Benz World Blog » Skyscraper

Gold Coast

Jason Benz — Sat, 16 May 2015 23:02:35 +0000

This is the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. It is one of a set of Australian Skylines which I have used long exposures to photograph cities at night over water.

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

Brisbane G20

Jason Benz — Sun, 16 Nov 2014 00:48:31 +0000

It is heating up in Brisbane this weekend. Politicians and protesters have been gathering for the G20 and a heat wave arrives. Hotels in the surrounding area have been fully booked with people escaping the city. The Gold Coast has been popular as its sea breeze keeps it consistently cooler than Brisbane. We did our bit to participate in the global economy by buying Chinese bikes from a German supermarket to explore Australia.

This shot of Victoria Bridge was processed with Split-Toning to add some Colour.

Casino Monorail

Jason Benz — Sun, 14 Sep 2014 09:02:07 +0000

On Friday night I visited the Jupiter casino next to the Nerang river on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. This monorail connects the casino, hotel and shopping centre. Another light rail service has recently started connecting Broadbeach, Surfers Paradise and Southport.

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.

Cairo Pyramids

Jason Benz — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 04:40:03 +0000

I took this shot 5 years ago in Cairo, Egypt before the arab spring. It was shot at full stretch 150mm on a Olympus E-510 on a misty day so there was barely any contrast. This is a good example of the advantage of setting your camera to shoot in RAW if you can. A great deal of detail can then be recovered with careful processing.

The Pyramids are 10 miles from the centre of Cairo. The view from the far side has none of the city in it.

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

Surfers Paradise

Jason Benz — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 18:56:20 +0000

This is the beach along Surfers Paradise in Queensland, Australia. I took this as we walked there last month to see the Lego. The lifeguards put up red and yellow flags to swim between every so often all the way along the Gold Coast.

Brisbane Skyline

Jason Benz — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 16:07:56 +0000

We arrived in Brisbane yesterday. The stage on the left of the picture was for the Brisbane Festival City of Lights. We also saw a great band called Cheap Fakes at one of the festival stages on the South Bank.

This picture means I now have night shots over water of Australia‘s five biggest cities. In order of population they are: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide. As far as regional capitals go I am still short Darwin and Hobart but I have no plans to photograph these currently.

Melbourne Streets

Jason Benz — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 01:12:04 +0000

This night shot was taken of Melbourne in Victoria. To process this shot maximum desaturation was used on the greens, blues and purples. To help the taxis stand out the saturation of the oranges and yellows was increased.

Like many recent posts, this was taken last year. I have been developing RAW files from my archive as our UK stopover has taken longer than expected. We have booked our flights back to Australia now and will be posting new images after we land on the 10th May.

Perth Chogm

Jason Benz — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 00:58:16 +0000

This image of Perth in Western Australia shows the preparations for the 2011 CHOGM(Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) and a giant public barbecue hosted by the Queen.

This could be a contender for the Australian Skylines Calendar.

Queens Bridge

Jason Benz — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 04:23:06 +0000

This night shot is of Queens Bridge in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

This could be a contender for the Australian Skylines Calendar.