Hurricane Irene. Central New Jersey, Sunday Morning.
I spent Friday and Saturday getting prepared for Hurricane Irene. The storm intensity started increasing late Saturday night. At about 11:30 PM, I heard a crash and the lights went out. When I got up Sunday morning the wind and rain had decreased significantly. I guess this was when the eye of the hurricane was moving up the coast of New Jersey directly east. When I went out I saw that a tree had fallen next to the road and took down the power, cable, and phone lines. I tried to call in the fallen lines to PSE&G, but couldn’t get past the automated emergency reporting system. My wireless Internet connection also didn’t work. A lot of branches and tree limbs were down in the yard, but thankfully no damage to the house or vehicles. The following images are of the nearby Rock Brook and local woods. Normally at this time of the year, the brook is almost dry. The road closed sign was right in front of my driveway.
Road Closed. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)Rock Brook Flooding. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)Rock Brook Flooding. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)Rock Brook Flooding. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)Rock Brook Flooding. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)Rock Brook Flooding. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)
Late August Star Trails. Since it looked like the sky was going to be clear last night, I left a camera out on the deck to get some star trail images. The first one was before midnight, and the second one after midnight. I did this set with a fisheye lens to get as much of the sky as possible. There is a tree in the front of the house that is blocking the northern star. I also used the images to create a time-lapsed video of the night sky.
North View Star Trails. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 16 mm f/2.8 mm Fisheye lens (ISO 800, 16 mm, f/5.6, 30 sec). Composite of 326 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)North View Star Trails. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 16 mm f/2.8 mm Fisheye lens (ISO 800, 16 mm, f/5.6, 30 sec). Composite of 326 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)
The fawn and doe were in my backyard. I took this with a 300 mm f/2.8 lens @ f/2.8 so the fawn is in focus and the doe is out of focus.
Fawn and Doe. Summer Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 400, 300 mm, f/2.8, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)
Summertime Nature in New Jersey: Sourland Mountain Preserve.
Clearwing Hummingbird Moths, Black and Yellow Swallowtail Butterflies, Monarch Butterfly, Dragonfly, Robber-Fly, and an American Goldfinch.
Black Swallowtail Butterfly on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 640, 600 mm, f/16, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Yellow Swallowtail Butterfly on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 1100, 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Monarch Butterfly on Yellow Wildflower. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 220, 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Clearwing Hummingbird Moth on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 900, 600 mm, f/8, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Clearwing Hummingbird Moth on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 1600, 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Clearwing Hummingbird Moth on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 280, 600 mm, f/8, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)American Goldfinch on a Thistle. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 250, 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Summertime Nature in New Jersey: Sourland Mountain Preserve.
Life and Death in Nature. It was a great day to photograph nature at the Sourland Mountain Preserve. Many Butterflies, Clearwing Hummingbird Moths, Dragonflies,Summertime Nature in New Jersey: Sourland Mountain Preserve. Robberflies, and a few Praying Mantis carnivores. I went in with two cameras, a D3s camera with a 300 mm f/2.8 VR with an TC-E III 20 teleconverter and a D3x camera with a 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro. Humidity was high, and I had to spend the first 15 minutes equilibrating the lenses so they were not fogged. The first place I went to was the location I observed a Praying Mantis eating a Clearwing Hummingbird Moth yesterday. The first image is a Black Swollowtail Butterfly on a Thistle bloom. Soon thereafter a Clearwing Hummingbird Moth started checking out the Thistle blooms. DANGER! DANGER! It didn’t see the Praying Mantis. Minutes later the moth was breakfast for the Praying Mantis. Later, another Black Swollowtail Butterfly was breakfast to a brown Praying Mantis.
Black Swallowtail Butterfly on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 640, 600 mm, f/16, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Danger! Danger! Clearwing Hummingbird Moth being Stalked by a Praying Mantis. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 200, 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Clearwing Hummingbird Moth as a Meal for a Praying Mantis. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 320, 600 mm, f/8, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Clearwing Hummingbird Moth as a Meal for a Praying Mantis. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (ISO 320, 105 mm, f/8, 1/400 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Praying Mantis full after a Clearwing Hummingbird Moth Meal. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (ISO 800, 105 mm, f/16, 1/125 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Brown Praying Mantis. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (ISO 220, 105 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Black Swallowtail Butterfly as a Meal for a Brown Praying Mantis. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (ISO 160, 105 mm, f/8, 1/100 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
