Category: People

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Tuesday (01-September-2020) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

The immature Baltimore Oriole is willing to stand up to a gang of Blue Jay’s.

Morning at the Birdfeeders: Mourning Dove, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Gray Catbird, House Finch, Song Sparrow, Baltimore Oriole, and Northern Cardinal.


Morning at the Birdfeeders. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Contact me if you are interested in a Time-lapse Video of the Morning at the Birdfeeders. My setup for the birdfeeder images is a Nikon D850 camera and 200 mm f/2 VR lens set to take one image every 5 seconds over a 5 hour period (~3600 images). The new time-lapse video format is 720p (1080 x 720 pixels) and 1 frame/second. The length of the video is about 1 hour in a 1 GB MP4 file. The previous time-lapse videos of the birdfeeders were at 12 frames/second, and to be honest were too fast to identify the birds.

I went out with the DR Power Brush Mower to mow the wildflower meadows. Not much is blooming anymore, and the weeds including the invasive “mile-a-minute” vine are starting to take over. I attempted to capture the exercise with a Garmin VIRB-360 camera both on a fixed tripod, and a tripod I carried over my head. While mowing the sections I kept finding adult Praying Mantis which I tried to move away from the mower. The Praying Mantis are “good” bugs.


Saving the Praying Mantis. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

The fawns still have dots. While cooking dinner I saw these two in one of the wildflower meadow sections that I didn’t mow. You can see that the weeds have taken over. The deer seem to be immune to the electric fence.


Fawns with Spots inside the electric fence. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (51.2 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (32.5 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Lots of clouds. A deficit of 18.7 kWh.

Monday (31-August-2020) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

The Theta Z1 camera has Dual 3 mm fisheye lenses and uses two back to back 1.0-inch back illuminated CMOS image sensors with an output size of approximately 23MP (6720×3360). The camera can be programed to collect images in JPG or Raw (as DNG) format. The JPG images are transformed in the camera from two 360 degree fisheye images to a single 360 degree equirectangular format (6720×3360 pixels). The DNG images are the two individual 360 degree fisheye images (6720×3360 pixels). In order for the DNG images to be used the two 360 degree fisheye images need to be transformed to a single equirectangular image. Ricoh provides the Theta program (runs on Windows 10) that can be used to view and rotate the 360 degree images. No save or output capabilities. They also provide Ricoh Theta stitcher plugin for Lightroom that can be used to transform the dual fisheye images into an equirectangular image. You have to export the file to the Theta stitcher to do the transformation (one at at time), no obvious batch transform capability. I found that I could do batch transformations with the PTGUI.exe

Backyard Sumertime Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Theta Z1 360 camera (DAVID J MATHRE)
JPG 360 degree equirectangular format image out of the  Theta Z1 360 camera (DAVID J MATHRE)
Backyard Sumertime Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Theta Z1 360 camera (DAVID J MATHRE)
DNG dual fisheye image format out of the  Theta Z1 360 camera (DAVID J MATHRE)
Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Theta Z1 360 camera (DAVID J MATHRE)
TIF 360 degree equirectangular format image transformed from Theta Z1 360 camera DNG image using PTGUI.  (DAVID J MATHRE)
Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Theta Z1 360 camera (DAVID J MATHRE)
TIF 360 degree equirectangular format image transformed from Theta Z1 360 camera DNG image using PTGUI then edited with Capture One Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Theta Z1 360 camera (DAVID J MATHRE)
DNG dual fisheye image format out of the  Theta Z1 360 camera then edited with Capture One Pro (DAVID J MATHRE)
Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Theta Z1 360 camera (DAVID J MATHRE)
Above DNG dual fisheye image format out of the  Theta Z1 360 camera  edited with Capture One Pro then converted to TIF 360 degree equirectangular format using PTGUI. (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Electric Energy Used (41.3 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (32.0 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Lots of clouds. A deficit of 9.7 kWh.

Wednesday (26-August-2020) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

The Montgomery Township work crew finally came back to pick up the remaining logs and brush from the two downed Oak trees at the top of my driveway. They pushed the remains from the tree on the west side back upright into the whole created by the root ball. They also cut the remains of the tree on the east side that was laying over the wall into the street. There is some damage to the rock wall. The panorama image shows the current status of the front driveway (note the tree crews in the image are not the Township, but another crew working on the damage across the street). While the township crews were working I mowed the lawn (time-lapse video). Later in the afternoon, I took some images of the Coreopsis and Zinnia flowers in the soft pots on my patio garden.

Isaias Aftermath -- Cleanup. Composite of 32 images taken with a Nikon N1V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Isaias Aftermath — Cleanup. Composite of 32 images taken with a Nikon N1V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)


Wildflowers in Soft Pots on the Patio. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.


Wildflowers in Soft Pots on the Patio. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (51.6 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (61.6 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sun, clouds, and not as hot outside. A surplus of 10.0 kWh.

Monday (24-August-2020) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

I spent the morning working on the patio (time-lapse little planet video). The Grow Towers are doing well. I’ve been harvesting large radishes, broccoli rabe, Swiss chard, and dill. Zinnia and Coreopsis are blooming in the outer cloth pots. I planted Marigold and Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) in the inner set of cloth pots. No Marigold flowers yet, and five of the Roselle are growing fast. Several volunteer tomatillo and/or ground cherry plants also sprouted in the inner set of cloth pots.

A herd of deer passed through the backyard just before it started to rain. Then before the sun went down I noticed a partial double rainbow.


Deer in the Backyard. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.


Partial Double Rainbow. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (62.7 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (62.0 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. More sun and a bit of rain. A deficit of 0.7 kWh.

Saturday (22-August-2020) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

While out mowing the too high grass, I came across some ripening May Apples. The leaves had all been nibbled off by the local deer. Apparently, the deer don’t like the May Apple fruit. I’ve been told that turtle like to eat them, and that is how the seeds get dispersed. I haven’t seen any turtles in the yard this year.

May Apple. Image taken with a Nikon N1V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
May Apple. Image taken with a Nikon N1V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
May Apple. Image taken with a Nikon N1V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
May Apple. Image taken with a Nikon N1V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (DAVID J MATHRE)

Afternoon at the Birdfeeders: Mourning Dove, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Gray Catbird, American Goldfinch, Chipping Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Brown-headed Cowbird, and Northern Cardinal.


Afternoon at the Birdfeeders. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (68.6 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (62.6 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sun, clouds, and hot outside. A deficit of 6.0 kWh.