File:Fireflies (35082682316).jpg

My first experiment with firefly photography. I put my Nikon D800 with a 1,8/50mm on a tripod and pointed the camera to a particularly dark area of our garden. Aperture has to be wide open in order to collect enough light from the glowing insects.

The fireflies become active in June after sunset, but before it is too dark. This limits the possibilities of long-time exposure. Working with a smaller aperture to get longer exposure times and hence longer traces is not really an option, because then the light of the fireflies becomes too weak.

These are the very first fireflies this year. Later in June, fireflies become more frequent, but today they appeared only every now and then. This image is in fact a composite of several exposures (each trace of a firefly is on a seperate photo). Some of the fire-lines appear to be dotted, this is because the wings of the flying beetles periodically obscure the "lamps" on the belly.

Here is the information from Wikipedia about fireflies:

The Lampyridae are a family of insects in the beetle order Coleoptera. They are winged beetles, commonly called fireflies or lightning bugs for their conspicuous use of bioluminescence during twilight to attract mates or prey. Fireflies produce a "cold light", with no infrared or ultraviolet frequencies. This chemically produced light from the lower abdomen may be yellow, green, or pale red, with wavelengths from 510 to 670 nanometers.

Light production in fireflies is due to a type of chemical reaction called bioluminescence. This process occurs in specialized light-emitting organs, usually on a firefly's lower abdomen. The enzyme luciferase acts on the luciferin, in the presence of magnesium ions, ATP, and oxygen to produce light.