Month: September 2020

Friday (25-September-2020) — New Jersey

Early Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Morning at the Birdfeeders: Mourning Dove, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Gray Catbird, House Finch, American Goldfinch, Chipping Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.


Morning at the Birdfeeders. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Contact me if you are interested in a Time-lapse Video of the session at the Birdfeeders. My setup for the birdfeeder images is a Nikon D850 camera and 200 mm f/2 VR lens set to take one image every 5 seconds over a 5 hour period (~3600 images). The new time-lapse video format is 720p (1080 x 720 pixels) and 1 frame/second. The length of the video is about 1 hour in a 1 GB MP4 file. The previous time-lapse videos of the birdfeeders were at 12 frames/second, and to be honest were too fast to identify the birds.

Daily Electric Energy Used (38.4 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (37.8 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Cloudy. Geothermal HVAC system off. A deficit of 0.6 kWh.

Thursday (24-September-2020) — New Jersey

Early Autumn Colorful Clouds at Dawn.

Things seem to be aligned near the spring and autumn equinox that the clouds to the east at dawn light up with intense colors. High level smoke dust from the forest fires out west may also be contributing to the colorful displays this year. I’ve been checking early every morning, but the skies were clear. This morning it was different, so I ran out and disturbed the deer in the backyard to get this panorama (11415 x 4520 pixel = 38″ x 15″ print @ 300 dpi) .

Backyard Panorama: Early Autumn Morning Colorful Clouds. (David J Mathre)
Backyard Panorama: Early Autumn Morning Colorful Clouds. Composite of seven images taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 200, 18 mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro, and AutoPano Giga Pro. (David J Mathre)


Backyard Panorama: Early Autumn Morning Colorful Clouds. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (36.0 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (25.6 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Cloudy day. Geothermal HVAC system off. A deficit of 10.4 kWh.

Wednesday (23-September-2020) — New Jersey

Early Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Morning at the Birdfeeders: Mourning Dove, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Gray Catbird, House Finch, American Goldfinch, Northern Cardinal, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.


Morning at the Birdfeeders. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Contact me if you are interested in a Time-lapse Video of the session at the Birdfeeders. My setup for the birdfeeder images is a Nikon D850 camera and 200 mm f/2 VR lens set to take one image every 5 seconds over a 5 hour period (~3600 images). The new time-lapse video format is 720p (1080 x 720 pixels) and 1 frame/second. The length of the video is about 1 hour in a 1 GB MP4 file. The previous time-lapse videos of the birdfeeders were at 12 frames/second, and to be honest were too fast to identify the birds.

Daily Electric Energy Used (38.0 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (48.5 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny. Geothermal HVAC system off A surplus of 10.5 kWh.

Tuesday (22-September-2020) — New Jersey

Early Autumn Night Sky Over New Jersey.

Fourth consecutive night with dark (relative — this is New Jersey) clear skies. This time Night Sky Star Trails with a Nikon D850 camera with a 10.5 mm f/2.8 DX fisheye lens (ISO 100, 10.5 mm, f/2.8, 30 sec). Note a full frame camera with a DX sensor lens, thus some of the sensor is not used. Star Trail composite image created with the jpg “out-of-the-camera” image files using PhotoShop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum). A lot fewer jet trails than in previous years. Clouds started coming in during the early morning hours.

alt_title. (David J Mathre)
Nighttime sky over New Jersey. Composite of images (21:45-04:29) taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 10.5 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 100, 10.5 mm, f/2.8, 30 sec). (David J Mathre)


Night Sky Composite Images (first one 45 min, others 60 min). Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (36.4 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (50.6 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny with a few clouds. Geothermal HVAC system off. A surplus of 14.2 kWh.

Monday – (21-September-2020) — New Jersey

Last Summertime Night Sky Over New Jersey.

Autumn is coming. Getting colder outside allowing me to open the windows and turn off the Geothermal HVAC system. Third consecutive night with dark (relative — this is New Jersey) clear skies. Repeat Night Sky Star Trails with a Leica SL2 camera with 16-35 mm lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/4, 60 sec). This time portrait mode. Same number of images (152) as last night before the batteries failed. Do wish there was a way to provide external power to the camera for longer overnight sessions. Star Trail composite image created with the jpg “out-of-the-camera” image files using PhotoShop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum).

alt_title. (David J Mathre)
Star Trails looking south from my backyard patio. Composite of 152 image taken with a Leica SL2 camera and 16-35 mm lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/4, 60 seconds). JPG images processed with PhotoShop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum). (David J Mathre)

Daily Electric Energy Used (40.1 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (53.3 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny with a few clouds. Geothermal HVAC system off. A surplus of 13.2 kWh. Stove left on boiling water for tea… Or an expensive way to humidify the house.