Radim Schreiber captures the beauty of a single moment.
Writer: Michael Morain
Photographer: Radim Schreiber
When Radim Schreiber was growing up in the Czech Republic, he spotted fireflies only once — just flickers in a little marsh as he walked home from a Boy Scouts meeting.
“I was quite shocked,” he said. “In the Czech Republic, the firefly is almost like a mythical creature.”
So when he moved to Fairfield in 2008, he was stunned when he saw fireflies in every yard all summer long. One night when he followed a city trail through the woods, it felt like magic. “They weren’t flashing quickly but glowing, slowly,” he said. “It was so peaceful, so joyful, like they were illuminating the path.”
That glow, he learned, comes from a chemical reaction called bioluminescence, which allows the insects to light up without producing heat. They use it to attract mates and ward off predators with silent signals written in light.
During Schreiber’s first Iowa summer, a proverbial lightbulb flicked on: He decided to share that experience with others. He’s photographed fireflies for the last 17 years and recently marked his 10th year as a full-time artist. He’s staked out his backyard, hiked deep into the Great Smoky Mountains, helped produce a BBC documentary and participated in the International Firefly Symposium to promote research and conservation. He’s even received photography awards from the Smithsonian and National Geographic.
Schreiber has developed all kinds of special techniques, but most of his photos still fall into two basic categories. For closeups of individual insects, perched on a flower or blade of grass, he often lies down in his backyard or a roadside ditch around sunset. When he spots a flash, he crawls up close, focuses his camera and waits again for another flash. In Iowa, the common “Big Dipper” variety (Photinus pyralis) emerges at dusk and seems unperturbed by streetlights. Schreiber tries to shoot them within 15 minutes after sunset, while there’s still enough light to illuminate their tiny bodies.
For broader photos of light-spangled landscapes, he sets up a tripod to capture multiple or extended exposures. This past year, he’s stretched exposures up to 6 or 8 hours to chronicle glow-in-the-dark trails of insects and stars over the course of a whole night. In the countryside, he often turns on the camera and then catches a few winks in his van before returning to check the gear.
Schreiber captured a whole evening when his camera’s long exposure caught the moonrise.
There are about 170 firefly species in North America. Schreiber said he has seen more fireflies this past year, both in Iowa and in neighboring Midwest states where he sells his photos at arts festivals. On social media, he’s noticed more people sharing photos of glowing bugs.
“I can sometimes judge the density” in the photos, he said. “It seems like there are a lot more this year.”
Zach Schumm, an entomologist at Iowa State University, attributes the recent population bump to the milder winter and rainy spring after several years of drought. Firefly larvae thrive in wetter conditions.
Even so, firefly populations have declined over the past century as they’ve lost natural habitat to farmland and urban sprawl. Like monarch butterflies and honeybees, they’ve become unintentional advocates for conservation.
“They’re good for that,” Schumm said. “They’re showy, so it’s easier for people to notice they’re seeing fewer over time, from their childhood to adulthood.”
Still, he doesn’t expect fireflies to vanish from Iowa anytime soon. And as long as they’re here, Schreiber will photograph them.
As cameras evolve, with sharper lenses and better light-sensing technology, he wants to shoot closeups of individual fireflies in flight — “not just the smear,” he said, “but the magnificent glow.”
He enjoys figuring out the technical challenges almost as much as sharing the results. “I’m really proud of making art for 10 years,” he said. “I’ve brought people so many little moments of joy.”
After all these years, he said the insects still seem almost mythical, like sparks of inspiration in the dark.
Citizen Science
You can help scientists collect data about fireflies by conducting a simple census in your own backyard. Learn how at fireflyatlas.org.
