Benz World Blog » Opera House

New Year

Jason Benz — Mon, 31 Dec 2018 17:25:39 +0000

Happy New Year 2019. May your dreams come true. These are the Sydney new year fireworks. I left my van behind and took the train into the city from my temporary base in the Blue Mountains where I have been enjoying a relaxing Christmas with the Australian branch of my family.

2018 was the most photogenic year so far. It was also the start of my longest journey. In December I revisiting the last 8 months of travel pics to create 2 years worth of stock photography in a few weeks. This brought my total to 700 images at Shutterstock. This averages out to 1 a week from 14 years of photo submissions.

This year I will continue south until the March equinox which should put me somewhere in Tasmania for the first time. I will return to the Blue Mountains in April and resolve to have another 100 stock photos by then.

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

Purple Skyline

Jason Benz — Tue, 08 Jul 2014 10:08:45 +0000

This evening skyline was taken in Sydney Harbour, New South Wales, Australia. To process this image I wanted to bring out the orange lights and purple sky. I started by using HSL in Camera RAW to boost the luminance and saturation of orange and a smaller boost to yellow and red to avoid posterization. I reduced the luminance of the blues, magentas and purples to darken the clouds. Finally some green tint was added to reduce the strength of the purple.

Opera Evening

Jason Benz — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 14:03:05 +0000

The Sydney Opera House is a remarkably photogenic building, which is helped by its position on the water in the harbour. There is a clear view from almost every angle. If you walk over the Harbour Bridge you can even look down on it. This shot was taken from Mrs Macquarie’s Chair in the Royal Botanic Gardens

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.

Sydney Sunset

Jason Benz — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 02:21:23 +0000

This is a sunset behind the Opera House and Harbour Bridge in Sydney, Australia.

Opera House

Jason Benz — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 19:37:55 +0000

This building needs no introduction. The Sydney Opera House grabbed my attention from the first moment I saw it. We approached it by walking along the equally impressive Sydney Harbour Bridge. We then followed the Harbour around via The Rocks and Circular Quay until we reached the viewpoint from the Botanic Gardens on the far side. After waiting for the sun to go down we walked back along the bridge where I took this shot. As you move around the building it seems to change shape and when night falls its character changes again.