A late-winter walkabout in my backyard. Fresh snow on the ground. Tracks from a neighbor’s cat in the front yard, and tracks from many deer in the backyard. Based on the droppings, there was not much for the deer to eat. There were birds out. A turkey vulture soaring, a white-throated sparrow, a male house finch. I am not sure if the one with the crossed bill is a female house finch or something else.
Cat tracks in my front yard. Late winter snow in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 80 mm, f/11, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)
Deer tracks in my back yard. Late winter snow in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 80 mm, f/12, 1/640 sec). (David J Mathre)Based on theses remains, not much for a deer to eat at this time of the year. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 400, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec). (David J Mathre)Turkey Vulture in flight. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 400 mm, f/9, 1/320 sec). (David J Mathre)White-throated sparrow on a vine. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 400 mm, f/7.6, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)Male house finch on a vine. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec). (David J Mathre)Crossed-bill/beak finch or female house finch (?) on a vine. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 400 mm, f/11, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)Crossed-bill/beak finch or female house finch (?) on a vine. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 400 mm, f/9, 1/320 sec). (David J Mathre)Crossed-bill/beak finch or female house finch (?) on a vine. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 400 mm, f/10, 1/400 sec). (David J Mathre)Pine cones in the afternoon sun. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 220 mm, f/8, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)
Images from a walkabout in my backyard after a morning rain shower. The deer look like it has been a long winter. These are the birds that spent the winter.
Three scrawny does. Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 360, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)Female northern cardinal in the vines after a morning rain. Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 280, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)Male northern cardinal in the vines after a morning rain. Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec). (David J Mathre)White-throated sparrow in the vines after a morning rain. Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 500, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)
Water droplets on a vine after a morning rain. Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 280, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)
Gone to See Iceland 2014 – Winter Photography Workshop. Day 7: Golden Circle.
Winter View of the Thingvellir (Þingvellir) Church. Thingvellir (Þingvellir) National Park. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 23 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 200, 23 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec).
Winter View of the Thingvellir (Þingvellir) Church. Thingvellir (Þingvellir) National Park. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 23 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 200, 23 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)
I have two sycamore trees that frame my backyard. Theses are a few shots of the sycamore seed balls (pods). One by itself, one that a squirrel is checking out, and the final one of a black crow watching me from the tree. Unfortunately, the limbs on these trees are pretty brittle, and every winter more branches come down. I will see how much they block the solar panels on the south side of the house later this spring as the leaves emerge.
Lone sycamore seed. Late winter backyard nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). (David J Mathre)Squirrel checking out a sycamore seed. Late winter backyard nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 640, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)Crow in a sycamore tree. Late winter backyard nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/800 sec). (David J Mathre)
Gone to See Iceland 2014 – Winter Photography Workshop. Day 6: Golden Circle.
Gullfoss (Golden Waterfall) on a Late Winter Afternoon. One of most popular tourist attractions in Iceland. The first image is a composite of 3 images taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and Zeiss 12 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 200, 12 mm, f/16, 1/80, 1/160, 1/320 sec). Image processed with Google HDR Efex Pro. The second image is a long exposure version. Long Exposure taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and Zeiss 12 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 200, 12 mm, f/16, 9 sec) with a hand-held 10 stop Singh-Ray neutral density filter.
Gullfoss (Golden Waterfall) on a Late Winter Afternoon. One of most popular tourist attractions in Iceland. Composite of 3 images taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and Zeiss 12 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 200, 12 mm, f/16, 1/80, 1/160, 1/320 sec). Image processed with Google HDR Efex Pro. (David J Mathre)Gullfoss (Golden Waterfall) on a Late Winter Afternoon. One of most popular tourist attractions in Iceland. Long Exposure taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and Zeiss 12 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 200, 12 mm, f/16, 9 sec) with a hand-held 10 stop Singh-Ray neutral density filter. (David J Mathre)
I am not providing the name or recommendation for the workshop leaders for this trip. One of the reasons I signed up was the opportunity to photograph Northern Lights from Iceland. In 2013 I got some great images of the Aurora Borealis in Tromsö, Norway and hoped to do the same in Iceland. I arrived in Reykjavik, Iceland two days before the workshop and arranged a private tour with TripsByLocals.com to go Aurora Hunting. It didn’t look promising when we left the hotel (snowing an hour earlier). For the first 2 hours the sky remained mostly overcast. We then found a spot where the sky started to clear, and started to see the Aurora. It was cold and windy, but I found a place behind the van where I could set up a camera on a tripod. I was able to get 80 images which I used to create a time-lapsed video. The moon was almost full, and lit up the snow covered lava field in the foreground. It turned out that this was my only opportunity to get some good images of the Aurora on this trip. My father commented that it was not as good as the images I got in Tromsö last year. The weather for the Iceland workshop did not cooperate – lots of rain and snow with significant cloud cover. On the first day of the workshop we were supposed to fly from Reykjavik to Höfn but the weather in Höfn didn’t cooperate (even though it was sunny in Reykjavik). After spending some extra time waiting in the Reykjavik airport, it was decided that we would fly to Egilsstadir and take a several hour bus ride to Höfn. On the positive side, I got to see some of the Fjords on the east coast of Iceland, and on the negative side I lost a camera battery on the bus ride between Egilsstadir and Höfn when we had to change from a big 55 passenger bus to a smaller van. Once we got to the airport in Höfn we transferred to the van that would be our transportation for the rest of the workshop. Our first stop was the black sand beach on the coast next to the Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon. Every day when the tide goes out, ice that calved from the glacier in the lagoon goes out to sea, then when the tide comes in, the ice lands on the black sand beach. The makes for some great photo opportunities. However, as we arrived the rain started. We could only stay out for about 15 minutes before getting soaked in the cold and windy rain. We then went to Hotel Smyrlabjörg. I stayed at the same hotel last summer. The Icelandic food served at dinner was outstanding. When I went to sleep it was still raining. During the night the wind increased to the point it sounded like a train was passing outside my window. At about 01:30 AM I woke up and could see some stars in the sky outside my window. I went outside to get a look. It was still very windy. Windy to the point that I could barely stand up. I took a couple of pictures, and could see that the Northern Lights were starting – but there was no way I would be able to stay out in the gale force winds. So I went back to bed. The next morning at breakfast our workshop leader was gushing about how great the Aurora was between 03:30 AM and 05:30 AM. Unfortunately, he didn’t bother to wake the majority of the workshop participants even though he stayed out taking images for his portfolio. There were lots of apologies and excuses that he didn’t know what rooms we were in, but we were all staying in adjacent rooms. This turned out to be the one and only night that the Aurora were visible during the workshop. I was lucky to get the one night before the workshop to see and photograph the Aurora. Most of the others that spent thousands of dollars to see and photograph the Northern Lights as part of the workshop were very disappointed.
Cat tracks in my front yard. Late winter snow in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 80 mm, f/11, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)
