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Ben Alldridge

Part art savant, part mad genius, 100% all beef patty. I often find myself exploring the lighter topics of life, if you know what I mean.

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iMaginem

benjaminalldridge

Landscape Photographer of the Year 2024.
I lead a very illuminating life.

Go outside and look at the sky. Tonight’s aurora p

Go outside and look at the sky. Tonight’s aurora promises to be one of the special ones.

It’s International Wombat Day, but I doubt many of

It’s International Wombat Day, but I doubt many of you have ever seen them like this.

Under pure UV light, the Tasmanian bare-nosed wombat (Vombatus ursinus tasmaniensis) exhibit a curious property that we are discovering in many other marsupials – biofluorescence. Where their fur is normally an ashy tan, under pure UV they literally glow in intense pinks and blues as if by magic. To some animals, this is how they’d perceive our burrowing friends normally.

Why? Who knows. But while we don’t know why, we can certainly appreciate the fascinating results.

@sonyalpha.anz ILCE-7M3, @sigmaphotoaustralia 24mm f/1.4, custom UV illumination

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#glow #fluro #biofluorescence #wombat #wombatwednesday #australia #animals #natgeo #naturephotography #science #scicomm #tasmania #discovertasmania #ausgeo #ausgeo_wild #tasmanianmuseumandartgallery #mona #australianmuseum #sonyaustralia

With all of my focus being devoted to all things t

With all of my focus being devoted to all things that glow, it’s been hard to really devote as much time to what got me outside at night to begin with.

I shot this back in May while teaching @amberarralyn.photography and @rayeaeylnn some tricks on the foreshore at Bridport directly under a harsh metal halide lamp as a test for the @sonyalpha.anz ILCE-1 (that’s the α1 if ya nasty) for astro on my tracker.

Figured it was a good opportunity to show how the process goes from camera to screen to show it off. The final product rarely arrives out of the computer, and is usually finished on my phone for whatever medium it’s going on.

Then there’s the data that ends up on the phone. It has the majority of the detail enhancing work in place at this stage, although the colour balance is often pretty poor. This was about 10 minutes of Photoshop, which on a 50MP stack isn’t a lot.

Then there’s the stacked data – in this case 46x 13s exposures. The data is aligned and median stacked to improve the signal to noise ratio as much as possible, although it’s genuinely unnecessary.

Then there’s the linearised data that the base frames are exported from Lightroom, this has no noise reduction or sharpening, and only has basic WB/luminance adjustments.

The RAW Hα (the deep red details) data is very very good. For an unmodified camera, colour me impressed. With filters and under actual dark skies, and with more than a handful of minutes of data, I am excited to try some summer astro for once.

SONY ILCE-1, SEL135F18GM, Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Mini

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#milkyway #astrophotography #longexposure #stars #nightphotography #milkywaychasers #nightsky #night #longexposure_shots #nightscape #nature #nightscaper #ig_australia #longexpoelite #astro #milkywaygalaxy #stargazing #astronomy #ig_discover_australia #photooftheday #yourshotphotographer @hobartandbeyond #hobartandbeyond @Tasmania #tasmania #australia @australia @sonyalpha.anz #bealpha @instatasmania #siruiaustralia @tasmaniagram #exploringaustralia #discovertasmania #skywatcheraustralia #ausgeo

A heavy-handed metaphor? Perhaps, but as light pol

A heavy-handed metaphor? Perhaps, but as light pollution encroaches on habitat, actual literal pollution will also function as localised beacons embedded within biomes – most plastics are artificially brightened using fluorescent compounds, and most modern lighting is built around strongly blue LEDs… do you see how this may be a problem?

For every problem we look at, dozens more come counterpart to them. Imagine living an existence where suddenly after thousands of years of evolution, this moved in next door. Wouldn’t be nice.

@darksky_intl @darkskytasmania @darkskyalliance

“CORONA”, Tasmania, 2024 I’ve seen probably about

“CORONA”, Tasmania, 2024

I’ve seen probably about 100 aurorae in my life now, which compared to some is a minuscule number granted, and I can remember most pretty intimately. It takes a lot to crack into my top 5.

This image is unique amongst my catalogue, and I believe aurora photography in general. Typically the wisdom for an aurora is to wait until astronomical dark and shoot with a very fast aperture – as you can see here, I opted for neither.

I had the @brightin.star 9mm f/5.6 that I was lucky enough to win with me, and having a registered G4 (KP8) solar storm underway under a full moon it presented some truly unique opportunities that only about 3 or 4 other rectilinear lenses in existence can match.

Because the aurora was so immense, it easily cleared the last vestiges of the setting sun, offering a rare view into how auroral dynamics work during diurnal hours. I opted to shoot at a low aperture to take advantage of this unique optical formula — easily offering a distinct 10-pointed star from the Moon by f/7.1, this being shot at f/11. The extreme field of view is very fun to play with, and well and truly destroys the argument of fast glass being a necessity.

A feature that I didn’t notice until processing this shot is that there is a very faint trace of the Milky Way setting below the Moon, meaning that the sheer incalculable odds of this shot become truly astronomical.

This shot was featured as one of my 6 picks for the recent Southern Nights exhibition that I hosted with @eagleeyetas, @tscharke, and @paulhoelen in association with @beakerstreetsci held last month in Hobart.

Sony ILCE-7M3, Brightin Star 9mm f/5.6, SIRUI R-3213X

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#aurora #astrophotography #longexposure #stars #nightphotography #milkywaychasers #nightsky #night #longexposure_shots #nightscape #nature #nightscaper #ig_australia #longexpoelite #astro #milkywaygalaxy #stargazing #astronomy #ig_discover_australia #photooftheday #natgeoyourshot @hobartandbeyond #hobartandbeyond @Tasmania #tasmania #australia @australia @sonyalpha_anz #sonyalpha_anz @instatasmania #siruiaustralia @tasmaniagram #exploringaustralia #discovertasmania #natgeoau #ausgeo

I don’t know if I ever properly revelled in it at

I don’t know if I ever properly revelled in it at the time on account of being hospitalised, etc, but knowing I get to see this image on the wall at South Australian Museum beside some of the most talented nature photographers – many of whom have become great mates – as a finalist once more in the Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year is so immensely humbling. I may not have been born in Tassie, but I’ll fly the flag for this place as hard as I can by trying to capture its immense beauty, and hope people keep jiving with it. It’s humbling.

See you next week, Radelaide!

Australian Geographic Sony Australia Laowa Australia Discover Tasmania

The Tasmanian subspecies of the Eastern rosella (P

The Tasmanian subspecies of the Eastern rosella (Platycercus eximius diemenensis) is a regular visitor to my yard, as it is around much of Tasmania. There is a mated pair that often visit and forage, occasionally they’ll hop onto the feeders too. Occasionally they’ll jump on as a pair, though usually they take turns to swing off of my archway.

They don’t usually glow, though. Or at least, they don’t usually *appear* to glow. This is probably the first daylight (partial) biofluorescence in the species, captured this afternoon in my back garden. I’ve been working on this for some time, so to finally get some results is really very satisfying.

Shot in full sunlight on SONY α1 and 135mm f/1.8 GM.

#biofluorescence #uvivf #fluorescentbirds #glowingwildlife #redfluorescence #australianbirds #endangeredbirds #threatenedspecies #uvphotography #conservationphotography #nativebirds #birdphotography #avianresearch #rarebirds #wildernessphotography #ornithology #nocturnalbirds #birdglow #australianwildlife #tasmanianwildlife #rarephenomena #ecologicalwonder #avianbehaviour #glowinthedark #australianbiodiversity @hobartandbeyond @tasmaniagram @instatasmania @discovertasmania @tasmania @australia @australiangeographic @ausgeo @bealpha @birdlifeoz @threatenedspecieslink @inaturalistorg @abcsciencenews @australianmuseum @nationalparksaustralia @wildlifevictoria @csirogram

“Any colour you like…” More than twelve months of

“Any colour you like…”

More than twelve months of work has yielded two very different views: the same species, the same location, the same tools, but totally dissimilar.

Tasmania’s Eastern quoll (Dasyurus viverrinus) are widely acknowledged to have two colour morphs… turn the lights off and that goes right out the window.

This is what the species looks like exhibiting biofluorescence under specialist UV illumination – an experience I wrote about extensively over on https://fluroscape.com/2025/a-quolls-life/ and includes over 50 new images.

Hit the link in my bio 😊

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#nature #animal #biology #science #glow #blacklight #uv #fluorescent #tasmania #australia nightsky #night #longexposure_shots #nightscape #nature #nightscaper #ig_australia #longexpoelite #ig_discover_australia #sigmaqustralia #yourshotphotographer #hobartandbeyond @Tasmania #tasmania #australia #canonaustralia @instatasmania #sonyalphaanz @tasmaniagram #exploringaustralia #discovertasmania #natgeoau #ausgeoo

@twslutruwita @natgeoyourshot @natgeoau @beakerstreetsci @tasmuseum @sigmaphotoaustralia @sonyalpha.anz @australiangeographic @australianmuseum @tasmania @darksky_intl

“Seasmoke”, East Coast Tasmania, 2025 A few weeks

“Seasmoke”, East Coast Tasmania, 2025

A few weeks ago I caught up with my good dude @eagleeyetas on Tasmania’s stunning east coast, getting to take in a storm as it rolled across the Freycinet Peninsula.

Getting to watch the mood swing wildly with one of my best mates is just one of the joys of landscape photography.

SONY ILCE-1, SONY SEL24105G, NiSi 0.9M GND

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#Tasmania #HobartAndBeyond #Australia #tasmania #StormySkies #NaturePhotography #sonyalphaanz @sonyalpha.anz @nisifiltersaustralia #Cloudscape #SunsetLovers #DramaticSky #WeatherPhotography #TasmanianBeauty #ExploreTasmania #SkySpectacle #TimeLapseMagic #EveningHues #NaturalWonder #LandscapeLovers #TravelAustralia #CapturingMoments @instatasmania #siruiaustralia @tasmaniagram #exploringaustralia #discovertasmania #natgeoau #ausgeo

With the last week of auroral activity… I once aga

With the last week of auroral activity… I once again missed them. I haven’t been sleeping, though. Earlier in the week I took myself out to the Bass Strait to hang out on a cliff edge capturing some biofluorescence with the aurora behind it.

Biofluorescence is a class of living light, where high energy light like UV is absorbed, and then re-emitted at a less energetic wavelength. Put more simply, things glow colours that they normally do not.

This is one of the cornerstones of research I’m undertaking into the impacts of light pollution. These adaptations took place in the dark, watching how they react over time and space can tell us so much about how ecosystems are adapting to our presence.

Have you seen fluorescence before? Tell me about it!

Shot on my @sonyaustralia ILCE-1, a piece of technology that has allowed me to finally make cinematics I’ve only dreamed of.

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#milkyway #astrophotography #longexposure #stars #nightphotography #milkywaychasers #nightsky #night #longexposure_shots #nightscape #nature #nightscaper #ig_australia #longexpoelite #astro #milkywaygalaxy #stargazing #astronomy #ig_discover_australia #photooftheday #yourshotphotographer @hobartandbeyond #hobartandbeyond @Tasmania #tasmania #australia @australia @sonyalpha.anz #bealpha @instatasmania #siruiaustralia @tasmaniagram #exploringaustralia #discovertasmania #sonyalphaanz #ausgeo

Has anybody got some shots of Starlink (or space j

Has anybody got some shots of Starlink (or space junk in general) they could loan me?

I have a talk coming up in about a week that I’ve just been asked to do and I don’t know if I’m going to get a chance to get anything to illustrate the problem.

Shots from dark skies are especially helpful as it’s a talk on dark sky preservation. As tax, have an aurora from one such site in the Southwest

Ty babes xo

Have I got any mates who know how to prototype ele

Have I got any mates who know how to prototype electronics, like say… controlling lights via microcontroller?

I have some pretty unique requirements, but if they can be met… oooooh boy.

In exchange, I offer you an early proof of a shot I got at the Natural Bridge in Queensland. When I saw there was intense lightning over the cave, this opportunity presented itself – the cascade illuminated by lightning, the cave illuminated by Arachnocampa flava glow-worms… and lamentably legitimately about 100 tourists. I was ropable i tells ya.

Anyway, prototype buds where you at?

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