Month: August 2019

Eight-Years Ago (07-August-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature New Jersey.

Young Buck sticking its Tongue out. Note it has “mile-a-minute”  vine stuck to its side. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 70-200 mm f/2.8 VR II lens (ISO 280, 200 mm, f/2.8, 1/200 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5.

How and when the mile-a-minute vine (invasive weeds) were transported into my yard. Within a few years the vines took over much of my backyard – killing many trees. The vines are more aggressive than the wild grape vines and poison ivy vines. It has taken significant effort to reclaim the yard.

Young Buck. Backyard Nature in my Backyard -- Summer in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 70-200 mm f/2.8 VR II lens (ISO 280, 200 mm, f/2.8, 1/200 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Young Buck. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 70-200 mm f/2.8 VR II lens (ISO 280, 200 mm, f/2.8, 1/200 sec). (David J Mathre)


Click on the above image to access individual images in the slideshow.


Tuesday (06-August-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Daily Walkabout: I went out with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens with a 1.4x teleconverter. Butterflies (Silver-spotted Skipper, Tiger Swallowtail, Peck’s Skipper (?), and Monarch), Flowers (Zinna, Sunflower, Blanket Flower, Bee Balm, Lark Spur, Cone Flower, Thistle, Partridge Pea, Coreopsis, and Poppy). One of the Sunflowers had all of its seeds removed by the Goldfinch. One of the Thistles had gone to seed. This is probably the last Poppy of the season. Then for something different, one of my security cameras caught a bat in mid-flight.


Butterflies: Click the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.



Zinnia Flowers: Click the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.



Sunflowers: Click the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.



Various Wildflowers: Click the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.


Daily Electric Energy Used (53.1 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (46.8 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Lots of clouds during the day. Daily net deficit 6.3 kWh.


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Nine-Years Ago (06-August-2010) — California

Gone to See America August 2010 Road Trip. Day 6:  Eastern Sierra Photography Workshop with Michael Mariant. Mono Lake.

The first stop of the morning was to Mono Lake to view the Tufa towers at dawn and in the early morning sunlight. We had to leave Bishop well before sunrise to get there, even then we were a bit late.

Silhouette of Mono Lake Tufa Towers at Dawn. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 50 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 200, 50 mm, f/16, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)
Silhouette of Mono Lake Tufa Towers at Dawn. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 50 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 200, 50 mm, f/16, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)
Silhouette of Mono Lake Tuffa's at Dawn. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 50 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 200, 50 mm, f/16, 1/1250 sec). (David J Mathre)
Silhouette of Mono Lake Tufa Towers at Dawn. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 50 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 200, 50 mm, f/16, 1/1250 sec). (David J Mathre)
Early Morning View of Mono Lake Tuffa's. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 50 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 200, 50 mm, f/16, 1/1250 sec). (David J Mathre)
Early Morning View of Mono Lake Tufa Towers. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 50 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 200, 50 mm, f/16, 1/1250 sec). (David J Mathre)

Nine-Years Ago (06-August-2010) — California

Gone to See America August 2010 Road Trip. Day 6: Eastern Sierra Photography Workshop with Michael Mariant. Bodie State Historic Park.

Images taken on my second visit to Bodie State Park. California maintains the park in a state of arrested decay. The park is a National Historic District, and is known as a wild-west gold mining ghost town. All of the images were converted to monochrome/sepia to fit with the historic nature of the ghost town. The Schoolroom Marm’s hat is a repeat of an image I took in 2008.


Nikon D3s camera with 50 mm f/1.4 lens. Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.



Nikon D3s camera with 200 mm f/2 lens. Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.



Nikon D3x camera with 24 mm f/1.4 lens. Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.


Monday (05-August-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Two fawns with spots and a doe were out early to eat some grass before I mowed the lawn. It was still pretty dark out, and these images were taken with a Fuji X-T3 camera and 200 mm f/2 OIS lens at f/2 and 3200 ISO. I didn’t process the images to remove any noise. I did mow the lawn (time-lapse video). After mowing the yard I went out with the Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens and captured images of butterflies (Tiger Swallowtail, Spicebush Swallowtail, Silver-spotted Skipper, Common Buckeye, Painted Lady, and Zebulon (?) Skipper); Goldfinch eating both Cosmos and Sunflowers; Some very large Bumble Bees on the Sunflower; Kermit and his brothers Kermit the Bullfrogs (including the one-eyed Kermit); and the Deer protesting after I mowed the lawn.


Deer: Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.


Fawn with Spots "Why are you Mowing the Grass???" . Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Fawn with Spots “Why are you Mowing the Grass???” . Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (DAVID J MATHRE)


Butterflies: Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.



Goldfinch: Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.



Bumblebees: Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.



Kermit and his brothers Kermit the Bullfrogs: Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.



Deer: Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.


Daily Electric Energy Used (57.1 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (64.1 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Daily net Surplus 7 kWh. For the week used 399 kWh and produced 441 kWh. Weekly net surplus 42 kWh.

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