Waves of twinkling lights flashed all around me. First at a distance, then filling my entire field of view, a living undulation of male Photinus carolinus fireflies pulsed like miniature sputtering candles, on display for the females resting in the foliage on the forest floor.

The male fireflies, flying above the forest floor, flash quickly four to eight times, and then all together go dark. The females, resting in the foliage, blink twice in response, just as all the males have gone dark. This is one of the most visibly brilliant forms of communication in the insect world.

While stationary females generally respond to male courtship signals with a receptive doublet flash signal, they also produce a rhythmic flash while walking, and can revert back to the receptive state. - Lynn Frierson Faust, BioOne

[See the lower left-hand corner of my image above, where a female firefly seems to be rhythmically flashing while walking around a single leaf. The female Photinus carolinus is actually rarely seen flying.]

The weekend of June 6-7th, 2015, I visited the Smoky Mountain National Park in order to capture the annual Photinus carolinus “light show” on camera. It took some serious creative thinking to get to the “show,” however.

During the approximately two weeks in June when Photinus carolinus is predicted to mate, the road leading to Elkmont and the Little River and Jakes Creek trails where the mating display is best viewed is closed off. Shuttles take ticket-holders from the Sugarland Visitor Center up to the viewing area, dropping them off around 6 p.m. and picking them back up around 11 p.m. Advance parking pass sell out months, if not a year, in advance. During the two weeks of the event, the park service dolls out 85 passes a day to the VERY lucky people who happen to “win the lottery” and click the “Book Now” button at exactly 10 a.m. the day before a desired tour. I tried in vain to get a Day Before parking pass several days in a row. I do not exaggerate when I say that the passes sell out in less than 1 second, and with thousands of people trying to get the reserved 85 passes for any given tour date, you basically just have to get lucky.

So here I am, without a pass. I didn’t give up though – I called the Smoky Mountain National Park public relations office, and asked for a press pass! I’m a science blogger with SciLogs.com, after all. A very friendly and accommodating public relations officer obliged, and I had a special parking place reserved just for press within a short walk of the main viewing area! Talk about the perks of science blogging with an established network!

So I packed up my gear and arrived at Elkmont around 6pm on Friday, June 5th. I had with me: My canon 5D Mark III; a 50mm 1.2 lens (fast lenses like this one are best for capturing the firefly display on camera - they open up wide enough to "see" the faint firefly flashes); a 16-35mm 2.8 wide angle lens; a sturdy tripod; a red-LED headlamp; rain gear (including a rain cover for my camera just in case); and red cellophane sheets (provided by Park Rangers) to cover my camera LCD screen so that the light from it wouldn't disrupt the fireflies.