“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.

Related Photo Stories

Photo of the Day - Snappy Syncs

“Autumn on Cedar Creek”