Four-Years Ago (26-September-2007) — Wyoming

Gone to See America 2007 Road Trip. Nikonians ANPAT 7 Day 5: Yellowstone National Park.

Shadow Cowboy and Hat. I saw this hat sitting out in one of the steaming pools in Yellowstone National Park. As I tried to figure out how to make it into a composition for an image I noticed folks shadows pass near the hat as they walked by on the boardwalk . I asked a tall guy with cowboy boots to hold so I could get the image.

Shadow Cowboy and his Hat in a Steam Pool. Yellowstone National Park. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs and 17-35 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/11, 1/30 sec). (David J. Mathre)
Shadow Cowboy and his Hat in a Steam Pool. Yellowstone National Park. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs and 17-35 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/11, 1/30 sec). (David J. Mathre)

Two-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.

Derelict Fishing Boat . Upon completion of ANPAT 9, I started my return trip from Anchorage Alaska through Canada along the Alaska-Canada (ALCAN) highway. The first night I stopped at a RV park in Burwash Landing, Yukon Canada. The RV park is right on the bank of Kluane Lake. I noticed this derelict fishing boat right behind my RV, and thought that it looked interesting. It was overcast, and starting to get dark so I bracketed the exposures. I processed the images with Photomatix Pro, and pushed the saturation to get a colorful autumn look. Even though this may be considered by some as a “highly distorted reality” HDR, I like the effect for this image. I have also included an unprocessed single exposure version for comparison.

Intersting note if you search the net for images in and around Burwash Landing and Lake Kluane you will find many images of this boat, and see how it has decayed over the years.

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 D3 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, Yukon Canada. On Kluane Lake along the Alaska Canada Highway. Composite of 3 images taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 14-24 mm lens (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/8). HDR Processed with Photomatix Pro. (David J Mathre)
Derelict Boat at Burwash Landing, Yukon Canada. On Kluane Lake along the Alaska Canada Highway. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 14-24 mm lens (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/8, 1/30 sec) (David J Mathre)
Derelict Boat at Burwash Landing, Yukon Canada. On Kluane Lake along the Alaska Canada Highway. Image taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 14-24 mm lens (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/8, 1/30 sec) (David J Mathre)

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Five-Years Ago (05-September-2006) — Washington

Gone to See America 2006 Driving Tour. Day 11: North Cascade National Park, Lake Chelan, Washington.

Five years ago I took the Lady of the Lake ferry from Chelan to Stehekin and back. It was about two weeks since I purchased a Nikon D200 camera. This was my first DSLR, and I barely knew how to use it. I took this image of a female mallard with a 80-400 mm VR lens. I really liked the look, and it became one of the reasons that I have been spending much of my time learning how to be a better photographer. There are three images, the original and two crops. My sister also made a print of this image that I have in my dining room.

Female Mallard Duck on Lake Chelan. Image taken with a Nikon D200 and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 400, 400 mm, f/9, 1/320 sec). (David J. Mathre)
Female Mallard Duck on Lake Chelan. Image taken with a Nikon D200 and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 400, 400 mm, f/9, 1/320 sec). (David J. Mathre)
Female Mallard Duck on Lake Chelan. Image taken with a Nikon D200 and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 400, 400 mm, f/9, 1/320 sec). (David J. Mathre)
Female Mallard Duck on Lake Chelan. Image taken with a Nikon D200 and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 400, 400 mm, f/9, 1/320 sec). (David J. Mathre)
Female Mallard Duck on Lake Chelan. Image taken with a Nikon D200 and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 400, 400 mm, f/9, 1/320 sec). (David J. Mathre)
Female Mallard Duck on Lake Chelan. Image taken with a Nikon D200 and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 400, 400 mm, f/9, 1/320 sec). (David J. Mathre)

Sunday (04-September-2011) — New Jersey

Family Portrait Session

I need to redo this with Helicon Focus so I have greater depth of field and the trolls are in focus.

Family Portrait. Father Mother + Trolls. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (ISO 100, 105 mm, f/16, 3 sec) and SB-900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Family Portrait. Father Mother + Trolls. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (ISO 100, 105 mm, f/16, 3 sec) and SB-900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)

Friday (19-August-2011) — New Jersey

Summertime Nature in New Jersey. Sourland Mountain Preserve.

The Sourland Mountain Preserve/Reserve is a local park in Somerset New Jersey. It is near where I live, so I often get to take photowalks to capture what is in season. I haven’t visited recently due to work and all of the rain we have been getting. Based on previous years, this should be a good time for butterflies and dragonflies. I had a chance to to a quick visit on the way home. I took the Nikon D700 camera and 28-300 mm VR that I often have with me in the car. In a little over 1 hour I was able to get images of Yellow and Black Swallowtail Butterflies, Hummingbird Clearwing Moths, a Praying Mantis eating a Hummingbird Clearwing Moth, A carnivorous insect (later identified as a Robber-Fly) that looks like a Dragonfly, but only has one pair of wings, and an orange Caterpillar. This is definitely a good time to visit, and I plan to return tomorrow with a macro lens and bigger telephoto lens.

I need to thank Hans for fixing the photoblog/website after the problems encountered after the security update. There are still some minor issues, but for the most part it appear that everything is working other than thumbnail images for new posts. If you notice any additional problems, let me know.

The other good thing today is that the Drobo Disk array that I ordered last Sunday arrived. I do wish that the Drobo folks had giving me a heads up on the shipping and expected delivery time (standard practice for Amazon, B&H, and most other online retailers).  I was lucky to be home to sign for the delivery. The FedEx guy must have wondered why I was sweating so much, since I just got back from the Sourland Mountain Preserve. The delivery was JIT since I am running out of hard disk storage space. I have been using a combination of Western Digital 1 and 2 TB MyBook storage devices, but have run out of USB and FireWire connections to my computer. The Drobo 800i was easy to set up (with eight 2 TB Western Digital drives) format, and connect to my computer. I am now in the process of transferring the images from my previous storage drives to the Drobo disk array. This will probably take a few days. Once done, I’ll use the previous storage devices as additional off-site backup storage. Until this is complete and I have a chance to update my LightRoom database to the new image locations, I may be a bit slow with new posts.

Black Swallowtail Butterfly on Thistle Bloom. Sourland Mountain Preserve, Summer Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Black Swallowtail Butterfly on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Yellow Swallowtail Butterfly on Thistle Bloom. Sourland Mountain Preserve, Summer Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/2000 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Yellow Swallowtail Butterfly on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/2000 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Butterfly on Thistle Bloom. Sourland Mountain Preserve, Summer Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Butterfly on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Black Swallowtail Butterfly on Thistle Bloom. Sourland Mountain Preserve, Summer Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Black Swallowtail Butterfly on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Hummingbird Clearwing Moth on Thistle Bloom. Sourland Mountain Preserve, Summer Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/1000 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Hummingbird Clearwing Moth on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/1000 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Hummingbird Clearwing Moth on Thistle Bloom. Sourland Mountain Preserve, Summer Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/800 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Hummingbird Clearwing Moth on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/800 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Hummingbird Clearwing Moth on Thistle Bloom. Sourland Mountain Preserve, Summer Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/2000 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Hummingbird Clearwing Moth on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/2000 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Praying Mantis Eating Hummingbird Clearwing Moth. Sourland Mountain Preserve, Summer Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/800 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Praying Mantis Eating Hummingbird Clearwing Moth. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/800 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Robber-Fly This insect only has one pair of wings. Sourland Mountain Preserve, Summer Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Robber-Fly This insect only has one pair of wings. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Robber-Fly Eating Black Wasp.This insect only has one pair of wings. Sourland Mountain Preserve, Summer Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Robber-Fly Eating Black Wasp. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Insect in a Queen Anne's Lace Flower at the Sourland Mountain Reserve. Image taken with a Nikon D700 + 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/2500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Nik Define 2, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Insect in a Queen Anne’s Lace Flower Image taken with a Nikon D700 + 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/2500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Nik Define 2, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)

GPS: N40 28.135 W74 41.962