Benz World Blog » Grey

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.

Dodge Bluesmobile

Jason Benz — Sat, 29 Nov 2014 23:12:05 +0000

This car was backstage at the Mitchell Creek Rock ‘N’ Blues Festival. It belonged to a colourful character we later met called Greg the Wookie. He is a singer in a Blues Brother cover band “The Soul Men” You have to admire the dedication of a cover band who invest in authentic wheels.

To process this image a Black & White layer was added in Photoshop. The Blue and Cyan grey tones were darkened and the Yellow and Green grey tones were lightened.

Super Moon

Jason Benz — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 00:30:58 +0000

This weekend I photographed the supermoon from Australia with a Canon 5D Mark II and a 300mm lens

The last time I shot the moon was in the UK with my old Olympus E-510 and a 300mm equivalent lens.

In both cases I did not resize or re-sample the image. Instead I cropped out the sky until I was left with an 800 pixel wide image for the blog. The Canon has 21 mega pixels and the Olympus has 10 mega pixels so the result was a larger image this time. I was surprised just how much extra detail was captured when compared to the old shot.

Vision Gallery

Jason Benz — Sat, 19 Jul 2014 13:05:08 +0000

This is The Dillon James Band playing at The Vision Gallery in Brisbane yesterday. They play smooth bluesy reggae which is worth checking out. As well as live music this gallery also had a bar which is a little weird, but then in Australia you have a better chance of buying a beer in a library than a supermarket.

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.

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

Bridge Walk

Jason Benz — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 05:23:43 +0000

This is the view you get of the Sydney Harbour Bridge as a pedestrian commuter. You can pay over $200 to climb up to the top. Due to increasing insurance costs it is unlikely they would let me take 2.7kg of camera and lens with me while I climb.

Can this qualify as Mechanography if it has no moving mechanism?

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

Seal Pup

Jason Benz — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 03:37:54 +0000

On Sunday we decided to make the most of the UK sunshine and visit the coast at Donna Nook. This is a newborn Grey Seal pup which seemed to be having endless fun rolling around its new environment.

Steam Engine

Jason Benz — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 19:01:01 +0000

This is inside the cab of a steam engine at the Railway museum in Merredin. This image adds to the newly dubbed series of pictures named Mechanography. A little Orton Effect was used to process this image as well as some selective desaturation. We are spending a little more time in Hopetoun and plan to cross the Nullarbor at the end of February.

Welsh Pub

Jason Benz — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 07:19:54 +0000

This is another shot from a family holiday to Wales last summer. I can’t remember the name of the pub but if you recognise it please leave a comment. Photoshop gives you many ways to make black and white images. I used Convert to Grayscale in Camera RAW. This allows you to adjust the brightness of each colour as it is converted. In this case the yellow tones were made brighter to lighten the beach and give a greater variety of tones in the vegetation.