Fireflies outshine the stars

[jrkirkham]

I was finally able to go camping for the first time this year. I had been so looking forward to an uninterrupted night under the stars. When I got there I discovered that not the stars, but the fireflies, stole the show. I have never seen so many at one time. The only thing I can imagine is the local farmer just cut and raked that hay field. With the tall grasses now lying in neat piles the fireflies had no place to hide. The show was mesmerizing.

[goldstar]

Amazing! I almost forgot to look at the sky.
Well I did but it comes a close second.

[Bigzmey]

That's beautiful!

[JayTee]

WOW! That needs to be submitted somewhere. Submit it to both AAPOD and APOD.

Amazing,
JT

[Lokifish]

Nice!

Funny you posted this, I had a firefly camp out in the dew shield of my guide scope last night. PHD2 was not amused.

[Ozypic]

Wow thats really something ! What a great night for you. Thanks for sharing it . Phill

[Don Quixote]

Thank you Rob for the share of this wonderful sky.
I am wondering if you were camping in Illinois?

[bladekeeper]

Awesome image, Rob!

I just showed it to my good wife. Her mouth dropped open and she finally said "That's gorgeous! He ought to send that somewhere!"

[jrkirkham]

Thanks for the encouragement everyone. Yes, this was in Illinois at my observing spot.

[pakarinen]

Wow. They do seem to be more abundant this year, but I've not seen anything like that.

How were the gnats? One of my dark sites near DeKalb was just swarming with the beasties.

[KingNothing13]

Wow - what an incredible image - it must have been something to experience that!

:Clap:

[Voyageur]

Very, very special image. It needs to receive a wider audience; I hope you will submit it to relevant contests. Maybe next year's National Geographic Photo Contest (too late for this year).

[jrkirkham]

The gnats have been bad, but I use a lot of insect spray when I go out.

[Arctic]

Way cool! Fireflies are an indicator that the environment isn't totally poisoned--a tall-order in farm country these days. Fantastic photo!

[Juno16]

Very beautiful photo Rob!

Thanks,
Jim

[stewe]

Jaw-dropping image, congratulations!
Is this a montage or a single shot?
Would you mind sharing some technical details (lens, exposure time, etc.) for our education?

[Thefatkitty]

That is really cool; I've never seen so many fireflies at once. Thanks for sharing that!

All the best,

[jrkirkham]

Steve,

I'll try to remember how I did it. I was using my Canon 6D and my Manfrotto tripod. I used a Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 lens. I shot it at a focal length of 50mm to reduce distortion and bring the background a little closer. I used f/2.8 and ISO3200. I shot a series of 15 second frames. I don't know how many I shot because I set the camera up and then just walked off and left it. I also don't remember how many frames I finally used for the foreground. I didn't use too many because car lights kept interfering and there were so many lighting bugs that night that using a lot of frames just totally messed up the foreground. After putting the shots together I went back through the stack and chose my favorite Milky Way frame for the background. That's about all there was to it.

[bobharmony]

I don't know how I missed this one, but I'm glad to see it now. That is a fabulous image.

My burning question is "how did you manage to make the fireflies stay low in the foreground?". Great job of insect control

What, what a shot!

Bob

[MartinF]

Wow, that is spectacular! Never seen fireflies and Milky Way combined.