March, 2012 - David Mathre Photography

Tuesday (27-March-2012) — New Jersey

Early Spring Night Sky over New Jersey. NASA ATREX Mission. Early Morning Sky Lit Up By Five NASA Sounding Rockets.

Early this morning NASA launched five sounding rockets from Wallops Island, Virginia over a seven minute period to study the jet stream in the upper atmosphere at the edge of space. Once the rockets reached the thermosphere they were set to release trimethyaluminum that would react to create a cloud of aluminum oxide. This mission has been canceled several times waiting for clear skies from New Jersey to South Carolina. I set up a Nikon D3x camera with a 14-24 mm f/2.8 wide angle lens and pointed it south-east to capture an image every minute starting just after midnight to see if I could to catch something from the mission. The rockets were launched starting just before 5 AM (EDT).

The following is a composite of 40 images combined using the startrails program showing the release from all 5 rockets. You see the star trails, a couple of jet trails, all five of the ATREX rocket cloud releases and as a bonus a meteor trail.

NASA ATREX Jet Stream Study Lights up The Night Sky. Composite of 40 images taken with a Nikon D3x and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 14 mm, f/2.8, 59 sec) processed using DxO Pro, and Startrails. (David J Mathre)

One-Year Ago (27-March-2011) — California

Gone to See California. Day 8: Death Valley Spring 2011 Photography Workshop with Michael Mariant.

Early Morning Panorama of the Sand Dunes at Mesquite Flats in Death Valley National Park. I used four images taken during the Spring Workshop in Death Valley last year to create a panorama view. The raw images were initially processed using Capture One Pro and then sharpened using Focus Magic. The first panorama was created using AutoPano Giga. The resulting file was 16205 x 3420 pixels (54″ x 11.4″ @ 300 dpi). The image was enhanced with NIK Color Efex Pro (Pro Contrast) and converted to jpg with Photoshop CS5. When examined closely there was a problem at the transition between images. The second panorama was created using PTGui Pro. In this case the resulting file was 14539 x 3894 pixels (48.5″ x 13 ” @ 300 dpi). The image was enhanced with NIK Color Efex Pro (Pro Contrast) and converted to jpg with Photoshop CS5. The third version was converted to B&W with NIK Silver Efex Pro (Fine Art) and converted to jpg with Photoshop CS5. Images best viewed in full screen mode.

Early Morning Sand Dune Panorama. Composite of 4 images taken with a Nikon D3x and 45 mm f/2.8 PC-E lens (ISO 100, 45 mm, f/16, 1/60 sec). Images processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, AutoPano Giga, NIK Color Efex Pro 2, and converted for web with Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre) — Early Morning Sand Dune Panorama. Composite of 4 images taken with a Nikon D3x and 45 mm f/2.8 PC-E lens (ISO 100, 45 mm, f/16, 1/60 sec). Images processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, AutoPano Giga, NIK Color Efex Pro 2, and converted for web with Photoshop CS5.

One-Year Ago (24-March-2011) — California

Gone to See California. Day 5: Death Valley Spring 2011 Photography Workshop with Michael Mariant.

Comparison of Panorama Programs. There are several commercial programs that will combine digital images to provide panorama views. During a recent Nikonians Academy Workshop in Death Valley, I took several images from Dante’s View that I have now processed with Autopano Giga and PTGui. Photoshop CS5 was not able to successfully process the images into a panorama view. Notice the snow from the previous storm under the cactus in the foreground. The four images were acquired with a Nikon D3x camera and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/16, 1/100 sec).

Panorama from Death Valley National Park. Composite of 4 images taken with a Nikon D3x and 24 mm PC-E lens (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/16, 1/100 sec). Panorama created using PTGui. (David J Mathre) — Panorama from Dantes View in Death Valley National Park. Composite of 4 images taken with a Nikon D3x and 24 mm PC-E lens (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/16, 1/100 sec). Panorama created using PTGui 7816 x 6812 pixels

Panorama from Dante's View, Death Valley National Park. Composite of 4 images taken with a Nikon D3x and 24 mm PC-E lens (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/16, 1/100 sec). Panorama created using AutoPano Giga Pro. (David J Mathre) — Panorama from Dantes View, Death Valley National Park. Composite of 4 images taken with a Nikon D3x and 24 mm PC-E lens (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/16, 1/100 sec). Panorama created using AutoPano Giga Pro 9294 x 7337 pixels

Monday (19-March-2012) — New Jersey

Late-Winter Indoor Nature in New Jersey. Stink Bug.

I have gone the entire winter and only saw a couple of Stink Bugs in the house. So tonight, while cooking dinner this Stink Bug decided to become a target while I was cooking dinner.

Just wondering if anyone is viewing my “Image of the Day” photo blog”. I have not posted anything for the last month, and didn’t get any feedback wondering where I was or if there would be more posts. The blog has been getting 20-40 spam messages a day to older posts, which I do not pass forward. At the same time, I have been posting images almost every day to Google+, mainly to various “Daily Photography Themes“. For these posts, I get many pluses (+) and comments. I am trying to figure out if there is a real audience to “My Image of the Day” photo blog. Please comment either to this blog or by e-mail.

Stink Bug, Indoor Winter Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 100, 105 mm, f/22, 1/60 sec) using a ring flash. (David J Mathre)