Seven-Years Ago (22-December-2011) — Florida

Gone to See America. December 2011 Florida Road Trip. Day 3: Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

A Reclusive American Bittern with a Fish at a marsh along Black Point Wildlife Drive. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 500 mm f/4 VR II lens (ISO 180, 500 mm, f/4, 1/250 sec).

alt_title. (David J Mathre)
OK, I Caught This Fish — Now How Do I Swallow It. A Reclusive American Bittern Caught Fishing along Black Point Wildlife Drive in Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 500 mm f/4 VR II lens (ISO 180, 500 mm, f/4, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)

Tuesday (11-December-2018) — New Jersey

Home Cooking. Savory Herb Loaf.

Savory Herb Loaf Recipe: Sprouted Wheat Flour (1 cups); Whole Wheat Flour (1 cup); Bread Flour (1 cup);  Dill Seed (1 tbs);, Celery Seed (1 tbs), Poppy Seed (1 tbs); Dill Weed (1 tbs); Oregano (1 tbs); Parsley (1 tbs); Garlic Powder (1 tbs); Chives (1 tbs); Flax Oil (2 tbs); Salt (1 tsp); Egg (1 large); Brown Sugar (2 tbs); Water (1 1/3 cup). Above ingredients added to Panasonic Bread Bakery. Yeast (2 tsp) added to yeast hopper and the unit set for Whole Wheat Bread (Rapid) and started. Three hours later, I removed the loaf of bread. It rose to well above the top of the pan — and the house smelled of herbs. I only let it cool a few minutes before slicing a piece. It was good, but next time I will add a bit less sugar so it doesn’t rise too far.


Individual images from the slide show can be viewed here.

Monday (10-December-2018) — New Jersey

Indoor Nature in New Jersey.

Most of the herbs I planted in a hydroponic garden have sprouted. This is day 10 since I set the system up. It will be interesting to see how big the herbs get. I am going to need a larger system for growing indoor lettuce this winter. A couple of the cactus plants have started to bloom after I moved them indoors for  the winter. The cactus flower images were taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens.



Individual images from the slide shows can be viewed here.

Wednesday (05-December-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Nature in New Jersey.

The black squirrel returned. I took a sequence of images of it eating a nut on my patio. It then jumped up onto the bird feeder. Time to electrify again! After chasing the squirrel away, the birds came back. Including a shy female Northern Cardinal. Later in the afternoon, the Turkey Vultures started showing up. They are spending the nights in the neighborhood. Some in the conifer trees, and some on the roofs of homes. So far they have not tried to roost on my solar panels. The first set of vulture images were taken using a Nikon D5 camera and 600 mm f/4 lens. The image quality is degraded since they were shot from inside through a double pained insulated window. The other Turkey Vulture images were taken with a Fuji X-T3 camera using a brand new Fujicon 200 mm f/2 lens. The Fuji 200 mm f/2 lens is heavy, but not as heavy as the Nikon 200 mm f/2 lens. The Fuji lens is white (to keep it cool when in the sun?), and includes a lens mount that fits onto Arca-Swiss tripod mounts. The Turkey Vulture images taken with the Fuji lens look sharp (all were taken hand-held). I look forward to going out and using this lens some more. It also includes a 1.4x teleconverter that I will need to test.








Three-Years Ago (28-November-2015) — Florida

Gone to See Florida: November Road Trip.

Urban Garden in St. Petersburg. Little Planet view and 360 degree time-lapse video. Images taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and Zeiss 12 mm f/2.8 lens using an Astro 360 degree tripod-head and camera controller.

alt_title. (David J Mathre)
Backyard Urban Garden in St. Petersburg, Florida. Composite of 31 images taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and Zeiss 12 mm f/2.8 lens. (David J Mathre)