Firefly Season! (Ended)

[molested_cow]

Fire fly season here is between mid April to mid May, but by around 10 May, the bugs have died down quite a bit. This is the first time I have tried photographing fire fly. It's rather interesting, sort of like shooting star trails, but require an entirely different way of shooting.

So here are shots from three different locations. Each location's fire fly population vary in intensity, mostly is the difference between peak season and the end. Either way, it's fun, but if mosquitoes glow as well, it's would have been memorial day.

My friends got impatient and moved in closer to take their shots while I was still shooting. They happened to move to where I was focusing, so this happened as a fluke. It turned out to be the best shot of the night.

This distinctive red light is from Canon cameras. Lot of these inconsiderate photographers leave their camera shutter on without taping or masking the red LED, causing light distraction for those shooting behind them. I did what I could, which was to use them as the subject of focus.

The intensity was so great that it pretty much overwhelmed the image with only 6 min of exposure.

This was shot earlier in the day when the sun just went down.

Another location, less bugs, but we used our bikes as the subject for more interesting composition. Mosquitoes everywhere!

My last attempt this season. Found a spot by the road where I can include my car in the shot. Best part about this location is the twisty mountain road that led to this location, on a weekday night with little traffic.

 

[tirediron]

Very cool!

 

[Destin]

Intereting! Definitely something I wouldn't have thought about trying to photograph.

 

[limr]

Damn, that's a lot of fireflies! Nice job on all of them, but I really love #3 and #4.

 

[DonnaB]

Awesome pics. Really love pic 4

 

[katsrevenge]

Nice idea! I love 4!

 

[baturn]

Great stuff! I don't believe I've ever seen a firefly.

 

[HavToNo]

Very cool shots.

 

[molested_cow]

Thanks folks! Just to clarify, #4 was taken with many many images stacked together and the rest were taken in single exposure.

Stacking was needed for #4 because it was just after sun set and the fire flies were just appearing. Therefore, the day was still too bright for long exposure, while short bursts can't capture enough fire flies to make it look like a decent shot. I then took many shots and stacked them together to accumulate the intensity of the fire flies.

 

[Dashur]

Just Magic.