Failed Experiments, Successful Results

This was an odd night for me, photographically speaking. I had the brilliant idea that I was going to photograph a field full of lightning bugs for my nephew, completely blocking out of my mind the inadequacies of digital when shooting in the dark. I was going to do this because in California, where Noah is from, they don't have fire flies! I never knew this until my sister moved out there. I guess I just assumed they were everywhere. Obviously, this idea didn't work. Had I been shooting film, it may have looked like I had intended. When I got my camera home, the photos I opened were not what I had intended, but for some reason, I could see something in them that was usable. They were very noisy, poorly lit, and none of the bugs were visible, but a little spooky and surreal. I just needed to tweak it. So I opened up Photoshop, played around for about 1/2 hour, and this is what I got. I'm really happy with the results! It really reminds me of some infrared shots I took a couple years ago. Very grainy, very surreal, yet also very mundane. It's something you see every day, only lit in a different light. You can view the full sized shot HERE. Believe me, that little shot above doesn't do it justice.