Fireflies

[WolfTales]

2F/2f your right. It was last summer and I have changed camera systems several times.... my bad!

It was just one big experiment in bracketing really. I think I went through 3 rolls of 36 exposures that night. I learned alot but really it's just a basic starting block for future experiments. I was pretty underwhelmed with my results.

I tried a couple of lenses that night, a F1.8 50mm and a 2.8 24mm. Wide open.
For focus, the one that came out the best, I estimated where to focus and then just set the focus manually as a guestimate. Think I tried leaving it at infinity too for shots where there was firefly action beyond 30ft... Those were too dim to see in the photo tho...

I got better results with the faster lens chasing trails closer up then I did with the wide angle slower lens.

So basically I would search for an active spot, run with my tripod and camera and 50mm lens and open up the shutter for 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Then the activity would die down, and I would scan again, pick up the camera and run to the next spot and take another 30 second to 2 minute exposure and hope I would catch em in action.

The wide angle experiment, I just left in a field stationary for a long time with the shutter open for 5 minutes.

Also got some nice star trails at the end of my adventure. Just pointed the camera up with a fast tele lens for 5 - 30 minutes, wide open at infinity.