Benz World Blog » Desert

Cruiser Charging

Jason Benz — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 11:52:03 +0000

This amazing looking car is named Priscilla and was put together by the Australian Technology Network, which is a collaboration between five universities in Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia. This makes it Australia’s only national team. It arrived in Coober Pedy today at the 2nd charging station for the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. The Cruiser class of solar cars are allowed two charging stops between Darwin and Adelaide. Whereas the Challenger class cars do the whole 3000km with only the power of the sun they collect en route. I met the designer of the body today who is also a mechanic. He offered to tune up the engine in my van as he could hear it was struggling to keep up with the solar cars.

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

Leyland Truck

Jason Benz — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 06:01:06 +0000

This is a bodger legend and an inspiration. There was no information board but given the location in the centre of the Australian outpost of Marree this looks like the remains of the Leyland truck from the 1954 film/documentary “The Back of Beyond”.

Marree is a frontier town and the last petrol stop before embarking on the Birdsville, Oonadatta or Strzelecki Track. From here dirt roads stretch out hundreds of miles into South Australia’s remote corners. The place has a Mad Max feel. Beefed up 4WD’s adorned with equipment and stacked high with water and petrol cans prepare to take on the expanse. From here I went North until the road ended at the foot of Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre.

When I first visited Australia in my gap year over 20 years ago a fellow traveller told me this quote by Samuel Johnson “The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are” So it is with Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre. Internet articles predicting the rains earlier this year in Queensland and The Northern Territory would cause a once in a lifetime event were greatly exaggerated. I suspect they were written by someone with an interest in the tourism industry. It is true that the rivers here are untamed but industry and agriculture still take bore water from the Great Artesian Basin. This reduces the chance of the lake ever filling again like it did in 1974. It is a sobering thought that since it last filled the global human population has doubled and the wildlife population has halved. Another part of travel these days seems to be seeing things before they are gone forever.

From here I will go west across the Nullarbor Plain to revisit the location of my best selling photo in Kalgoorlie.

Venusian Dunes

Jason Benz — Sun, 02 Aug 2015 07:37:40 +0000

These are the Eucla Dunes in the deserts of Western Australia, 7 miles from the South Australian border. They are made of limestone sand rather than silica having originated on the sea bed. Eucla is believed to originate from the Aboriginal word “Yinculyer” referring to the planet Venus.

It was the transit of Venus over the sun which summoned the English explorer James Cook into the southern oceans in 1769. This ultimately changed the fate of Australia and Eucla. In 1890 an introduced rabbit plague decimated the native vegetation around Eucla. This destabilized the dune system. The shifting sands engulfed the town until it was abandoned and moved 3 miles to the North.

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

Wadi Rum

Jason Benz — Fri, 08 Aug 2014 11:36:30 +0000

This red desert landscape is Wadi Rum in Jordan. It was taken 7 years ago with my old Olympus E-330. Developed with Camera RAW, no Photoshop.

If it looks familiar, it has appeared in many films as the surface of Mars.

Karen is in Sydney this week to see Don Giovanni at the Opera House.

Lightning Ridge

Jason Benz — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 05:29:03 +0000

Lightning Ridge is a mining town in New South Wales. It has the planets richest deposit of black opal. This corrugated iron building was used in the film The Goddess of 1967, which is about a Japanese man who travels to Australia to buy a car.

Desert Sculptures

Jason Benz — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 01:39:13 +0000

This is one of the sandstone sculptures in the Living Desert Reserve north of Broken Hill.

There is so much to see here we have decided to stay an extra day before heading to Cobar to get some mining photography for stock.

Three Camels

Jason Benz — Sat, 21 Dec 2013 01:23:06 +0000

It has been a couple of years since I posted anything from Jordan so I processed this old shot of three camels in Petra. Jordan is a gold mine for the photographer. It is no wonder films like Lawrence of Arabia, Kingdom of Heaven and Indiana Jones The Last Crusade were shot here. I was only there a week but it produced 20 stock photos at the time and 7 blog posts years later.

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

First Last

Jason Benz — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 07:04:30 +0000

This image was taken on the 2nd December 2011 when we visited the Mining Hall of Fame in Kalgoorlie. Unknown to us until we got there this would be the last time this tourist attraction would be open to the public. It’s a shame it closed as there was much to see and it gave a real insight into the history of mining in the area. After getting advice from Carole she helped me get this image printed, framed and hung at The Deck Gallery. To my surprise, it sold in less than a week. This was the first time I’ve sold a physical print and met the buyer of an image. It was great to know where the image would be going. The nature of selling via Stock Photography is such that I have only found out where one image has ended up by chance in 5000 stock sales.

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

Wave Rock

Jason Benz — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 19:36:00 +0000

This is Wave Rock in Western Australia. It must be said Australia does rocks in a big way. This particular rock is made of granite and is more than 2.7 billion years old. The wave part of the rock is 14m high and 110 m long and has been created by a process of fluvial erosion. The stripes on the rock are caused by water which flows down from the top of the rock which slopes up from the wave at its base. This image was created by taking three exposures and combining them using HDR processing. The rock has attracted a number of eclectic tourist businesses over the years. There is an Animal Park where we saw the Koala, A Lace Museum, A Toy Soldier display, A Wild Flower Farm and a well provisioned if expensive Caravan Park where we spent the night. There are a number of walks and drives and I would recommend spending a couple of days there.

Salt Lake

Jason Benz — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 04:33:49 +0000

Today we left Australia‘s Goldfields and entered it’s Wheatbelt. This image was taken in an area between the two. It shows two of Australia’s environmental challenges. Fire and the rising salt level caused by historic deforestation. We camped at a place called Kokerbin Rock which has the title of Australia‘s third biggest monolith after the famous Uluru and Mt. Augustus which I had the chance to climb 15 years ago in my first visit to Australia. Tomorrow head East to the wonderfully Australian named Bruce Rock before heading south to The Deck in Hopetoun where we will be working over the festive period.

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