Benz World Blog » Goldfields

Little Topar

Jason Benz — Sat, 01 Mar 2014 10:34:36 +0000

These trucks were parked at the Little Topar Roadhouse which we stayed at on our way into and out of Broken Hill in New South Wales. We were told you could “get a good feed there” and the bacon, eggs and sausage breakfast did not disappoint.

We are currently staying at the Warrumbungle National Park. The rain seems to have been following us for the last two days. This has made all the Australians we have met very happy, however we had hoped to visit an observatory where you can attach your DSLR body to their telescope and get pictures of colourful gas clouds and nebula. If our flight to the UK were not leaving in a week we would probably wait for better weather. As it is we have arranged a visit to a mine on Tuesday before a final dash to Sydney.

Broken Hill

Jason Benz — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 23:10:03 +0000

This is one of the many frame heads which are scattered around Broken Hill in New South Wales. The wealth of minerals under this isolated city made Broken Hill Proprietary (BHP Billiton) the world’s largest mining company. We have been here for a couple of days and will be heading for Sydney once we visit neighbouring Silverton which has been used in many films including Mad Max II.

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

Engine Maybe

Jason Benz — Thu, 02 May 2013 11:00:49 +0000

This is a piece of Randon Iron we found deep in the Goldfields of Western Australia. I think its some kind of engine. What do you think?

To develop this image the blue and green were desaturated in Camera RAW leaving a red spot colour.

Barbaras Festival

Jason Benz — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 04:58:10 +0000

This is the St. Barbara’s Festival in Kalgoorlie in the Goldfields of Western Australia. This is what miners call the Baby Truck. I think it safely qualifies as Mechanography.

Ballarat Jewellers

Jason Benz — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 02:49:37 +0000

These buildings are in the centre of Ballarat in the Goldfields of Victoria in Australia.

Random Iron

Jason Benz — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 23:22:11 +0000

This was taken in Gwalia in the Goldfields of Western Australia. It demonstrates Australians fondness for decorating remote houses and mail boxes with random pieces of iron. In the UK metal that is not nailed down seems to find its way to the scrap merchant. In Australia Victorian engineering seems to last forever in the dry environment. The result is a visual time warp reminiscent of Cuba. I used desaturation on the greens and blues and made the yellows and oranges stand out.

Congratulations to Karen who has had her first nine images accepted at Shutterstock, followed by her first sale.

If you would like to sell your images read the Guide to Stock Photography.

Enhanced License

Jason Benz — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 01:51:30 +0000

Shutterstock recently sold an enhanced license for this road image from Western Australia. All stock photography sites offer some form of extended or enhanced license. It is a hangover from the traditional way of selling photography whereby the price is determined by the use of the image rather than its quality. In this case the enhanced license gives the buyer the right to reproduce the image more than 250,000 times. It also grants the buyer the right to incorporate the image into merchandise for resale. The good news for the contributing photographer is they receive $28 instead of $0.25-$0.38 for a standard subscription sale. Shutterstock began by only selling subscriptions. This is attractive to businesses, who require high volumes of images at low cost. Since then they have introduced several different ways of buying images. “On demand” sales are a subscription free method of buying, where the photographer receives between $0.81-$2.85. If further rights are required then special “Single Image” licenses can be issued. In these cases the photographer receives between 20%-30% of the sale price up to a maximum of $120. These new ways of selling images have significantly increased the amount of money you can earn from Shutterstock.

I have recently rewritten my Guide to Stock Photography in a more concise form for this photoblog. The full version is still available on the old website.

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

Top Stock

Jason Benz — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 08:51:34 +0000

This is a shot of the Super Pit in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. I remember the viewing area over the pit had one of the highest concentration of flies we experienced anywhere in Australia. This image has just become my all time best selling stock image at Shutterstock. It has only been online for 10 months but it has sold more then the old number one which has been online for 6 years.

Old number one

The Superpit image is available for high resolution download here.

The Firework is available for high resolution 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.