Wonder: Monteagle, Tennessee

Welcome to my first photo a day post!

My idea here is to go through my archive and post new work and some older pictures one at a time here. 4 days a week with some thoughts on the picture and how it was made. Some photos have long stories, some are short.

This picture of my daughter chasing a firefly has a long story. I made it as the result of a conversation, a bet, a gauntlet really thrown down by my wife April before we even started dating. April grew up in the South and caught lightning bugs in her yard every summer evening. She asked one day in if maybe I could make a picture of fireflies as they rise up out of the grass on a summer night. It was an innocent enough question, but I took it as a challenge.

My off the cuff and dismissive reply was "you'd need a fast lens, high asa and low expectations."

The thought though, never left me and years later I found myself thinking "you know this can be done." After all I had spent years tackling difficult subjects for National Geographic Magazine. This couldn't be more difficult than say my Poisonous Cave assignment in Mexico...

So there I was in the front yard, chasing my daughter armed with a Canon EOS camera, Ilford hp 5 pushed to 1200 and a 24 mm lens opened to f1.8. I pre-focused the lens to its minimum setting and didn't even look through the viewfinder. 3 rolls of film, one frame came out that said what I wanted.

This is what it is like to be a child in your yard, chasing lightning bugs. No expectations because all the world is a wonder...

Comments

[Tim Gray]

Wonderful photo. Wonderful story.

[Stephen Alvarez]

Sadly Crouch you already are like me...

[Gregory Crouch]

You are my hero.

Can I be like you when I grow up?

[Katherine Alvarez]

Stephen this is great! It's especially fun to hear what was on your mind when you made this picture since it is so familiar to me. It reminds me of many family dinners in your back yard.
-Katherine