I did not have to give up my UK passport so now I can pretend to be Jason Bourne with his choice of passports. To make this image I started by finding a reference image from the movie. I was going to take a new photo to match the pose then I saw it was the Hollywood standard “look up with menace” which I did in 2010 for the Avatar post. I dug out the old RAW file and Re-processed it in Camera RAW as a Black&White with extra shading. Finally, some texture from the reference image was added in Photoshop. All together the process was quicker than taking a new photo.

Four Decades

Jason Benz — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 00:44:42 +0000

Today I turn 40. Being Gen X not Gen Y, selfies are rare. As it is my birthday an exception was made. The photo on the left was taken while studying engineering at Nottingham. I had no plan to be an engineer or anything at that point. I had no talent for essay writing but my folks would give me some support if I studied some science. Over the next 10 years I had some interesting jobs but did not settle on a photography career until I was 30. The last 10 years have been a wonderful adventure. The Photoshop experience I gained working in a studio in the UK enabled me to get photography work in Western Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. My sideline in travel stock photography was given a significant boost after buying this old van in 2011 as was my knowledge of practical engineering.

Dodge Bluesmobile

Jason Benz — Sat, 29 Nov 2014 23:12:05 +0000

This car was backstage at the Mitchell Creek Rock ‘N’ Blues Festival. It belonged to a colourful character we later met called Greg the Wookie. He is a singer in a Blues Brother cover band “The Soul Men” You have to admire the dedication of a cover band who invest in authentic wheels.

To process this image a Black & White layer was added in Photoshop. The Blue and Cyan grey tones were darkened and the Yellow and Green grey tones were lightened.

Black Swans

Jason Benz — Sun, 02 Nov 2014 10:09:09 +0000

Black Swans are the state and bird emblem of Western Australia. Their white eyes turn red during breeding season. This image puts the herbivores and carnivores neck and neck on this blog at 22 each.

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

Super Moon

Jason Benz — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 00:30:58 +0000

This weekend I photographed the supermoon from Australia with a Canon 5D Mark II and a 300mm lens

The last time I shot the moon was in the UK with my old Olympus E-510 and a 300mm equivalent lens.

In both cases I did not resize or re-sample the image. Instead I cropped out the sky until I was left with an 800 pixel wide image for the blog. The Canon has 21 mega pixels and the Olympus has 10 mega pixels so the result was a larger image this time. I was surprised just how much extra detail was captured when compared to the old shot.

Vision Gallery

Jason Benz — Sat, 19 Jul 2014 13:05:08 +0000

This is The Dillon James Band playing at The Vision Gallery in Brisbane yesterday. They play smooth bluesy reggae which is worth checking out. As well as live music this gallery also had a bar which is a little weird, but then in Australia you have a better chance of buying a beer in a library than a supermarket.

Music Tour

Jason Benz — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 01:08:57 +0000

This band is called Late For Woodstock. We saw them twice this weekend while shuttling between gigs on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. The reason the trip was to record content for a YouTube Channel called MusicLive4U which produces high quality videos from live performances of unsigned bands. Thanks to Iouri and Sasha inviting us along.

Engine Maybe

Jason Benz — Thu, 02 May 2013 11:00:49 +0000

This is a piece of Randon Iron we found deep in the Goldfields of Western Australia. I think its some kind of engine. What do you think?

To develop this image the blue and green were desaturated in Camera RAW leaving a red spot colour.

Seal Pup

Jason Benz — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 03:37:54 +0000

On Sunday we decided to make the most of the UK sunshine and visit the coast at Donna Nook. This is a newborn Grey Seal pup which seemed to be having endless fun rolling around its new environment.

Steam Engine

Jason Benz — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 19:01:01 +0000

This is inside the cab of a steam engine at the Railway museum in Merredin. This image adds to the newly dubbed series of pictures named Mechanography. A little Orton Effect was used to process this image as well as some selective desaturation. We are spending a little more time in Hopetoun and plan to cross the Nullarbor at the end of February.