Benz World Blog » Garden

Flaming Torch

Jason Benz — Sat, 25 Mar 2017 15:01:04 +0000

This flower is from an epiphytic bromeliad. We have a small colony of them growing on the Frangipani trees in our garden in Queensland, Australia.

This image is for Molly Path who is fond of my floral photography.

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

Grey Butcherbird

Jason Benz — Sat, 11 Feb 2017 22:36:36 +0000

This grey butcherbird visited our garden in Southport, Queensland, Australia. They prey on insects, lizards and birds. They have an extraordinary vocal range and this one was especially talkative. It sounded like it was telling a frantic story interspersed with imitations of other bird calls.

A similar image of this bird has been accepted by Shutterstock for Stock Photography and is available for download here.

Leaf Rain

Jason Benz — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 11:52:10 +0000

The colours in this leaf on the grass in my garden caught my eye. It is the dry season here in Queensland, Australia but no one told the rain. The Gold Coast has a subtropical climate. This time of year is the build up to the hot wet summer but sometimes it arrives early.

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

Young Magpie

Jason Benz — Sat, 12 Sep 2015 23:12:00 +0000

This juvenile Australian magpie has been hanging around our garden on the Gold Coast. This was the first time I have seen it without its parents. It was busily hunting bugs in the grass this afternoon. The adult bird has black and white feathers like magpies in the UK although it is more closely related to a Currawong.

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

Blue Triangle

Jason Benz — Sun, 15 Feb 2015 03:15:49 +0000

This butterfly visited our garden in Southport. It is a Common Bluebottle, Graphium sarpedon, or Blue Triangle in Australia. They are typically found in low-level rain forests flying just above the tree canopy. Somehow this insect has adapted to drier subtropical environments and are often seen in suburban gardens in Queensland and New South Wales.

Summer Storms

Jason Benz — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 13:41:00 +0000

It is getting hot in Australia. In Queensland the summer storms have been rolling in most afternoons for the last fortnight. Brisbane was hit by a couple of super-cells last week, and this week it was the turn of the Gold Coast. This shot was taken from our back garden in Southport. To colour this image I adjusted the white balance to match the shade of purple I saw in the sky each time the lightning struck.

Bluetongued Lizard

Jason Benz — Sun, 31 Aug 2014 10:11:56 +0000

This is a Blue-tongued Lizard. It ambled through our garden yesterday and took up temporary residence in the shed. Australia has an abundance of reptiles and Queensland is particularly full of wildlife.

Ringtail Possum

Jason Benz — Sat, 24 Aug 2013 17:37:52 +0000

We saw this Ringtail Possum in Sydney, before we left New South Wales. It is one of Australia‘s native animals, they are found all along the east coast.

We signed a 6 month lease for a 1 bed flat in Southport, Queensland last Thursday as we are now both working for Panedia. It has two balcony’s and is a 15 minute walk to town. We discovered a double blow up mattress in a cupboard today so we will be able to put up any friends or family who find themselves on the Gold Coast.

Three Tits

Jason Benz — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 04:20:57 +0000

These long-tailed tits and great tits seem to be a lot more common in the UK this winter. I think they may have benefited from the drop in the bird population of sparrows this year.

Yellow Rose

Jason Benz — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 02:40:44 +0000

This Yellow Rose was taken at the end of the Garden in Grantham, UK. I used sRGB colour space instead of my normal Adobe RGB. Colour space determines the actual colour a specific RGB value corresponds to. Adobe RGB has a wider range of colour but this does mean each colour is further apart. For 8bit files you can visibly see a change when you shift a value by just 1. This is not great if you want smooth gradients but it does give richer Cyans and Greens. The narrower sRGB colour range is the standard for web output as it approximates the colour range of most cheap computer displays, but for how long. The last display I bought boasted 100% Adobe RGB which means it will not be long before most can show these extra colours. For now I’m going to switch to sRGB to test the use of this colour space.

N.B. After testing Firefox reproduces colours far more faithfully than I.E.