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.


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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.


Monday (09-September-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

It had been overcast and cool much of the day. In the late afternoon we finally got some much needed rain. Not enough, but something. The clouds started clearing from the west and I noticed sunlight coming in my bedroom window. When I looked outside I saw a double rainbow. I ran outside with the first camera I found with a wide-angle lens. Three views — a 360 degree panorama, a little planet view, and an inverse little planet/tunnel view.

Rainbow. 360 Pano View. Composite of 46 images taken with a Nikon Df camera and 19 mm f/4 PC-E lens (ISO 100, 19 mm, f/8, 1/80 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and composite created using AutoPano Giga Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Rainbow. 360 Pano View. Composite of 46 images taken with a Nikon Df camera and 19 mm f/4 PC-E lens (ISO 100, 19 mm, f/8, 1/80 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and composite created using AutoPano Giga Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Rainbow. Little Planet View. Composite of 46 images taken with a Nikon Df camera and 19 mm f/4 PC-E lens (ISO 100, 19 mm, f/8, 1/80 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and composite created using AutoPano Giga Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Rainbow. Little Planet View. Composite of 46 images taken with a Nikon Df camera and 19 mm f/4 PC-E lens (ISO 100, 19 mm, f/8, 1/80 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and composite created using AutoPano Giga Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Rainbow. 360 Tunnel View. Composite of 46 images taken with a Nikon Df camera and 19 mm f/4 PC-E lens (ISO 100, 19 mm, f/8, 1/80 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and composite created using AutoPano Giga Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Rainbow. 360 Tunnel View. Composite of 46 images taken with a Nikon Df camera and 19 mm f/4 PC-E lens (ISO 100, 19 mm, f/8, 1/80 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and composite created using AutoPano Giga Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Electric Energy Used (36.4 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (35.5 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Cloudy much of the day. Still cool enough that the windows can be left open and no need to run the Geothermal HVAC. Overall a net deficit of 0.9 kWh.

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Seven-Years Ago (09-September-2012) — English Channel

Gone to see Europe. Semester at Sea. Fall 2012 Semester Voyage on the MV Explorer. Day 17: At Sea, English Channel.

Dawn and Sunrise aboard the Semester at Sea MV Explorer off the Isle of Wight.

Chalk Cliffs on the Isle of Wrght at Dawn. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 camera and 30-110 mm VR lens (ISO 800, 30 mm, f/4, 1/60 sec). (David J Mathre)
Chalk Cliffs on the Isle of Wrght at Dawn. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 camera and 30-110 mm VR lens (ISO 800, 30 mm, f/4, 1/60 sec). (David J Mathre)
Cargo Ships at Dawn on the English Channel. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/11, 1/60 sec). (David J Mathre)
Cargo Ships at Dawn on the English Channel. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/11, 1/60 sec). (David J Mathre)
Dawn Colors from the deck of the MV Explorer. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 camera and 30-110 VR lens (ISO 100, 55 mm, f/8, 1/60 sec) (David J Mathre)
Dawn Colors from the deck of the MV Explorer. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 camera and 30-110 VR lens (ISO 100, 55 mm, f/8, 1/60 sec) (David J Mathre)
Sun rising above the clouds from the deck of the MV Explorer. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 camera and 30-110 VR lens (ISO 100, 110 mm, f/11, 1/60 sec) (David J Mathre)
Sun rising above the clouds from the deck of the MV Explorer. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 camera and 30-110 VR lens (ISO 100, 110 mm, f/11, 1/60 sec) (David J Mathre)
Shadow Photographer. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/4.5, 1/100 sec). (David J Mathre)
Shadow Photographer. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/4.5, 1/100 sec). (David J Mathre)
Sunrise on the English Channel from the aft deck of the MV Explorer. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). (David J Mathre)
Sunrise on the English Channel from the aft deck of the MV Explorer. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). (David J Mathre)
Chalk Cliffs on the Isle of Wrght at Dawn. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 camera and 30-110 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 110 mm, f/8, 1/60 sec). (David J Mathre)
Chalk Cliffs on the Isle of Wrght at Dawn. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 camera and 30-110 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 110 mm, f/8, 1/60 sec). (David J Mathre)
MV Explorer and Morning Clouds. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)
MV Explorer and Morning Clouds. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)

Sunday (08-September-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

A flock of small yellow birds have been feasting on the flowers and seeds in my wildflower meadows. The first two images I took from inside the house through a window of an immature Pine Warbler and an immature Goldfinch. Later on when I went out to check the back wildflower meadows I found one of the electric fences destroyed. Over 20 of the fence posts were broken near the ground the fence and wires pulled into the woods. Looks like a stampede passed through the meadow.

Immature Pine Warbler(?). Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 640, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/60 sec). (David J Mathre)
Immature Pine Warbler(?). Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 640, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/60 sec). (David J Mathre)
Immature Goldfinch. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 400, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/60 sec). (David J Mathre)
Immature Goldfinch. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 400, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/60 sec). (David J Mathre)
Southwest Wildflower Meadow Fence. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (David J Mathre)
Southwest Wildflower Meadow Fence. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (David J Mathre)
Southwest Wildflower Meadow Fence. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (David J Mathre)
Southwest Wildflower Meadow Fence. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (David J Mathre)

Daily Electric Energy Used (35.5 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (49.1 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Partly cloudy all day. Still cool enough that the windows can be left open and no need to run the Geothermal HVAC. Overall a net surplus of 13.6 kWh.

Weekly Electric Energy Used (288 kWh) and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (307 kWh) for a net surplus of 19 kWh.

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