Benz World Blog » Cyan

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.

Keppel Islands

Jason Benz — Tue, 30 Dec 2014 09:07:26 +0000

This is Great Keppel Island off the coast of Queensland in Australia. It is one of the Southern Reef islands which provide access to the Great Barrier Reef. If you have never visited Australia you would be forgiven for thinking the famous reef was within swimming distance of the mainland. In truth you always need a boat ride. However, once on the islands the coral is within a stones throw of the shore. We took a 30min ferry trip which parked on the island by driving on to the beach. We then walked 45min to this remote place called Monkey Beach.

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

Surf’s Up

Jason Benz — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 00:23:40 +0000

This photograph of a surfer and wave was taken at Injidup Beach in Western Australia in 2011.

The weather here on the Gold Coast, Queensland has become unsettled recently. We have had a few thunderstorms. One produced 7000 lightning strikes and hail the size of golf balls. We are both fine and our van survived too.

Lifeguard Hut

Jason Benz — Mon, 02 Sep 2013 01:45:40 +0000

This lifeguard hut was taken at Broadbeach, Queensland, Australia.

This weekend we hosted a flat warming with the few people we know in Southport. It was a lovely day and we were left with a small mountain of food to see us through the spring.

Three Huts

Jason Benz — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 23:20:07 +0000

These three buildings are in Negril, Jamaica. This is some of the earliest photography I had accepted for stock. I don’t know if it would be accepted for today as the agencies seem to be getting more strict or maybe the need for turquoise ocean shots allowed them to overlook the camera and jpeg quality. This image needed work in Photoshop to remove speckle.

I plan to post a few more images of the Caribbean as I copy the best content from the old website to the new blog.

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

Winters Day

Jason Benz — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 14:46:35 +0000

Seasons Greetings. I think a festive post is long overdue. The weather in the UK has been full of mist and frost recently but we have yet to get the photogenic layer of thick snow. This is the village of Wyville which was the location of today’s walk.

Classic Holden

Jason Benz — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 07:22:03 +0000

This is a 1961 EK Holden Special. It was the first time the Australian car maker introduced a model with an option for an automatic transmission. Holden is now a subsidiary of US-based General Motors. We saw this classic in a car park in Albany, Western Australia.

N.B. Thanks to Doug for the auto identification.

Great Bight

Jason Benz — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 22:18:37 +0000

We drove out of Western Australia on the 1st of March. This is the view at the Head of the Great Australian Bight in South Australia. Between June and October large schools of Southern Wright Whales can be seen hear on their annual breeding migration. The ranger told us numbers seem to be on the rise although he was concerned about the effects of BP using explosives to search for oil off the coast this year. Some fisherman had seen changes in behaviour of other marine life since BP started working in the area. We discovered our vans 30 litre tank seems to leak water when we are on the move. It has not been much of a problem yet as we have 46 litres of bottled water on board. Although every roadhouse and campsite has signs up informing you not to even ask for water as it is in such short supply we have managed to fill our tank once on the roadside from conveniently located rain catchers. These are tennis court sized roofs with guttering leading to a storage tank with a tap on. We have made good progress. Often covering 350km a day. We still hope to be in Adelaide before the end of the Fringe Festival on the 18th March.

Fanny Cove

Jason Benz — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 04:16:35 +0000

We have been quite lucky recently as every time we have had a Friday off together it has been the hottest day of the week. This week Chris and Carole from The Deck gave us use of their 4×4 for the day so we could explore some of the more remote areas East of Hopetoun. This is Fanny Cove in the Stokes National Park which can only be reached via a 4×4 track. I’m sure our van would not have got far and given the lack of traffic it could have been a long wait for rescue. The Toyota Landcruiser made light work of the terrain giving us the chance to snorkel this secluded cove.

Bremer Bay

Jason Benz — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 19:50:56 +0000

This is Native Dog Beach in Bremer Bay which we visited after Christmas. Bremer is the nearest coastal town to Hopetoun if you travel west. It looked close enough on the map but involved a 320 mile round trip around the Fitzgerald National Park. In hindsight, it was a long way to go when Hopetoun is surrounded by miles of white sandy beaches. It was good to give the van a run as its not moved for a fortnight but we will probably stick to more local attractions for the rest of January while we are living here.