Month: December 2012

Thursday (06-December-2012) — New Jersey

Backyard Late Autumn Early Morning Sky: Last Quarter Moon.

It has been a long, but mainly productive day. I got up very early to get a picture of the last quarter moon. I wanted to try out photography of the moon through a 500 mm telephoto lens using the Nikon 1 V1 camera. Because of the smaller size of the image sensor vs. a 35 mm (FX in the Nikon digital world) the effective field of view with this setup is equivalent to using a 35 mm camera with a 1350 mm lens (~2.7x). Since the N1V1 camera does not have a mirror (the mirror in a DSLR needs to move out-of-the-way when taking pictures) and has an electronic shutter mode — there is no mirror slap or shutter motion when taking pictures. This is important when taking pictures through large telephoto lenses where any motion or vibration will blur the image. I had hopes that this would help to get a sharp image of the moon. One limitation with the N1V1 with the FT1 adapter is that it can only autofocus through the center autofocus sensor. For this image I manually focused the lens (and set the camera to manual focus so it would not try to autofocus before releasing the electronic shutter). I used the remote (IR) shutter release so I would not be adding additional vibration to the system. I was impressed with the result. I did take several images trying different settings, and this was one of the better ones.

Last Quarter Moon, Late Fall in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 camera, FT1 adapter, and 500 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 100, 500 mm, f/4, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)
Last Quarter Moon, Late Fall in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 camera, FT1 adapter, and 500 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 100, 500 mm, f/4, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)

Wednesday (05-December-2012) — New Jersey

Indoor Autumn Nature in New Jersey: Cricket Dance.

A few days ago I noticed a number of crickets in my basement. They are a silent variety as I haven’t heard any chirping. Once I get them identified, I’ll figure out if they are harmful or if I just ignore them. For now they are a good subject for a time-lapsed video. I set up a camera and flash to take an image every 15 seconds overnight.

Monday (03-December-2012) — New Jersey

Late Fall Backyard Nature in New Jersey: Deer.

The deer are very skittish right now, between rutting season and hunting season. There were a few does in the backyard late Sunday afternoon. As soon as I got out onto the back deck to try to get some images, there was a series of shotgun blasts in the distance. White tail up and the deer quickly took off. I thought that hunting wasn’t permitted on Sundays for those of us that like to go walking in the woods.

I processed the raw image with a trial version of Capture One Pro 7, and then converted it using Nik Silver Efex Pro. The new version of Capture One is going to take some getting used too — some new features, but also some idiosyncrasies that will take some time to understand.

Late Fall Doe. Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 100, 600 mm, f/4, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 7 and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2. (David J Mathre)
Late Fall Doe. Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 100, 600 mm, f/4, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 7 and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2. (David J Mathre)
Late Fall Doe. Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 100, 600 mm, f/4, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 7 and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2. (David J Mathre)
Late Fall Doe. Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 100, 600 mm, f/4, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 7 and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2. (David J Mathre)

Sunday (02-December-2012) — New Jersey

Late Autumn Indoor Nature in New Jersey: Dead Mouse in the Basement.

A month ago, just after hurricane Sandy I checked to make sure that there wasn’t any water in the basement. I did see that the mouse/rat poison trays were empty. I also saw a large number of Crickets and House Centipedes. I also thought that I saw something moving fast out of the corner of my eye, but couldn’t be sure if it was a mouse. I placed several new poison trays in the basement just to be sure. 30-October-2012 This was the first time that I had been in the basement since going on the Fall 2012 Semester at Sea Voyage and my October road trip to attend the Nikonians ANPAT 12 trip in New Mexico.

As I mentioned yesterday, I have been setting up and re-configuring my home office. The label printer I have requires a com port connection to a computer, however neither of my current computers have com ports. I ordered a USB com port converter on Amazon that arrived in 2 days. When I tried to set up the label printer with the new USB com port, the printer didn’t work. Actually, no lights to indicate that it was even getting power. Rather than just throwing the label printer out (note – in New Jersey, I can’t just dump it in the trash – but need to bring it to a recycling center that is only open once a week) I opened it up and found that a fuse was blown. So, where can I find a fuse?

Back to the original story, I went down to the basement to see if I had the right fuse in my electronics parts collection. Sitting on my bench, I found this dead mouse. I guess that the new batch of poison is working. When I took this picture, I also saw that there is a war going on between the crickets and the house centipedes. I think I am going to set up a camera & flash to see if I can get a time-lapsed view of this indoor wildlife conflict.

Well, since I didn’t find the fuse I needed, I ordered one (actually pack of 5) on Amazon. It should get here in two days. We will see if my old “fix it” electronic days still work. Problems with the 20-year-old Yamaha AX-550 Stereo Amplifier for another day.

Dead Mouse in the Basement. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens with a SB-900 flash (ISO 200, 105 mm, f/11, 1/60 sec). (David J. Mathre)
Dead Mouse in the Basement. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens with a SB-900 flash (ISO 200, 105 mm, f/11, 1/60 sec). (David J. Mathre)

Saturday (01-December-2012) — New Jersey

First of December.

I haven’t posted anything for the last several days. I am still trying to get it into my head that I “retired” from my day job. I do not miss the 3+ hours commuting. Now that I am done with the Fall 2012 Semester at Sea voyage, the road trip to New Mexico for Nikonians ANPAT 12, recovered from the Hurricane and Nor’easter, and completed backing up all of the images from the trips (including having to upgrade my digital storage) – it is time to develop a new daily routine.

One of the first things that I realized was that the workspace I was using at home is not really suited for the image processing part of my photography workflow. For right now this meant moving the image processing and printing into what was my dinning room and re-optimizing the other workspace for home office activities. As I have been moving things around, I am finding 20 years of dust behind furniture that has not been moved since I moved into the house. There are several other major and minor renovation projects inside the house. Right now I am putting together a project plan and prioritization so I start working through these projects. This itself will keep me busy for some time. Several hours a day are devoted to reviewing and keyword indexing images as well as processing and printing images. Over the last week, I finally have had time to start posting images on several Daily Photography Themes on Google+. I need to include time for composing and posting on my “Images of the Day Photoblog”.

I now have time to spend reading books again. I got a new set of glasses specifically for reading, which helps. Right now I am re-reading Olivia Manning’s “Fortunes of War” Volume I “The Balkan Trilogy” and Volume II “The Levant Trilogy”. As I read this there are many places I would like to see in eastern Europe and the Middle East. I also have rediscovered music. As I have been moving things around the house, I found 100’s of vinyl albums and CD’s – many I didn’t even remember owning. Subject of another post will be what it took to re-establish a stereo system to play and listen to this music. Also, what it takes in this digital era to convert old analog recordings to current digital recordings. I haven’t had a working turntable for 25+ years, and it is hard to believe that CD’s are now considered “old technology”. I have the same issue with how I want to deal with a box of my old “film” based photographs. I am also starting to go see movies again.

I am looking forward to the Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage on the M/V Explorer. I am also looking at options to go to Norway or Alaska to photograph the Northern Lights this winter. There is still a lot that I need to do as the year comes to a close and as I plan my new life going forward.

Brussels Waffle on the Streets of Brussels While Waiting for the Bus. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/2.8, 1/30 sec). (David J Mathre)
Brussels Waffle on the Streets of Brussels While Waiting for the Bus. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/2.8, 1/30 sec). (David J Mathre)