Floodwaters creep on light show

“You could feel the ground shake,” a young man tells me about a large gator that had crossed the trail last night as he hiked in the South Carolina woods. Definitely bigger than ten feet and on the left of the T-intersection ahead, he says.

As daylight fades and I reach that T-intersection, I go right. It’s really swampy here and with the recent healthy rains, the water has risen at least ten feet in the last few days. Over a tiny trail bridge and around an s-curve ahead the gator habitat creeps up to the edge of the path, a long straight section that normally sits on a small bluff over the water to the left. I don’t want that return walk in the dark, hours later, so I turn around.

Back near the T, I set my tripod up and compose a shot and wait. But just before darkness, the floodwaters behind me creep into the trail. I quickly reposition the tripod and compose a new shot and almost immediately, it’s dark enough to make photos of the show. Two hours later, the water is within inches of my tripod.

This photo is a thirty minute single exposure of Snappy Sync fireflies, who mate for two weeks each spring in this neck of the woods. They are also called Photuris frontalis.