Landscape - David Mathre Photography

Three-Years Ago (17-August-2016) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Night Sky Over New Jersey.

Night Time Thunderstorm. Two minute time-lapse video. Moon, Clouds, Lightning. Approximately 3000 Images taken between midnight and 4 AM from my backdoor using a Nikon D810A camera and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/4, 4 sec). At one point I had to move the camera away from the door during a heavy downpour. Time-lapse video created from the in camera jpg images using Photoshop CC. This was the fourth night in a row that we have had thunderstorms.

Wednesday (14-August-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Daily Walkabout: I went out with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens. By sneaking out the backdoor of the garage I was able to catch a pair of Goldfinch feeding on the Sunflowers before they got spooked and flew away. Then lots of Butterflies (Various Skippers, Monarch, Tiger Swallowtail, Silver-spotted Skipper, Pearl Crescent, Painted Lady, Common Buckeye, and ). I have noticed many of the butterflies have ragged wings. Are they just getting old, or escaped being caught by a bird? It has been several days since I have seen a hummingbird moth.

Click on the above image to access the images in the slideshow.

Daily Electric Energy Used (53.5 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (29.8 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. The sky was cloudy most of the day (0.04 inches of rain) impacted the solar production. Daily net deficit 23.7 kWh.

Current Weather Conditions

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Nine-Years Ago (14-August-2010) — Iowa

Gone to See America August 2010 Road Trip. Day 14: Waterloo, Iowa to Columbus, Ohio.

Nine-years ago, I was returning from a cross country road trip. I stopped a a rest area along the interstate highway an saw where they planted a Prairie Wildflowers display. It had attracted a number of different butterflies. Images taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 24 mm f/1.4 lens or a Nikon D3x camera and 80-400 mm VR lens. At that point I said:

This is what I want my backyard to look like…

I’ve been trying for several years — fighting the deer, mile-a-minute vine, too much rain, too little rain. This year I am getting pretty close to having my own Wildflower Meadow. Images below are what I saw in Iowa back then. If you have been following my Photoblog recently you have seen the Butterflies, Hummingbird Moths, and Wildflowers in my Backyard this spring and summer.

Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.

Monday (12-August-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Night Sky Over New Jersey.

Night three trying to capture some of the Perseid Meteor Shower. Again with two cameras out 1) Nikon D810a camera with a 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 800, 8 mm, f/4, 8 sec) and 2) Nikon D850 with a 19 mm f/4 PC-E lens (ISO 800, 19 mm, f/4, 8 sec). The sky was mostly clear, but the moon was bright. After reviewing the images, I did see a few meteor trails. Mainly in the fisheye images where more of the sky was covered.

Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow

Daily Electric Energy Used (56.1 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (75.2 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Electrical Energy surplus for the day was 19.1 kWh.

Current Weather Conditions

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Sunday (11-August-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Night Sky Over New Jersey.

Night two trying to capture some of the Perseid Meteor Shower. This time with two cameras out 1) Nikon D810a camera with a 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 800, 8 mm, f/4, 8 sec) and 2) Nikon D850 with a 19 mm f/4 PC-E lens (ISO 800, 19 mm, f/4, 8 sec). After reviewing the images, not must luck. In order to process this many images I have four Surface computers running full time and at full power. By full power, I mean all four cores on the Microsoft Surface Studio 2 (with a dedicated video processor) are running hot — close to 100 °C (45 watts). The computer automatically shuts down if these temperatures are exceeded. The Microsoft Surface Book 2 (with a dedicated video processor) has this bad habit when being stressed to run only on the battery until the battery runs out even though it is plugged into an external power supply. So I had to go back and forth between the four computers to monitor how they were doing. My power usage for the day was nearly 4 kWh larger just because of the extra processing work being done by the computers and servers. Just glad it was a bit cooler outside and the sun was out most of the day to charge the solar panels.

Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.

Daily Electric Energy Used (51.5 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (77.1 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Just glad that it was cooler outside, even though the sun was out most of the day. Electrical Energy surplus for the day was 25.6 kWh. The weekly stats 384 kWh used, 440 kWh generated for a surplus of 56 kWh.