09/15/2026
“Firefly Storm”
We spent 6 weeks in the Plains this year and we have so much to share but we decided to start with this from 6.29.26 taken in Hazard, Nebraska. The storm was beautiful and it was putting out a ton of lightning but this image represents more than just a storm to us. It’s represents a rare moment caught in time of pure magic.
Never ... ever ... ever ... have we had the chance to witness so many fireflies at once. The storms fired quickly, just after sunset about 15 minutes from our location. We raced north to try to catch up with them as lightning rapidly began striking in the distance. At first we wanted to get as close to the lightning as possible but then we started seeing the twinkling. Fireflies were suddenly everywhere! We made the decision to take advantage of what Mother Nature was offering and pulled over in the closest field.
What we got was spellbinding treat bearing witness to a beautiful storm with thousands of twinkling fireflies dancing all around us. Sometimes when storm chasing, it’s not just about capturing the storm. It’s about the experience as a whole and trying to convey through a single photo a fleeting moment in time and the gravity of that moment. That moment ... we could have lived in it forever and it was an evening we will never forget.
On a technical note, we were scared to death of screwing this up. This wasn’t the easiest image to produce and it took some forethought and patience to make it all work. Though you can get the fireflies in one shot, we wanted them to really stand out which meant a longer exposure as they worked their way from the field towards the camera. A longer exposure though, translated to too much movement in the structure at the top of the clouds which we didn’t want. This meant taking separate photos for the storm and the foreground with the purpose of blending them in post. Focal length was 20mm with no movement of the camera between frames.
Storm/Lightning - ISO 250/f 5.6, 10 seconds, stack of two frames Foreground/Fireflies - ISO 400/f 5.6, 30 seconds, stack of two frames
