Cicada Emerging

Whilst staying near Montagnac in the Languedoc during our 2007 trip to France, we were absolutely thrilled when cicadas began emerging around our pitch. Back then I was still using 50 ASA Fuji Velvia slide film. In truly typical fashion I had chosen this, of all years, not to pack a tripod – arghh! However, I did have my cable release and managed to rig up a stable support in the form of a table to try to capture what felt like a once-in-a-lifetime natural spectacle. (Actually, a German couple on the adjoining pitch had stayed here several times and seemed to regard the sight as rather mundane but we remain excited by the experience.) I did manage to record the sequence on film, which I subsequently scanned in to digitize.

Happily, in 2023 we were back in the south of France, on a different campsite, when Cicadas once again began emerging around our pitch. This time I had my Olympus digital camera and I had a monopod to stabilize my images, which were much better, particularly with the post-processing capability. Here they are.

The cicadas don’t seem to mind being “encouraged” onto our guy rope for the purposes of photography.

Cicada Emergence