Benz World Blog » Digital Art

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.

Dragonfly Rider

Jason Benz — Sat, 17 Jun 2017 13:06:18 +0000

This is a composite of two photographs blended in Photoshop. The rider is a barrel racer from 2013 and the dragonfly was last year at Judd’s Lagoon in Queensland, Australia.

Economic Record

Jason Benz — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 10:46:06 +0000

Today Australia took the record from the Netherlands for the longest time (26 years) without a recession. The mining industry helped the economy dodge a bullet when the GFC arrived so there was no need for a bank bailout or austerity like the UK. In the last budget, the current government introduced a surprise big bank tax which must have left the Labor opposition outflanked.

Close Encounter

Jason Benz — Tue, 08 Nov 2016 07:26:20 +0000

For the American presidential election, I created this composite of images pulled off the internet. Photoshop was used to blend them together.

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.

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.

Fractal Owl

Jason Benz — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:39:25 +0000

This bird is a Tawny Frog Mouth Owl. The animal was in a nature park near Melbourne in Victoria, Australia.

To process the image I ran fractalius several times and built up the image with layers and masks.

Fake Beef

Jason Benz — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 07:59:01 +0000

This is one of the many horses in the fields around Gonerby in the UK. Before I took the base image I had planned to give the whole horse a frisian cow texture in order to illustrate the current beef/horsemeat scandal. Despite the mild spell this weekend all the horses had blankets on. By only changing the blanket it made the final result believable and the compositing easier.

This image has had difficulty getting accepted for Stock Photography at first, however BigStock were the first to accept it and it is available for download here.

Sydney Tower

Jason Benz — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 02:16:53 +0000

This is the Sydney Tower in New South Wales, Australia.

I used Google analytics recently and discovered a boost in Benz World Blog site traffic. On closer inspection the extra traffic was a result of a doubling in the amount of Google search traffic. I opened an incognito browser and started Google image searching the blog titles. To my surprise over 60% appeared on the first page of images. A further 11% of blog titles put into Google came back as the number one image. I use two word titles for all posts. I hope one day to accidentally name a blog with a Googlewhack but for now I am very happy with these obscure Google number ones.

Solar Nuke
200th Photoblog
Adios Adelaide
Hopetoun Rocks
Hopetoun Stingray
Sealion Sammy
Belton Folly
Belton Globes
Floyd Riot
Edible Asteroid
Austrian Clouds
Spice Bowls
Nile Skyline
Colosseum 1926
Fractal Hieroglyphics
Hathor Fractal
Pyramid Lightning
Rutland Stump
Wicker Spitfire
Syracuse 1926
Sphinx Pool
Trinidad Sunset
Dahabia Jordan

200th Photoblog

Jason Benz — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 02:27:56 +0000

This is the 200th post since the blog took on its wordpress format. The last 100 posts have been dominated by 69 images from a year spent in Australia. Out of all 200 the second most popular country is England with 55. Egypt comes in third with 31. Cuba and Wales share forth with 8 each. Jordan and Jamaica have 6 each. This shot was taken at the Gonerby Firework Display we went to on Saturday.