Gone to See America 2006 Driving Tour. Day 11: North Cascade National Park, Lake Chelan, Washington.
Five years ago I took the Lady of the Lake ferry from Chelan to Stehekin and back. It was about two weeks since I purchased a Nikon D200 camera. This was my first DSLR, and I barely knew how to use it. I took this image of a female mallard with a 80-400 mm VR lens. I really liked the look, and it became one of the reasons that I have been spending much of my time learning how to be a better photographer. There are three images, the original and two crops. My sister also made a print of this image that I have in my dining room.
Female Mallard Duck on Lake Chelan. Image taken with a Nikon D200 and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 400, 400 mm, f/9, 1/320 sec). (David J. Mathre)Female Mallard Duck on Lake Chelan. Image taken with a Nikon D200 and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 400, 400 mm, f/9, 1/320 sec). (David J. Mathre)Female Mallard Duck on Lake Chelan. Image taken with a Nikon D200 and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 400, 400 mm, f/9, 1/320 sec). (David J. Mathre)
Creepy Crawly Pets. It was getting late, but I found this crawling on my wall fifteen minutes before midnight. Image taken hand-held with a Nikon D3x camera, 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens, and flash.
Creepy Crawly. Scutigera Coleoptrata (House Centipede) — Not a Silverfish. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR Macro (ISO 100, 105 mm, f/16, 1/60 sec) with SB-900 Flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Creepy Crawly. Scutigera Coleoptrata (House Centipede) — Not a Silverfish. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR Macro (ISO 100, 105 mm, f/16, 1/60 sec) with SB-900 Flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Some images of a white moth feeding on wildflowers and a young catbird checking out the wild grapes.
White Moth. Summer in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/8, 1/160 sec). (David J Mathre)White Moth. Summer in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/8, 1/160 sec). (David J Mathre)White Moth. Summer in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/200 sec). (David J Mathre)Young Grey Catbird with Wild Grapes. Summer Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR ens (ISO 560, 300 mm, f/8, 1/125 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define 2, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Star Trails. Following Hurricane Irene, we had a couple of days and nights with very clear skies. You could even see the Milky Way (although a lot dimmer than in locations with less light pollution). I set up a Nikon D3s camera with a 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens to do star trails last night. The settings on the camera were manual (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4, bulb). The exposure time was controlled with a MC-36 itervelometer (delay 5 sec, long 59 sec, interval 1 sec, N —). In camera long exposure noise reduction was turned off. The 1 second interval is required to allow the data to get transferred from the camera to the card, and effectively have one image taken every 60 seconds (1 minute). The MC-36 is required for exposures longer than 30 seconds. After the images were transferred to the computer, the RAW images were processed with Lightroom, and converted to JPG. The JPG images were then processed using Startrails.exe program to make composites. The following images show a single exposure, then startrail composites of 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 120 minutes, and 300 minutes. Some high level clouds came in for the 300 minute (5 hour) image.
North View Star Trails. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 16 mm f/2.8 mm Fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4, 59 sec). Single image before using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)North View Star Trails. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 16 mm f/2.8 mm Fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4, 59 sec). Composite of 2 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)North View Star Trails. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 16 mm f/2.8 mm Fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4, 59 sec). Composite of 5 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)North View Star Trails. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 16 mm f/2.8 mm Fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4, 59 sec). Composite of 15 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)North View Star Trails. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 16 mm f/2.8 mm Fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4, 59 sec). Composite of 30 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)North View Star Trails. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 16 mm f/2.8 mm Fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4, 59 sec). Composite of 60 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)North View Star Trails. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 16 mm f/2.8 mm Fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4, 59 sec). Composite of 120 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)North View Star Trails. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 16 mm f/2.8 mm Fisheye lens (ISO 400, 16 mm, f/4, 59 sec). Composite of 300 images combined using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)
I used the images taken overnight to create a time-lapse video of the night sky. Although faint, you can see the Milky Way in New Jersey. The time-lapse video was created using Adobe PhotoShop CS5 and Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.
