Benz World Blog » Metal

Colonial Guns

Jason Benz — Sat, 05 Aug 2017 00:52:33 +0000

These are the colonial guns of Bundaberg. They date back to the 1880′s when Queensland was responsible for its own defence in the days before Australian Federation. After serving on gunboats they were moved to Alexandra Park where they have been for 100 years. Despite this, the council plans to move them in the wake of the 2010/2011 floods. I grew up in the UK where the rivers are tamed so it was hard to believe a rising water level could affect such a large chunk of metal. However, after taking this picture, I have seen roads, buildings and entire hillsides washed away after the 2017 floods, so when it comes to an immovable object and an unstoppable force of nature, my money is on the water to win.

Supermoon Sculpture

Jason Benz — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 22:09:33 +0000

This is one of six metal fish in Harley Park, Labrador, Queensland, Australia. I chose this spot to photograph last nights supermoon so I could experiment silhouetting the sculptures. I the event there was enough light to illuminate the fish and bring out the rust colours.

Chevrolet Engine

Jason Benz — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 09:09:44 +0000

I discovered this Chevrolet Engine on display in a random car park in New South Wales. On a drive from Sydney to Southport in 2014, at some point while stopping for food, I stumbled upon the Summerland Sports and Classic Car Club.

To process this image I created a two-tone effect in the paintwork by pushing the blues towards the purples and the aquas towards the greens. This was done using Camera RAW which is the import engine for Photoshop.

Optical Telescope

Jason Benz — Thu, 01 May 2014 11:22:18 +0000

This is The Anglo-Australian Telescope in New South Wales. It is Australia’s largest optical telescope. It was the first telescope designed specifically to be controlled by a computer. It was also the last large telescope to use an equatorial mount instead of the more compact and stable alt-azimuth. Despite the old mount, the computers allowed the telescope to set new standards for tracking accuracy.

This photo definitely qualifies as Mechanography.

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

Airport Gold

Jason Benz — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 01:07:38 +0000

I shot these gold bangles in the Dubai International Airport during our stopover between the UK and Australia. We have done this trip a few times now, but it is the first time we have stopped in the United Arab Emirates. We flew on a Boeing 777 for the first leg then switched to an A380. We left on Wednesday morning and arrived in Sydney at about 10pm last night. It is far easier to overcome jet lag this way round. In the past we have left the UK in the evening but then you have to stay awake much longer at both ends of the journey.

Although there was plenty of light, I set the camera to ISO 500. This forced the Canon 5D mark II to reduce the aperture size to f7.1 and so increase the depth of field, but not enough to keep the whole image in focus.

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.

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.

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.

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.