Benz World Blog » Portrait

Nalle Colt

Jason Benz — Sat, 14 Jan 2017 09:10:03 +0000

This is Swedish guitarist Nalle Colt playing with Vintage Trouble on the Crossroads stage on the final day of Bluesfest 2016. This was one of the most memorable performances of the festival.

Benz World Blog will be posting daily images from Bluesfest 2017 from mid-April. Does anyone have any requests from the lineup?

UPDATE: Vintage Trouble and Benz World Blog will be back at the festival in 2023. Tickets are available via the Bluesfest Website.

Nalle Colt image is available for download here.

Blues Brother

Jason Benz — Mon, 24 Oct 2016 21:41:45 +0000

This is original Blues Brother and band leader Blue Lou Marini on the Crossroads stage of Bluesfest 2016. If he looks familiar you may remember him washing dishes at Aretha Franklins cafe in the classic 1980 film The Blues Brothers. 36 years later they are still wearing sunglasses at night.

Today I applied for media accreditation at Bluesfest 2017 and hope to post daily images from the festival.

This image is available for download here.

Petra Monastery

Jason Benz — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 14:01:52 +0000

This is the Petra Monastery in Jordan. It is know as the rose city due to the colour of the rock. In 2008 it needed to be processed using HDR to get accepted by Shutterstock for Stock Photography. It is available for download here. This time I used standard tone adjustments in Camera RAW and a little split-toning to match the texture to this jungle temple. The RAW file developer in Photoshop has improved so much since this shot was taken it has made using HDR to extract detail redundant.

Noriko Tadano

Jason Benz — Tue, 30 Sep 2014 10:37:28 +0000

This is Noriko Tadano who was performing with George Kamikawa at the Mitchell Creek Rock N Blues Festival in Queensland, Australia. One of the great things about small festivals is the music you discover. These two definitely added some colour to the weekend. I try to avoid using vertical shots on this blog but sometimes only portrait will do.

Single Balloon

Jason Benz — Sun, 07 Sep 2014 11:36:20 +0000

This photograph was taken before sunrise in Luxor, Egypt using my old Olympus E-330. To process this image I used Photoshop masks to independently adjust the exposure of the sky and balloon.

Today I fitted my steam punk solar controller to our van and wired it up to the solar panel and batteries. I will find out if it works when the sun comes up tomorrow.

Outback Crawl

Jason Benz — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 02:06:43 +0000

Our Broken Hill Tour has started to resemble an outback pub crawl, mainly due to the offers of free camping and the type of thirst which can only be achieved from driving hundreds of miles on dirt roads.(using the word road in it’s loosest possible terms).

The locals are always friendly and welcoming. This may be due to the fact our arrival often increases the local population by a third.

This is Leo who we met at one such pub. He is polishing opals. Opal mining is the reason many of these tiny communities exist.

Our van has continued to supply a series of minor engineering challenges. However as it was one of the last fully mechanical vehicles, nothing has yet has been beyond a simple roadside fix.

The QVB

Jason Benz — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 13:43:00 +0000

This is the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney. It was built 1898 and started life as a concert hall before becoming the city library and eventually its current role as a shopping centre. Australia may not have as much architectural history as the UK but buildings like this give a link to its colonial past.

We are leaving Southport on Wednesday and plan to travel west trough Queensland before crossing into New South Wales and eventually visiting Broken Hill close to the South Australian border.

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

Trinculo Wreck

Jason Benz — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 22:47:07 +0000

On our first night out of Melbourne we free camped at the Boolarra Pub. We were warmly welcomed by publicans Ross and Robyn who we drank and danced the night away with into the small hours. The following day they treated us to a superb lunch before we set off to Australia‘s southern most point.

Last night we stayed at Paradise Beach which is one of many free camp-sites along 90 Mile Beach. This morning we made our way up the coast to this 154 year old wreck of the Trinculo which was driven ashore by a series of gales in 1871. This is Karen‘s shot of the wreck which I thought looked better than the ones I took.

Kelly’s Armour

Jason Benz — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 23:23:35 +0000

This is Ned Kelly‘s Armour which he used for his final gunbattle with the Victorian police in Glenrowan. He was captured after police realized they could not get through his armour so they shot him in his unprotected leg. The armour is on display at State Library of Victoria in Melbourne.