Saturday (08-October-2011) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

I saw this Praying Mantis climbing a weed off my back deck. I initially tried to get some images with the camera & telephoto lens at hand, but the minimum focus distance for the 600 mm f/4 VR lens is ~ 17 feet. I switched to a 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens, with a minimum focus distance of 7 feet. When viewed close up, the Praying Mantis looks deadly. There was a black fly that kept landing on the back of the Praying Mantis. I guess the fly knew where the safe zone is. Ultimately, I think the Praying Mantis got tired of me, and moved further into the shrubs.

Fly Riding a Brown Praying Mantis. Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/6.3, 1/200 sec). (David J Mathre)
Fly Riding a Brown Praying Mantis. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/6.3, 1/200 sec). (David J Mathre)
Fly Riding a Brown Praying Mantis. Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/6.3, 1/200 sec). (David J Mathre)
Fly Riding a Brown Praying Mantis. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/6.3, 1/200 sec). (David J Mathre)
Brown Praying Mantis. Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/6.3, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)
Brown Praying Mantis. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/6.3, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)
Brown Praying Mantis. Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/8, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)
Brown Praying Mantis. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/8, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)
Brown Praying Mantis. Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/8, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)
Brown Praying Mantis. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/8, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)
Brown Praying Mantis. Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/8, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)
Brown Praying Mantis. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/8, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)

Monday (26-September-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Nature in New Jersey.

This young doe that only recently lost her spots looks hungry. Her ribs are showing, not a good sign as we  move into Autumn and then Winter.

Young Doe After Losing Her Spots. Image Taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 500, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)
Young Doe After Losing Her Spots. Image Taken with a Nikon D700 camera and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 500, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)

Monday (19-September-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Late Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

I found this Tree Fungus/Mushroom on a fallen Birch tree while walking through my backyard. This was one of the trees that came down when the power company cleared the lines following a wind storm in March 2010 that is slowly decomposing. Not surprising the decomposition has accelerated with all of the rain we have had recently.

Tree Mushroom/Fungus on Fallen Birch Tree. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 56 mm, f/5.6, 1/60 sec) and SB-900 flash. (David J Mathre)
Tree Mushroom/Fungus on Fallen Birch Tree. Image taken with a Nikon D700 camera and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 56 mm, f/5.6, 1/60 sec) and SB-900 flash. (David J Mathre)

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Three-Years Ago (09-September-2008) — New Jersey

Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Big Spider. I saw this “what I consider a giant” spider above my front door. I went in the back door and got a Nikon D3 camera with a 200 mm lens (I didn’t want to get too close) and a SB-900 flash. It was not as big as a tarantula, but pretty close. I’ve never seen a spider this big in New Jersey before. I don’t know what type of spider it is, but I have not seen one like it since then.

Big Spider Above My Front Door. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 200 mm f/4 macro lens (ISO 220, 200 mm, f/16, 1/60 sec) and SB-900 flash. (David J. Mathre)
Big Spider Above My Front Door. Image taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 200 mm f/4 macro lens (ISO 220, 200 mm, f/16, 1/60 sec) and SB-900 flash. (David J. Mathre)

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Monday (05-September-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

This tree fungus was not staying still long enough to keep in focus. I used a feature in Capture One Pro where I selected a color, and then reduced the saturation for the inverse colors (thus B&W + one color). We will see if the Blob is blocking my driveway tomorrow morning.

The Blob Taking Over New Jersey. Tree Fungus. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens. Raw Image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
The Blob Taking Over New Jersey. Tree Fungus. Image taken with a Nikon D700 camera and 28-300 mm VR lens. Raw Image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)