Category: Fine Art

Views of art from around the world

One-Year Ago (04-November-2016) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Nature in New Jersey: Red Leaves, Moon, and Star Trails.

Bright red autumn colors with some bokeh at sunrise. Japanese Maple leaves before they drop. Tree was almost killed by wild grape and poison ivy vines a few years ago, but since they were removed the tree has recovered. Image taken with a Nikon DF camera and 300 mm f/4 lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/4, 1/400 sec).

This was one of the first shots with my repaired Nikon DF camera. The shutter buckled when I was in Antarctica with less than 100K images. Unfortunately, the camera was out of warranty so I didn’t send it in for repair for a long time.

Bright red Japanese Maple leaves. Autumn backyard nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon DF camera and 300 mm f/4 lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/4, 1/400 sec). (David J Mathre)
Bright red Japanese Maple leaves. Autumn backyard nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon DF camera and 300 mm f/4 lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/4, 1/400 sec). (David J Mathre)

Composite of the waxing crescent moon (~20%). Images taken with a Nikon D800 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 400, 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/1250 sec). Images processed with Capture One Pro, and Photoshop CC.


Night sky with jet and star trails. Composite of 120 images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 200, 14 mm, f/5.6, 120 sec). Images processed with Capture One Pro, and Photoshop CC (scripts/statistics/maximum).

Night sky and star trails looking south. Composite of 120 images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 200, 14 mm, f/5.6, 120 sec) (David J Mathre)
Night sky and star trails looking south. Composite of 120 images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 200, 14 mm, f/5.6, 120 sec) (David J Mathre)

One-Year Ago (24-October-2016)

Backyard Autumn Nature in New Jersey

One of the backyard Nisse found a new mushroom. I don’t often see him out during the day. Composite of 24 focus stacked images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 60mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 200, 60 mm, f/3, 1/640 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro, and the image stack processed with Helicon Focus.

Backyard Nisse with a new autumn mushroom. Composite of 24 focus stacked images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 60mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 200, 60 mm, f/3, 1/640 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro, and the image stack processed with Helicon Focus. (David J Mathre)
Backyard Nisse with a new autumn mushroom. Composite of 24 focus stacked images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 60mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 200, 60 mm, f/3, 1/640 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro, and the image stack processed with Helicon Focus. (David J Mathre)

It was too windy to take wildflower pictures outside, and was about to freeze overnight. So I cut six of the remaining wildflowers (Coreopsis, Cosmos, and Black-eyed Susan) and took them inside to shoot. The images were taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens. Slide show with 6 images.


 

The wildflower garden was successful last year, so I expanded it significantly this year. Some areas worked, others didn’t. The deer and rabbits nibbled at the edges, but left me enough to take a lot of pictures of the wildflowers. I needed to add an electric fence this year. I think my favorites have been the poppies where I tried many times to do time-lapsed videos of them opening in the morning. It will be interesting to see what comes back next spring. I also cleared two more large sections that will be seeded once the ground gets colder.