Seven-Years Ago (12-September-2012) — Belgium

Gone to see Europe. Semester at Sea. Fall 2012 Semester Voyage on the MV Explorer. Day 20: Antwerp, Belgium.

Voetgangerstunnel is a pedestrian (and bicycle) tunnel  under the Scheldt River.  I made a time-lapse video going through the tunnel where I carried a Nikon 1V1 camera with a 10 mm f/2.8 lens on a monopod. The camera was set to automatically take an image every 5 seconds. Light levels were low, and I had to hope each image would be in focus. Once I was on the other side of the river I got an image of the MV Explorer with the Antwerp Cathedral in the background.

Escalator at the Voetgangerstunnel Under the Schelde River in Antwerp, Belgium. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 400, 24 mm, f/2.8, 1/30 sec) (David J. Mathre)
Escalator at the Voetgangerstunnel Under the Scheldt River in Antwerp, Belgium. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 400, 24 mm, f/2.8, 1/30 sec) (David J. Mathre)
M/V Explorer Docked in Antwerp, Belgium. From Across the Schelde River. Image taken with a Nikon D800 and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 50 mm, f/11, 1/200 sec) (David J Mathre)
M/V Explorer Docked in Antwerp, Belgium. From Across the Scheldt River. Image taken with a Nikon D800 and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 50 mm, f/11, 1/200 sec) (David J Mathre)

Ten-Years Ago (12-September-2009) — Canada

Gone to See North America Road Trip. Day 22: Anchorage to Burwash Landing on the Alaska-Canada Highway. Yukon, Canada.

Rather taking the Alaska Marine Highway ferry back, I decided to drive the Alaska-Canada highway. The summer travel season was over so there was very little traffic on the highway. I spent the night at a RV spot in Burwash Landing along Lake Kluane. There was a derelict boat behind my RV site next to the lake. The image of the boat seemed dull, so I played around with some of the image processing software packages ending up with a surrealistic photo art version of the derelict boat.

Derelict Boat at Burwash Landing, Yukon Canada. On Kluane Lake along the Alaska Canada Highway. Image taken with a Nikon D300 and 14-24 mm lens (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/8, 1/30 sec) (David J Mathre)
Derelict Boat at Burwash Landing.  Image taken with a Nikon D300 and 14-24 mm lens (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/8, 1/30 sec) (David J Mathre)
Derelict Fishing Boat HDR at Burwash Landing, Yukon Canada. On Kluane Lake along the Alaska Canada Highway. Composite of 3 images taken with a Nikon D300 and 14-24 mm lens (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/8). HDR Processed with Photomatix Pro. (David J Mathre)
Derelict Fishing Boat HDR at Burwash Landing. Composite of 3 images taken with a Nikon D300 and 14-24 mm lens (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/8). HDR Processed with Photomatix Pro. (David J Mathre)

Wednesday (11-September-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

To keep the deer out of the wildflower garden next to the house, I have added a 10 foot tall Air Puppet. I have it set to run for 1 minute every 15 minutes all night. Unfortunately, I turned it off too early in the morning, and then didn’t turn it on again until too late in the afternoon. The two videos from my security cameras show the fawns feasting on the wildflowers inside the electric fence.

Daily Electric Energy Used (51.2 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (56.1 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Clouds in the morning but more sun in the afternoon. I had to turn the Geothermal HVAC system on to cool the house. Overall a net surplus of 4.9 kWh.

Current Weather Conditions

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Tuesday (10-September-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

The deer are getting bolder and getting closer to the house. Here a doe is just outside my patio. The buck with a rack of antlers is next to the back wildflower meadow. I am guessing he got his antlers caught in the electric fence and panicked destroying a section of the electric fence. These images were all taken through a window impacting sharpness.


Daily Electric Energy Used (40.5 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (38.7 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Cloudy much of the day. Starting to warm up outside. Overall a net deficit of 1.8 kWh.


Current Weather Conditions

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Ten-Years Ago (10-September-2009) — Alaska

Gone to See North America Road Trip. Day 20: Alaska Railroad – Denali to Anchorage, Alaska. (Day 6: Nikonians ANPAT 9).

We were very fortunate on this trip to see Mount Denali five days in a row. As the tallest mountain in North America, it creates its own weather and often is obscured by clouds for days at a time. The first set of images are of Mount Denali. They were taken while riding the Alaska Railroad train back to Anchorage from the Observation car. I didn’t posted them in the past because they were out of focus and blurry. Photographer error — I used shutter-priority mode  with a high shutter speed (1/1000 or 1/2000 sec) with the ISO set to 100. This resulted in the aperture being being nearly wide open, which meant a narrow range of distances in focus. The 45 mm f/2.8 PC-E lens is a manual focus lens, and I must have moved it off of focusing at infinity. I have reprocessed the images with Capture One Pro and Topaz Focus AI. I am very impressed with how much detail the Topaz Focus AI program was able to recover.

The next set of images are landscape views from the train. The same camera and lens, but set to aperture-priority with the aperture set at f/11, and auto ISO. These images were sharper, and did not need to be reprocessed. In some of the images you see the old telegraph poles. Although the wire had been removed years ago to recover the copper, the glass insulators are still there.

Finally, a time-lapse video (sort of) documenting the group on the train. All images taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 16 mm  fisheye lens. Two minutes in length.


Click on the above image to access my PhotoShelter gallery with the individual images in the following slideshow.



Click on the above image to access my PhotoShelter gallery with the individual images in the following slideshow.