General News
26 November, 2024
Baillie's stars shine bright
The sky is definitely not the limit for Horsham astrophotographer Baillie Farley, 24, whose dramatic night-time photographs are bringing international acclaim.
He was one of 25 winners in the international 2024 Milky Way Photographer of the Year competition which started with 5000 entries - and one of only two Australians awarded the honour.
More recently he added best photograph in Horsham East Rotary Art Fair to his many awards with "Shrouded Summit" a mystical image of a cloud-embraced rocky outcrop, Devil's Gullet, taken in Tasmania.
But while his head is in the clouds, his feet are firmly on the ground. He doesn't elaborate on silver and bronze awards achieved internationally.
Soon he'll be off to the US where he'll lead workshops. A friend in the US will return the favour in Australia.
Humble, modest and unassuming, the former Horsham College student started off with a studio arts course, then bought a camera to do video work but moved onto photography. He now has four cameras with a modified Sony his favourite.
"I wanted a point of difference so started on night-time stuff," he said.
"It's a niche area, and photography wasn't really popular at the time.
"Where most people see darkness I use my camera to to see colours. It also brings up nebulae, air glow and atmospheric change.
"And a camera can pick up more colours than the human eye."
Largely self-taught, he has linked with people across the world to share skills and ideas, and by 2017 he was recognised with a national Dr David Malin award for night-time photography.
Dr Malin, a scientist with the CSIRO, worked at the Parkes Observatory in NSW and was one of the first to document the colours of deep space.
One photograph might involve taking small sections of the whole and result in 80 to 100 frames in panoramic sequence.
With the long exposure needed for each, this might take three hours to shoot, then further time using software to collate the photos to achieve one final result.
The Wimmera was perfect, he said, for its night skies, and the Grampians and Mt Arapiles were also great venue.
But getting his astounding image of Uluru required much planning. He had to be there at the right time for the correct depth of darkness - and park attendants locked all gates at night.