July 12, Tuesday
Fireflies rise up from the ground at twilight, pulsing green and gold, slowly drifting from place to place. Last night they filled the yard.
It was getting so dark that it was difficult for the camera to lock on and focus, and it was hard to react quickly enough to capture the firefly’s flash. By the time I saw it and pressed the shutter, it was gone.
And then the mosquitoes started biting. We don’t worry about mosquitoes in Pasadena; we don’t even own bug spray. But here they swarm at night. I could hear the tell-tale whine in my ear as they circled. Every time I would stop and try to focus, I would get bitten.
But my girls got to catch their first lightning bugs in jars and I got these dream-like photographs. I love how Lulu’s skin seems lit from within and how the hydrangeas glow in the moonlight. I especially love the last photograph: a figure in the dark gazing out into the unknown, someone from your unconsciousness, from a half-remembered dream that you wish you could decipher. I’m sure I’ll be outside again, at dusk, with my camera, many times before we leave, trying to capture fireflies and something more elusive.