Benz World Blog » Star

Remote Spot

Jason Benz — Sun, 04 Jul 2021 10:27:51 +0000

I have waited two years to visit this remote spot on Weilwan land. Each night I watch the majestic galactic emu rise in the Australian sky. I planned to explore this area last year until I heard there was a mountain of blueberries about to be wasted due to a shortage of backpackers. By the time the harvest finished, it was summer and too hot to visit. Winter is the perfect time of year to go bush. I arrived on the day a 2-week partial stay at home order was called in the populated parts of New South Wales. I have not been near the covid outbreak area for 5 months but my driving licence address is in lockdown. I decided to stay isolated in the Outback, and hope I don’t run into any officious cops.

Galactic Emu

Jason Benz — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 05:10:45 +0000

This shows the centre of the Milky Way as seen from Australia. The Southern hemisphere has a great view as it faces the bright heart of our galaxy. On a clear night, you can read your watch with nothing but starlight. With this overabundance of reference points, the ancient aboriginal astronomers mapped the sky by creating shapes from the gaps between the stars instead of joining the dots into constellations. The body of a giant emu is formed from the dark clouds of dust in front of the luminous galactic centre and the head of the emu is the coal sack next to the Southern Cross. Seasonal events such as collecting emu eggs were measured by its movement throughout the year.

I have been travelling through Queensland’s coal country since leaving the coast. I did some research in a local pub and was told by two mine subcontractors it is easier to get into prison than a mine. This was proved earlier today when I had to call a dozen people just to get approval to drive past a mine. Fortunately, I have arranged a tour of two Blackwater mines on the 10th-11th of July. After that, I will visit a number of mine viewing platforms in surrounding area where I hope to recreate the success of this shot before returning to Mackay for QME on 24th-26th July where I plan to make some more contacts.

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

New Year

Jason Benz — Sat, 31 Dec 2016 14:01:59 +0000

Happy New Year 2017. This is The Lake Broadwater Conservation Park Campsite. I was photographing the stars when the camp next to us put something combustible on their fire. After 2 weeks on the road exploring the Maranoa region of Australia we arrived back on the Gold Coast yesterday.

Orion Nebula

Jason Benz — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 03:18:56 +0000

This is the Orion Nebula also known as Messier 42. To the naked eye it appears to be the middle star in Orion’s sword. We were lucky enough to see it at the Warrumbungle Observatory where you could attach your DSLR to the telescope. I say lucky because this is the second time we have visited this area and the clouds seem to follow us each time. Our host Peter Starr did his best to point the telescopes at various features between the clouds. We are on our way to visit the Barrick Gold Mine in New South Wales and hope to be in Sydney by Friday in time for Karen to fly back to UK.

Solar Nuke

Jason Benz — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 02:19:12 +0000

This sunset was taken in South Australia on this coast.

Fleurieu Peninsula

Jason Benz — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 17:43:24 +0000

Since leaving Adelaide we have been exploring the Fleurieu Peninsula. This silhouette of two body surfers was taken at Goolwa Beach which is the location of Karen‘s earliest memories. Her parents, Bob and Val, owned a beach house here 40 years ago. We visited Mannum yesterday and took a couple of ferries across the Murry River to reach our campsite at Narrung between Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert. Next we head towards Mount Gambier.

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

Edible Asteroid

Jason Benz — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 01:39:06 +0000

This image shows what you can do by compositing images in photoshop. I started with a shot of me biting into a ball. This shot of the moon was added on a layer above and a mask was applied to reveal it where necessary. A quick google search for “star field” found the background. Another mask was applied and the composition was complete.