January, 2018 - David Mathre Photography

Two-Years Ago (20-January-2016) — Pacific Ocean

Gone to See the World. Semester at Sea Spring 2016 Voyage on the MV World Odyssey. Day 15: Crossing the Pacific Ocean From Hawaii to Japan.

Every day the sunrise at sea is different. It was a windy day, and we were traveling into the wind so the aft decks were safe. At the end of the day, after the sun set there were unique blue colors near the horizon caused by the earth’s shadow with pastel pinks above that are called the “Belt of Venus”. I have seen this before while camping in the mountains, but didn’t know the cause. I really wanted to see if I could capture the colors in an image since they are so subtle.

Individual images in the slide show are available here.

Eleven-Years Ago (20-January-2007) — Norway.

Gone to See Norway 2007 Family Winter Vacation. Day 0: Oslo.

My parents, brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, and aunt all arrived in Oslo from Florida, Minnesota, Ohio and New Jersey for a wintertime vacation in Norway. We checked into a hotel in Oslo pretty much jet-lagged. At 02:00, I woke up hearing some loud music. There was a club just across the street. I don’t know what time clubs close in Oslo, but there was a line of folks waiting for a taxi (I don’t think buses run that late). These images were taken from my hotel room window.

For the next couple of weeks I will be posting images (some new, some previously posted) from the trip as we spent time in Oslo, Bergen, and while on the Hurtigruten Coastal voyage along the coast of Norway. We visited many ports and towns between Bergen and Kirkenes aboard the MS Kong Harald.

Line of folks waiting for a taxi outside a club in Oslo. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 28-70 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 1600, 70 mm, f/2.8, 1/20 sec). Image processed with Capture One Pro and NIK Define. (David J Mathre) — Line of folks waiting for a taxi outside a club in Oslo. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 28-70 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 1600, 28 mm, f/2.8, 1/20 sec). Image processed with Capture One Pro and NIK Define. (David J Mathre)

Friday (19-January-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Winter Nature in New Jersey: Colorful Clouds at Dawn.

The clouds lit up a bit more this morning. A comparison to two methods for creating a panoramic landscape image. The first is my normal workflow where I take a series of portrait images, overlapping about 1/3 from the previous image. I then process the raw images using Capture One Pro, and create the composite panoramic image using AutoPano Giga Pro. Since I am processing the raw images, I have more control over the colors and saturation. [note – click on the image for a wider view]

Dawn Morning Clouds. Winter Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Composite of 10 images taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 16 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/5.6, 1/60 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and the composite generated with AutoPano Giga Pro. (David J Mathre)

The second method uses the in-camera panorama feature of the Fuji XT series cameras. You select the camera mode (landscape or portrait), rotation direction, and range (medium or wide). Set the ISO, white balance, aperture, and shutter speed. Then press the shutter button and start to smoothly rotate, trying to keep the horizon level. When done, the camera processes the images in the cameras as a jpg panorama. Since it is a jpg image, it is important that the camera settings for the exposure and white balance are correct. It is also important to use a fast shutter speed since you are moving the camera as the images are being taken. The colors this example are more saturated (Fuji jpg).

Dawn Morning Clouds. Winter Backyard Nature in New Jersey. In-camera (jpg) panorama taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 16 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/5.6, 1/60 sec). (David J Mathre)

Two-Years Ago (19-January-2016) — Pacific Ocean

Gone to See the World. Semester at Sea Spring 2016 Voyage on the MV World Odyssey. Day 14: Crossing the Pacific Ocean From Hawaii to Japan.

I never figured that I would used the Nikon 1 V3 camera to take panoramic images. Especially since I brought it along on the voyage with only one lens, a 70-300 mm VR telephoto zoom. Its sole purpose was a much smaller and lighter weight system for bird and other wildlife photography so I would not need to lug around a much heavier DSLR camera and even heavier 80-400 mm telephoto zoom lens. The down side was the Nikon 1 V3 system has a smaller and more noisy sensor. During the voyage, I perfected a method to use this camera to take panoramic images. I had been using the in camera panorama mode of the Fuji X-T1, but didn’t like the fact that it only took jpg images and stitched them together in the camera. The method I developed with the Nikon 1 V3 camera uses the continuous burst mode (20 frames/second) coupled with a relatively fast shutter speed (1/250 second). I would focus the camera, then holding the shutter button down smoothly rotate until the camera buffer is full. You can tell when the buffer is full when the camera stops sounding like a machine gun and returns to the normal click, click, click. The raw images are then stitched together via software (AutoPano Giga Pro). This sunrise image was created using this technique. It is a composite of 20 images. Click on the image to view a larger version. The full image is 15687 x 3428 pixels (equiv to 52.3″ x 11.4″ if printed at 300 dpi).

Pacific Ocean Sunrise Panorama viewed from the aft deck of the MV World Odyssey. Composite of 20 images taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 82 mm, f/8, 1/250 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and the panorama created using AutoPano Giga Pro. (David J Mathre)

Individual images in the slide show can be viewed here.

Two-Years Ago (18-January-2016) — Pacific Ocean

Gone to See the World. Semester at Sea Spring 2016 Voyage on the MV World Odyssey. Day 13: Crossing the Pacific Ocean From Hawaii to Japan.

It was a long day. I got up well before dawn, and got a silhouette image of the forward deck statue. Then a so, so sunrise image. In my cabin on the 8th deck was an oil painting, with a brass label and signature on the painting of Claude Monet. I asked one of the art history students if she could identify the painting and if it was the original or a copy? I didn’t really believe that it was the original, but the ship (MV Deutschland) when Semester at Sea wasn’t leasing it as the MV World Odyssey did have a lot of art work (paintings, statues, gold chandeliers, exotic woods, brass fittings, china dining ware, etc). When I got back home, I was able to do a Google image search, and found that it was indeed a painting by Claude Monet “Path Through the Corn at Pourville“. The original is listed as being in a private collection. For sunset, I set up a camera to do a time-lapse sequence on the forward upper deck, which I made into a video. There was a 1980’s disco for the faculty, staff, and life-long-learners (students not invited) in the faculty lounge/bar. To end the day I got an image of the constellation Orion while standing on a moving ship. The sensors on the new cameras are amazing, and can capture images in very low light situations. In the past, I would have had to use a much longer exposure where you would see the stars as jagged lines.

Individual images in the slide show can be viewed here.

The constellation Orion in the night sky from the aft deck of the MV World Odyssey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 35 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 6400, 35 mm, f/16, 1/60 sec). (David J Mathre)