Benz World Blog » Sand

Ningaloo Coast

Jason Benz — Sat, 21 Sep 2019 14:34:26 +0000

This is where the pristine sands of Nature Bay meet Ningaloo Reef in a remote corner of Western Australia. It is just outside the tropics so the water is as warm and welcoming as it looks, without the nasties which keep people on the beach further North. There are reef sharks here but they are easy to scare off if needed. The real danger is being caught in a rip which I discovered can pull you out to sea from a seemingly calm lagoon. Fortunately, I was rescued by a surfer called Sam Kinney.

It seems this area is dangerous for me. Last time I visited, 23 years ago I had another near-death experience when we lost our car after a short evening walk in the Cape Range National Park. We had to use the moon and stars to navigate halfway across the peninsula and rejoin the main road. At least I had the excuse of being young and stupid then. My recent experience proves I can be old and stupid too.

When snorkelling on my first visit I had never seen coral or swam with fish before. The experience forced me to redefine how intense colour could be. 18 years later I would be employed to process over 1 million images for the Global Reef Record.

Underwater photography has some unique challenges. Colour temperature changes with depth and distance. In addition, the blue shift is so extreme a cameras auto white balance will not work. The only way to colour balance underwater is by eye. Your brain does it automatically so you see a kaleidoscope of colours in the reef and fish but a camera will just see shades of blue. To create digital images with the range of colours you perceive requires heavy processing of the RAW camera file to get the colours looking right. My only reference point was this one memory of coral and fish when I was half my age. I used to half-jokingly ask my boss for a field trip to remind myself of the colours of coral.

I was interested on many levels to see Ningaloo Reef again. I started at Point Quobba were I first swam with the fishes. There were still colourful fish but the coral was in bad shape. To find some living coral required travelling an extra 100km of dirt roads to Gnaraloo. Once you get there the fringing reef is very accessible, only a few meters from the shore. I found the most impressive coral structures at Nature Bay but spent most of my time swimming in 3-mile lagoon as it was only 100 meters from the camp and a clean gas-heated bore water shower. I recommend a visit if you are in the area.

I am following the west coast up to Darwin for the start of the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge on the 13th October. I will then follow the race to Adelaide.

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

Ian’s Boat

Jason Benz — Mon, 15 Aug 2016 23:03:09 +0000

This is one of the Keppel Islands. I don’t remember which one as Ian was good enough to take us to a few islands in his boat on 1st Jan 2016. This is one of those rare occasions when I wish my camera had GPS. It is fondly remembered as the best New Years Day ever.

Long Beach

Jason Benz — Sat, 30 Apr 2016 10:03:18 +0000

This in Long Beach on Great Keppel which is an island 15km off the coast of Queensland in Australia.

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

Keppel Return

Jason Benz — Wed, 23 Dec 2015 07:26:22 +0000

This is Great Keppel Island in Queensland off the coast of mainland Australia. If you are reading this I have posted it using solar powered pre-iPhone technology, a Nokia N-95. This is the first place Karen and I have re-visited in more than a decade of travel. It has everything you would expect from an exclusive resort without any of the cost.

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

Venusian Dunes

Jason Benz — Sun, 02 Aug 2015 07:37:40 +0000

These are the Eucla Dunes in the deserts of Western Australia, 7 miles from the South Australian border. They are made of limestone sand rather than silica having originated on the sea bed. Eucla is believed to originate from the Aboriginal word “Yinculyer” referring to the planet Venus.

It was the transit of Venus over the sun which summoned the English explorer James Cook into the southern oceans in 1769. This ultimately changed the fate of Australia and Eucla. In 1890 an introduced rabbit plague decimated the native vegetation around Eucla. This destabilized the dune system. The shifting sands engulfed the town until it was abandoned and moved 3 miles to the North.

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

Pirate Set

Jason Benz — Sun, 28 Jun 2015 08:00:44 +0000

This is one of the sets of the new Pirates of the Caribbean film “Dead Men Tell No Tales” which is currently being filmed on the Gold Coast in Queensland. They have fenced off a long sand beach on the Southport Spit until the 17th July 2015.

I am sending my camera and lens back to Canon for repair so I will have to keep the photoblog going with new processing of old files from Australia, Egypt, Jamaica, Cuba and the UK.

The Spit

Jason Benz — Mon, 08 Jun 2015 12:08:28 +0000

This is The Spit on the Gold Coast in Queensland. It is a sand bar off the coast of Southport and our largest local beach. We biked down there yesterday to look for one of the sets for the new Pirates of the Caribbean film. We heard they had been planting palm trees here for the movie but we found no sign of Johnny Depp.

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

Hat Head

Jason Benz — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 13:19:42 +0000

This is Hat Head National Park. Like many of Australia’s National Parks the camping area was set in a spacious glade scattered with fire pits. This one had four roos in the middle, or maybe they were wallabies, whatever they were, they were doing a fine job keeping the grass short. Beyond the glade was thick forest with one narrow sandy path which rose steeply flanked with dense flora to squeeze through. I had to investigate. The climb was mercifully short then opened out to this amazing view of one of the largest sand dune systems in New South Wales.

Keppel Islands

Jason Benz — Tue, 30 Dec 2014 09:07:26 +0000

This is Great Keppel Island off the coast of Queensland in Australia. It is one of the Southern Reef islands which provide access to the Great Barrier Reef. If you have never visited Australia you would be forgiven for thinking the famous reef was within swimming distance of the mainland. In truth you always need a boat ride. However, once on the islands the coral is within a stones throw of the shore. We took a 30min ferry trip which parked on the island by driving on to the beach. We then walked 45min to this remote place called Monkey Beach.

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

Flatback Turtle

Jason Benz — Thu, 25 Dec 2014 13:27:02 +0000

This animal is a flatback sea turtle which we were lucky enough to encounter laying eggs on a beach in Mon Repos as we travel north in Queensland. Later we visited the Museum of pioneer aviator Bert Hinkler who was born in Bundaberg. Among stunning botanic gardens his UK home, also named Mon Repos, had been shipped to Australia and rebuilt. We hope to get a boat to visit an island on the southern edge of the great barrier reef in the next few days. So far the weather has been kind and there has been no sight of the potential stronger storms as we approach the tropics.

In 2017 a study of 299 nest sites around the world showed turtle numbers rising on average. However, in Mon Repos abnormally high sand temperatures from 2016 are believed to have caused hatchlings to overheat on their way to the ocean.