Month: July 2015

Three-Years Ago (31-July-2012) — Pennsylvania

Last Day at Merck.

I’ve now been retired from Merck for three years. I worked at Merck in Rahway, New Jersey; Boulder, Colorado; and West Point, Pennsylvania for over 27 years. In the three years since I retired I have visited 27 different countries (several more than once) and 44 states. I have been at sea for two Semester at Sea, Enrichment Voyages;  two Semester at Sea, Semester Voyages; and two Hurtigruten voyages (one in Norway, and one to Antarctica). I also returned to Argentina and Chile for a photography trip with Thom Hogan, and did two Iceland photography safari’s (one summer, one winter) with Mike Hagen. During this time I have taken over 800K images. Not all of the images have made it into my posts yet…

Kathy, my administrative assistant in my empty office on my last day of work at Merck. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera. (David J Mathre)
Kathy, my administrative assistant in my empty office on my last day of work at Merck. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera. (David J Mathre)

 

Four-Years Ago (31-July-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Summer Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey.

Star Trails taken by three cameras. (1) Looking North: Nikon D3s camera and 24 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 400, 24 mm, f/4, 30 sec). (2) Looking South: Nikon D3 camera and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 400, 24 mm, f/4, 30 sec). (3) Looking South and Up: Nikon D3x camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 400, 14 mm, f/4, 30 sec). One hour composite star trail images. Dew settled on the 14-24 mm lens making the center of the image darker and making it look like there are few stars.




Individual images from the slide shows can be viewed here.

Seven-Years Ago (31-July-2008) — Colorado

Summer Nighttime Sky Over Colorado.

Star trails from my room at the Marriott Residence Inn in Boulder, Colorado. Composite of 180 images taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/5.6, 30 sec exposures). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro 8, and combined using Photoshop CC 2014 (scripts, statistics, maximum). Note that these images were taken using the in-camera intervalometer and noise reduction so for every minute, only 30 seconds of exposure. I’ve learned how to do it better since then — using an external intervalometer and doing the noise reduction post processing.

Star trails from my room at the Marriott Residence Inn in Boulder, Colorado. Composite of 180 images taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/5.6, 30 sec exposures). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro 8, and combined using Photoshop CC 2014 (scripts, statistics, maximum). (David J Mathre)
Star trails from my room at the Marriott Residence Inn in Boulder, Colorado. Composite of 180 images taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/5.6, 30 sec exposures). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro 8, and combined using Photoshop CC 2014 (scripts, statistics, maximum). (David J Mathre)

One-Year Ago (30-July-2014) — Baltic Sea

Gone to See Europe 2014. Day 60: Semester at Sea, Summer 2014 Semester Voyage. At Sea.

Summer Evening at Anchor on the Baltic Sea near Sweden.  Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/6.3, 1/1600 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro Nik Define, and Photoshop CC.

Summer Evening at Anchor on the Baltic Sea near Sweden.  Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/6.3, 1/1600 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro Nik Define, and Photoshop CC. (David J Mathre)
Summer Evening at Anchor on the Baltic Sea near Sweden.  Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/6.3, 1/1600 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro Nik Define, and Photoshop CC. (David J Mathre)

Two-Years Ago (30-July-2013) — Iceland

Gone to See Iceland 2013 Photography Safari with Mike Hagen. Day 1: Golden Circle.

The Bubble is About to Burst. Strokkur, a geyser in the Haukadalur geothermal area beside the Hvítá River in Iceland. Images taken with a Nikon D4 camera and 80-400 mm VRII lens (ISO 100, 80 mm, f/11, 1/320 sec). The great thing about this geyser is that it erupts several times an hour, and you can get to relatively close safe distance. All of the Golden Circle bus tours stop here, so it can be crowded.