Landscape - David Mathre Photography

Saturday (12-March-2011) — New Jersey

Winter Nature in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Delaware River Flooding at Lambertville and New Hope.

When I checked the USGS website this morning I saw that the Delaware river was above flood stage at Lamberville/New Hope. I cross the Delaware River at the Lambertville/New Hope bridge when going to work in Pennsylvania. I went to take a look and took a few images. The river level was high enough to start to flood the Lambertville Inn parking lot and deposit a lot of trash and debris. Every several minutes a tree floated down the river. The Lambertville Inn is built to allow flood water to flow through and not reach the main floors of the building, and have an image looking through this open space. I assume that the Inn was built this way to protect it because of a history of flooding at this location.

Delaware River -- Flood Stage. Lambertville and New Hope Bridge from the Lambertville Inn Parking Lot. Image taken with a Leica D-Lux 5 (ISO 100, 5.1 mm, f/4, 1/1000 sec). (David J Mathre) — Delaware River — Flood Stage. Lambertville and New Hope Bridge from the Lambertville Inn Parking Lot. Image taken with a Leica D-Lux 5 (ISO 100, 5.1 mm, f/4, 1/1000 sec).

Delaware River -- Flood Stage. Lambertville Inn. Image taken with a Leica D-Lux 5 (ISO 100, 10.7 mm, f/4, 1/800 sec). (David J Mathre) — Delaware River — Flood Stage. Lambertville Inn. Image taken with a Leica D-Lux 5 (ISO 100, 10.7 mm, f/4, 1/800 sec).

Delaware River -- Flood Stage. Looking under the Lambertville Inn. Image taken with a Leica D-Lux 5 (ISO 100, 10.7 mm, f/2.8, 1/320 sec). (David J Mathre) — Delaware River — Flood Stage. Looking under the Lambertville Inn. Image taken with a Leica D-Lux 5 (ISO 100, 10.7 mm, f/2.8, 1/320 sec).

Delaware River -- Flood Stage. Lambertville New Hope Bridge. Image taken with a Leica D-Lux 5 (ISO 100, 7.5 mm, f/4, 1/800 sec). (David J Mathre) — Delaware River — Flood Stage. Lambertville New Hope Bridge. Image taken with a Leica D-Lux 5 (ISO 100, 7.5 mm, f/4, 1/800 sec).

One-Year Ago (26-February-2010) — California

Photography Workshop “Yosemite in Winter: A Season of Contrast” with Michael Mariant. Day 2: Yosemite National Park.

The following image is a combination of two NIK tools, HDR Pro and Silver Efex 2. The images were taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/11, various shutter speeds) during a photography workshop one-year ago in Yosemite National Park.

One-Year Ago (25-February-2010) — California

Photography Workshop “Yosemite in Winter: A Season of Contrast” with Michael Mariant. Day 1: Yosemite National Park.

NIK just released version 2 of their Silver Efex Pro plugin for Photoshop and Lightroom. I have been using version 1 of Silver Efex since it was released for converting digital images to monochrome (black & white). The new version has the look and feel of NIK’s HDR plugin. The first image is the original taken a year ago during the “Yosemite in Winter: A Season in Contrast” photography workshop (RAW image processed with Capture One Pro, and sharpened with Focus Magic in Photoshop CS5), the second is the B&W version converted using the new Silver Efex 2.

Yosemite Valley in Winter. Nikonians 2010 Yosemite Winter Workshop Day 1. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 50 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 200, f/8, 1/40 sec). Capture One Pro 6. Adobe Photoshop CS5, Focus Magic. (David J Mathre) — Yosemite Valley in Winter. Nikonians 2010 Yosemite Winter Workshop Day 1. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 50 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 200, f/8, 1/40 sec). Capture One Pro 6. Adobe Photoshop CS5, Focus Magic.

Three-Years Ago (25-February-2008) — Colorado

Elderhostel “Photography in the Southwest” Workshop Day 1. Star Trails.

The following image is a composite of five 30 minute night sky exposures taken during a Elderhostel/Road Scholar photography workshop at Kelly Place outside of Cortez, Colorado in 2008. It was really dark other than the Christmas lights at the main building, and you could see a lot of stars in the sky. I moved the tripod as far away from the lights as possible and decided to do this series with a fisheye lens that would give a 180° field of view. The five images were combined using Startrails. This program is old (only works with jpg or 8-bit tif files) but works better than when I try to merge the images as layers in Photoshop.

Winter night sky looking north at Kelley's Place near Cortez, Colorado. Composite of four images taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/2.8, 30 min). (David J Mathre) — Winter night sky looking north at Kelley’s Place near Cortez, Colorado. Composite of four images taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/2.8, 30 min). (David J Mathre)

Individual images in this slide show can be viewed here.

Wednesday (02-February-2011) — New Jersey

Winter Nature in New Jersey: Freezing Rain.

The storm was forecasted. The township and the power company sent e-mail warnings for everyone to be prepared. When I woke up the power was going off and on, and finally at about 08:30 stayed off. I don’t know how long the power will be off and if I will be sleeping in the RV tonight where I have a propane heater. In the morning I took a number of images with a Leica D-Lux 5 camera. Later as it warmed and turned to rain, ice and branches started falling. There will be a lot to clean up this spring.

Individual images from this slide-show can be viewed here.