Previously from the magical forest: Visiting a Fairy Tale

The forest across the street from us turns into a land of magic in late June and early July. Sometimes, we miss out on this magic if a vacation has us away. But some years we are here to witness it. And this year the show is absolutely spectacular, even if my photo I am sharing below does not do it justice. And I must admit, I feel like I did better five years ago and feel motivated to give it another try. I'll just have to go soon before their numbers start dwindling.

Yes, I am talking about fireflies. But not just one or two but enough to light up the whole forest.

I usually share photos captured on film but will admit I have not tried this task on film yet and it might be rather challenging to pull off. Couple more practices with the digital camera and I may give it a go. But as I have already said, I forgot some of my lessons learned from four years ago and needed to relearn on the spot, and even after the fact when reviewing my results on the computer. I love going full analog from capture to printing but must say for this more or less impromptu outing both the digital camera as well as the computer came rather handy as learning devices with the quick feedback they provide. And while my Nikon D610 is rather old given the digital standards (just looked it up, it's 12 years old!) it can still pull of ISO 6400 with usable results. With film, I am not sure whether the fireflies would still be visible or disappear in the grain. And the grain might be rather chunky. If I go with Portra 800 getting to EI 6400 would require a 3-stop push and that could be rather interesting. Of course, now that I mentioned it it will have to be done.

Back to Magical Forest FirefliesNight Photography, Orchard Park, NY

Back to Magical Forest Fireflies, Night Photography, Orchard Park, NY

Before I forget, let's see what I had to relearn, or "How to Photograph Fireflies":

• 20mm is too wide and leaves too much foreground dark. Looking at the above photo, a 50mm might actually be a good choice (is that what I used in 2020?).
• Get the fastest lens you have. The 20mm I used this time was an f/2.8. I have a f/1.8 50mm, which would provide an edge.
• With the 20mm I used infinity focus at f/2.8 and did not worry about it. For the 50mm f/1.8 and it's significantly smaller depth of field I'd use a flashlight and focus into the middle ground where most of the action would be.
• Provide some sense of the place, like a brighter background at the edge of the forest (aiming out of the forest insert of in) or a creek or a path if the trees open up around it and let in more light.
• f/2.8 and ISO 6400 provided the best results at this particular location. My exposure times were 30 seconds, the longest time the D610 supports before going into the bulb mode.
• I turned on the long exposure noise reduction but that also doubles up the time for each exposure to 1 minute. With newer cameras, this may not be needed as 6400 might be far from their max.
• Tripod is a must

As far as post processing goes, this is not a single image. It's a blend of several images to get in more firefly activity. While that may seem like massive cheating, I don't feel that way. It gets to feeling of the photo closer to what one experiences on location and it still is not a match.

Enjoy The Beauty That Surrounds You! #etbtsy

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