Benz World Blog » Fly

Powered Paragliding

Jason Benz — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 10:28:38 +0000

There seems to be no end of ways you can get around the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia.

This form of ultralight aviation is called powered paragliding or paramotoring.

The aircraft can be used to herd reindeer, transport soldiers or hire to adrenaline junkies.

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

Hydro Jetpack

Jason Benz — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 00:17:17 +0000

We saw this Hydro Jetpack practicing near the bridge between Southport and Surfers Paradise in Queensland, Australia. The jetpack is powered by a jet ski via a long hose. This is the stable version of the water sport. Some ingenious lunatic managed to double the danger by attaching a jet ski to a board only in a similar way.

Single Balloon

Jason Benz — Sun, 07 Sep 2014 11:36:20 +0000

This photograph was taken before sunrise in Luxor, Egypt using my old Olympus E-330. To process this image I used Photoshop masks to independently adjust the exposure of the sky and balloon.

Today I fitted my steam punk solar controller to our van and wired it up to the solar panel and batteries. I will find out if it works when the sun comes up tomorrow.

Stunt Planes

Jason Benz — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 12:00:13 +0000

I have posted a lot of animals recently so it is time for some Mechanography. These stunt planes were the warm up display before the Sydney New Year Fireworks. The show included dive bombing Circular Quay and doing a flypast of the Opera House. It was so low we could barley see the aircraft behind the ships in the harbour.

Gull Thief

Jason Benz — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 18:25:59 +0000

I took this shot on Sunday afternoon at Busselton which has a 1.9km Pier which seems to be home to a large number of fisherman of the human and bird variety. This opportunist was eyeing up the catch of an unsuspecting angler. After camping just outside Yallingup we have travelled down Caves Road stopping at Canal Rocks, Injidup Beach, Meekadarribee Falls, Margaret River and The Voyager Wine Estate before camping in the Jarrah and Karri Forests on Boranup Drive. The Phone reception has been limited here so I am currently posting this entry from The Deckchair Gourmet Cafe in Augusta which has free WiFi. The Van which Karen has named Blue Streak is holding up well and attracts admiring comments everywhere we pull up.

Jet Surfer

Jason Benz — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 12:07:54 +0000

This jet surfer is a composite of four images. The desert dunes of western Egypt, A kite surfer from Dahab, The moon from an earlier post and a methane engine I found on this site. Unlike the last composite these images did not need as much adjustment as the lighting conditions were similar. The dunes did need their tonal range increasing. This was done by increasing the contrast to 100 and moving up the black point in Camera RAW. To compensate for the black point shift the Exposure also needed to be increased.

Volcanic Sunset

Jason Benz — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 13:20:40 +0000

I heard the sunsets would change now we have a cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland drifting over us. It was a clear night so without high cloud there was no red in the evening sky. These are the silhouettes of two nesting osprey in Rutland.