Benz World Blog » EX-Z3

Rasta House

Jason Benz — Sun, 09 Oct 2016 13:40:45 +0000

This building near Port Antonio in Jamaica is painted with the pan-African colours Red, Gold and Green which are based on the Ethiopian flag. It has been a stock photo at Shutterstock for 10 years and still gets downloaded every week. It was shot on an early digital compact camera EX-Z3 less powerful than the average mobile phone camera theses days.

Cuban Music

Jason Benz — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 11:25:44 +0000

The music of Cuba is exceptional. History has made it unique. We found it in every city in the cafes, bars and on the streets. Being a musician in Cuba is considered a profession worthy of a wage from the government. I grew up in the UK where being a musician was considered a lack of profession. In 2013 Sony looked to the Caribbean for music. In 2014 a delegation from Sony visited the Cuban state owned record label with an offer of world distribution for the island’s national music archive. This week’s announcement confirmed global licensing of 30,000 songs dating back to 1964.

Split Toning was used to process this image in Camera RAW. I used the settings from this shot as it has become the most popular one from Bluesfest 2015.

Conception Cathedral

Jason Benz — Sat, 05 Sep 2015 01:55:01 +0000

This is the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Cienfuegos. Roman Catholicism is the main religion in Cuba. In 2015 Raúl Castro lifted a ban on people of any faith joining the Communist party. This ended the separation of Religion and Politics which has existed since the government declared itself officially atheist in 1961.

This photo was taken with an early compact digital camera EX-Z3 in 2004. It is also the first image I had accepted by Shutterstock for Stock Photography and is available for download here.

Cuban Thaw

Jason Benz — Sat, 11 Jul 2015 12:37:56 +0000

I photographed these people in Cuba in 2004 when Fidel Castro was still running the country. I was pleased to hear that the USA plan to reopen their embassy in Havana this month, after 54 years. Maybe it says more about the American political system when only an outgoing president, unencumbered by elections, can take the risks needed to resolve historic problems.

Cienfuegos Square

Jason Benz — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 11:38:13 +0000

This is Cienfuegos Square in Cuba. It is one of the Caribbean images from the old website I took in 2004. Before I get back to Australia I have been transferring some of the old images to the new photoblog.

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

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.

Sky Palms

Jason Benz — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 00:37:33 +0000

These silhouetted palm trees were in Negril, Jamaica. I took this almost 10 years ago when I first started experimenting with Photography. I was using an early digital compact camera Ex-Z3 with a LCD display. This shot would be difficult with a DSLR as framing the shot is normally done with the viewfinder. Focusing the sun onto your retina is not the best way to go about improving your photography.

I plan to put up more images of the Caribbean as I move from the old website to the new blog.

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

Montego Sunset

Jason Benz — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 04:09:50 +0000

This sunset was shot in Montego Bay, Jamaica. It was taken in 2004 with an early digital camera EX-Z3. In those days memory cards cost 240 times what they do today. In fact the two 256MB cards I used almost cost as much as the camera I used then. In order to save space I was forced to use significant jpeg compression. The more a jpeg is compressed the more speckling occurs. This can be seen best in the dark areas of the left image below. Unfortunately this type of distortion makes it almost impossible to submit images for stock photography. If you want to sell your images always save them at the highest quality. Fortunately as this blog only needs images 800 pixels wide by the time the resolution is reduced the speckling is effectively eliminated. This can be seen in the right image below. The moral of this story is only compress your jpegs if you plan to put them on the web and nowhere else.

Pimped Lada

Jason Benz — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 13:46:49 +0000

I decided to have a go at pimping this Lada from Cuba. If anybody knows the model please leave a comment. To process this image I used the same technique as Red Chevy. Orton Effect, Fractalius and Selective Desaturation.

Cuban Man

Jason Benz — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 10:37:20 +0000

This was my first attempt at portraiture. Back in 2004 I decided to try and get the perfect cover shot for the lonely planet guide to Cuba. Cuba is a place soaked in history so to get that across I asked some of the old locals if I could take their picture. I liked this shot because of the crooked bars and the way his skin matched the red of the door. This was taken when Fidel Castro was still running the country. I remember someone telling me that he had been in power so long he had seen 10 U.S. Presidents come and go. After returning from Cuba I discovered without a Model Release Statement from the local the image could not be sold. These days I keep spare Model Release Statements in my camera bag at all times.