Firefly sunset, mostly luck.

liquidsquid

Tried getting out there at just the right time of night when they are emerging. Untouched apart from white balance and sharpness!

Used a lower ISO than in previous post, 30-second exposure. The full-sized on my site is neat, and I have a couple of others that need a touch-up to make worthy since lighting was constantly changing.

Hope you enjoy!

LCD

Cool Shot!

ATG

Nice shot, reminds me of one of the things I miss by living out west. Thanks for sharing.

liquidsquid wrote:

Tried getting out there at just the right time of night when they are emerging. Untouched apart from white balance and sharpness!

Used a lower ISO than in previous post, 30-second exposure. The full-sized on my site is neat, and I have a couple of others that need a touch-up to make worthy since lighting was constantly changing.

Hope you enjoy!

Harryb

Much better than the first one you posted. Very difficul subject that you are trying to capture. I hope you keep trying as long as the fire flies hold up.

liquidsquid

Thanks everyone,
Taking pictures of these little buggers is more challanging than I thought. Trying to get the focus right when the aperture is open all the way, guessing the ISO, and then waiting a minute+ to see if you got everything OK, swatting mosquitoes... The big part was lowering the ISO from 400 down to 200 to cut the noise a bit and finding a bit better location. It's one of tose subjects you don't see every day here so I thought I would give it a shot.


-Mark

gus

Thats a neat shot. we have them here but nowhere near as bright & they flash on & off ...do yours flash ?

liquidsquid

gus wrote:

Thats a neat shot. we have them here but nowhere near as bright & they flash on & off ...do yours flash ?

They are not that bright here either, therin lies the trick. I could barely tell there was a sunset; it was that dark. They do flash, in usually a short pair before they fly dark for a while. This shot tells you how many there are!

There is a field on my way home from work that has easily 10x the fireflies as we have, but it's location is poor. It is near a swamp, and it is so buggy as to be intolerable.

gus

liquidsquid wrote:

They are not that bright here either, therin lies the trick. I could barely tell there was a sunset; it was that dark. They do flash, in usually a short pair before they fly dark for a while. This shot tells you how many there are!

There is a field on my way home from work that has easily 10x the fireflies as we have, but it's location is poor. It is near a swamp, and it is so buggy as to be intolerable.

ok...may be the same then..tend to hang around water here also. On creek flats near lantana bushes are theiur favourites. You dont often see them though.

davidryan

You know-- on my family's farm in Pennsylvania, we have so many fireflies every year that you can nearly walk through the woods without a flashlight at night. You can't take your eyes off them as it is like christmas or a spectacular light show. I miss my "lightning bugs" (as we called them). We don't have them here in Colorado. The amazing thing is, come sunrise, not one bug in sight! Where the heck do they all go? There have to be millions of them in the creeks and marsh around our house and yet, they simply disappear! Do they not also call these bugs "june bugs" as they pretty much go away after June is up? I always wondered.

liquidsquid wrote:

Tried getting out there at just the right time of night when they are emerging. Untouched apart from white balance and sharpness!

Used a lower ISO than in previous post, 30-second exposure. The full-sized on my site is neat, and I have a couple of others that need a touch-up to make worthy since lighting was constantly changing.

Hope you enjoy!

scoob

really neat shots!!!