Benz World Blog » Leaf

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.

Local Outback

Jason Benz — Sat, 23 Aug 2014 05:09:25 +0000

Living on the Gold Coast in Australia makes this our local wilderness. This is the Springbrook National Park. It lies on the edge of an ancient volcanic ridge which marks some of the border between Queensland and New South Wales. The rivers in the area form many beautiful waterfalls.

Springbrook Waterfalls

Jason Benz — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 12:35:56 +0000

This weekend we visited the Springbrook National Park close to the state boundary. It is a fascinating place. It lies on the edge of an ancient volcanic ridge which causes all Queenslands creeks to turn into New South Wales waterfalls.

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.

Tree Roots

Jason Benz — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 11:24:12 +0000

I am not sure what type of tree this is. If you have any idea please leave your answers on a comment. I took this shot in the Botanic Park in Adelaide, South Australia. To process this image I used a 50% High Pass/Overlay layer to bring out some extra detail in the tree and leaves.

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

River Torrens

Jason Benz — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 15:41:26 +0000

This is the River Torrens which flows past our campsite and all the way into central Adelaide. We walked into town last week following the river, and have visited the Museum and Gallery of Art with Blan, an old friend of Karen‘s mum. It must be said Adelaide has an abundance of parkland. Even the city centre itself is circled twice by a figure eight of gardens. A green belt in the true sense of the word, although I am sure it is a lovely place to live, job opportunities here seem to be fairly limited. We have booked one more week in our current campsite as we still have a few things to see and do in the city. Unless we strike lucky with a job we will probably start down the Great Ocean Drive towards Melbourne at the end of the month.

Blue Wren

Jason Benz — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:10:29 +0000

The unfamiliar bird life is a source of constant wonder when travelling. Everything looks exotic when compared the the legions of small brown sparrows you get in the UK And I quite like sparrows. This Splendid Blue Wren or Fairywren is one of the most enchanting and also one of the hardest to capture. These tiny timid creatures dart about with such speed I had many shots of blurred blue feathers before I got this image. I am writing this entry from outside the Albany Rest Centre which is a curious mock Tudor public convenience with the added bonus of warm showers. Albany is the oldest town in Western Australia with many buildings in the colonial style. We had a sunny Sunday wandering the streets and beaches here before we plan to head inland again to the Borden Recreation Ground to spend the night.

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.

Ladybird Spot

Jason Benz — Sun, 22 May 2011 10:02:53 +0000

This simple use of spot colour is achieved by painting black on the layer mask of a Black & White layer. The Hue/Saturation layer above was used to make the ladybird nice and red. It was a little orange in the original capture. Vignette was achieved using a gradient layer and lens correction.

First Bluebells

Jason Benz — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 11:51:17 +0000

The first Blue Bells have started. This shot was taken 3 days ago in Barnsdale Wood Rultand, England, UK.