Benz World Blog » House

Walled Parliament

Jason Benz — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 22:55:28 +0000

This is the Australian Parliament House in Canberra. It may look imposing from this angle, however, it is surrounded by grass and from each corner wide lawns sweep up and over the building. This blends it into the landscape and lets the public walk above their politicians. I was impressed by the openness when I took this photo in 2012. It showed the confidence of the nation. Disappointingly the current government has decided to build a 2.6metre wall to block access as part of a AUD$60,000,000 security blitz. The only threats to manifest have been the odd hippy protest on the roof. When the politicians have finished isolating themselves from the people who put them there, I hope they can still see the war memorial as they need a lesson in courage. Australia’s colonial history began as prison without walls and is now a walled democracy and since covid has become a prison island again.

This is the second of my parliament house images I spotted the ABC using. This time for an Australia Talks promo.

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

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.

Australia Votes

Jason Benz — Sat, 02 Jul 2016 08:56:02 +0000

These are the Australian Parliament Houses in Canberra. Today there has been a double dissolution election where seats in the House of Representatives and The Senate are up for grabs.

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

Gaol Girl

Jason Benz — Fri, 09 Oct 2015 11:30:38 +0000

This is Trial Bay Gaol in New South Wales, Australia. Building began in 1877 and inmates moved into the prison in 1886. A breakwater and wharf were built on the coast creating a harbour which could be used by ships too big to navigate the river. It currently holds a museum and is promoted as a wedding venue by the tourist board.

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

Lightning Ridge

Jason Benz — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 05:29:03 +0000

Lightning Ridge is a mining town in New South Wales. It has the planets richest deposit of black opal. This corrugated iron building was used in the film The Goddess of 1967, which is about a Japanese man who travels to Australia to buy a car.

New Valley

Jason Benz — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 20:16:20 +0000

This shot was taken with my old Olympus E-330. It is Qesm Al Wahat Al Khargah in the New Valley Governorate Egypt. At least that is the address Google gave after I spent half the morning searching for it. This is one of the drawbacks of digging out a 7 year old photo from a balloon flight over Luxor.

We are in the UK now and looking forward to a weekend in Nottingham. The flights have been booked to Australia now and we fly out on the 9th April.

Opera Bar

Jason Benz — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 17:13:17 +0000

This is the Opera Bar which has great views of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. I am sure it is a lovely place to spend an evening as long as you can justify spending $9(£6) on a small bottle of beer. We went there to get some more shots of the Vivid Sydney Festival which has animated projections on many of the city’s landmarks.

We are now officially in Australia’s winter although it is hard to see how anyone can call blue skies and 21C winter. Sydney has just had its warmest May on record and it definitely feels significantly warmer than this time last year when we were in Melbourne.

Arrival Sydney

Jason Benz — Fri, 10 May 2013 02:58:22 +0000

We have arrived in Sydney, Australia. The flights and connections all went smoothly apart from a fairly heavy landing in Kuala Lumpur and Karen temporarily losing her bank card at Sydney train station. All is good now and we are looking forward to catching up with our down under relatives.

Australian Representatives

Jason Benz — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 01:05:11 +0000

This is the House of Representatives in Parliament House, Canberra. This photo was taken when the country underwent a series of leadership changes due to political infighting on both sides of politics. The Representatives and the Senate are the two elected houses which make up the Parliament of Australia. In a reflection of the UK House of Commons it is furnished in green, However the colour was tinted slightly to suggest the colour of eucalyptus. The Senate is furnished in a more luxurious red colour.

This image has been accepted by Dreamstime 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.