David's Images of the Day Photoblog
Backyard Autumn Nature in New Jersey
After finishing Saturday chores around the house I noticed a few Monarch butterflies in my wildflower meadow. I spent the rest of the afternoon out with a camera. They need to start migrating soon as it has been getting cold at night.
Home Renovation Project
Back side of the house undergoing renovation. The previous wood deck was removed, and the space is being converted to a stone patio. The roofing, back siding and French doors had been replaced. Solar panels had been installed on the roof, and at the time of this picture were awaiting inspection before being energized. Little Planet (360 degree) view of the project in progress. Also, a slide show of the 36 individual images that were used to produce the Little Planet view.
Backyard Autumn Nature in New Jersey
Painted Lady Butterfly on an orange Zinnia flower in my wildflower meadow.
Backyard Autumn Night Sky in New Jersey
Stacked Waining Gibbous Moon (92%). Image 1: Composite of 10 images image taken with a Nikon D810a camera, 400 mm f/2.8 lens, and TC-E III 2x teleconverter (ISO 200, 800 mm, f/8, 1/125 sec). Image 2: Stacked Waining Gibbous Moon (92%). Composite of 14 images image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/8, 1/125 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro, and the composite generated in Photoshop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum).
Backyard Autumn Nature in New Jersey
In addition to the wildflowers, I also planted some seeds for Water Bottle gourds (also known as Calabash, Opo, or Burma Boo Thee). It took nearly a month for the seeds to germinate inside. As such they didn’t get transplanted outdoors as soon as I would have liked. The plants started slow, but the electric fence kept the deer away. Finally, the vines started growing much faster and trying to climb as high as possible. At this point they produced some very big leaves. The first white flowers didn’t produce any fruit. The flowers opened at night, and closed once it got hot the next day. Finally, some of the flowers did develop some green gourds. When they got to be about the size of zucchini, the fruit turned brown and rotted. Finally, I did get a few that didn’t rot. They are not as long as the 40 inch long ones that my parents grew in Florida last year. The vines are still producing white flowers every night, but it is much too late in the season to expect anything larger. Once I turned off the electric fence, the deer came in and started eating the vines. Next year, I will try to germinate the seeds at least a month earlier, and make sure they get transplanted to a warm spot with lots of sunlight.
