Category: Photo Techniques

Wednesday (02-October-2019) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Daily walkabout with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens. It was very hot and a bit windy. The wildflower meadow with Marigold flowers was still filled with Monarch, Painted Lady, and Common Buckeye butterflies. The deer don’t like Marigolds. The temperature is supposed to drop forty degrees and rain tomorrow. We will see how many butterflies are still around then. The Monarch butterflies should be leaving for Mexico pretty soon.




Individual images from the slideshows can be viewed here.

Daily Electric Energy Used (65.8 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (41.3 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. More sun and very hot outside. The Geothermal HVAC used 14.1 kWh for cooling. The new hydroponic gardens used 8.7 kWh. Overall a net deficit of 24.5 kWh.

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Tuesday (01-October-2019) — New Jersey

Autumn Indoor Nature in New Jersey.

I saw a relatively small black Spider caught a larger Crane Fly for breakfast.

Spider feeding on a Crane Fly. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens + 1.4x teleconverter (DAVID J MATHRE)
Spider feeding on a Crane Fly. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens + 1.4x teleconverter (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Electric Energy Used (54.3 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (41.6 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. More sun in the afternoon and warmer out. The Geothermal HVAC used 6.1 kWh for cooling. The new hydroponic gardens used 8.7 kWh. Overall a net deficit of 12.7 kWh.

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Tuesday (01-October-2019) — New Jersey

Autumn Indoor Nature in New Jersey.

I am expanding my indoor hydroponic garden capacity this year so I can have both fresh vegetables and greens as well as wildflowers. Two AeroGarden Farm XL systems were delivered. Some assembly required. I set up the Garmin VIRB-360 camera to record the assembly process for a Time-Lapse video. Unfortunately, one of the boxes was missing the hardware (bolts, cables, control unit). ARRG! I’ve requested the missing items be replaced but haven’t heard from the Support folks from AeroGarden yet so I can finish assembling the 2nd unit.

AeroGarden Farm XL Box One -- Contents Jumbled, and Parts Missing. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 23 mm f/2 lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
AeroGarden Farm XL Box One — Contents Jumbled, and Parts Missing. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 23 mm f/2 lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
AeroGarden Farm XL Box Two -- Contents in Order, and no Parts Missing. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 23 mm f/2 lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
AeroGarden Farm XL Box Two — Contents in Order, and no Parts Missing. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 23 mm f/2 lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Electric Energy Used (54.3 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (41.6 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. More sun in the afternoon and warmer out. The Geothermal HVAC used 6.1 kWh for cooling. The new hydroponic gardens used 8.7 kWh. Overall a net deficit of 12.7 kWh.

Current Weather Conditions

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Tuesday (01-October-2019) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Daily walkabout with a Fuji X-T3 camera and 200 mm f/2 lens. There must have been a hundred Monarch butterflies feeding in my wildflower meadows today. The Monarch butterflies were feeding on Cosmos, Zinnia, Mexican Sunflower, and Marigold flowers. At least one Monarch butterfly was caught, probably by a Praying Mantis. All that was left were the wings on the ground. The Painted Lady butterflies liked the Marigold and Lemon Mint flowers.


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.


Daily Electric Energy Used (54.3 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (41.6 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. More sun in the afternoon and warmer out. The Geothermal HVAC used 6.1 kWh for cooling. The new hydroponic gardens used 8.7 kWh. Overall a net deficit of 12.7 kWh.

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Monday (30-September-2019) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

I’m having a real problem with the deer. They were up on my patio during the night eating my tomato and strawberry plants. The electric fence doesn’t seem to work at keeping them out anymore. The first video is from a security camera in infrared at night, the second video is with a Nikon 1V3 camera through my kitchen window just as the Air Dancer Scarecrow is triggered.

Daily Electric Energy Used (45.8 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (21.6 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Cloudy but cooler out so the Geothermal HVAC was off. The new hydroponic gardens are using 8.7 kWh. Overall a net deficit of 24.2 kWh.

Monthly electric energy used (1457 kWh) and Solar electric energy produced (1261 kWh) for a net deficit of 196 kWh. This is the first month since March where I didn’t produce more via solar.

Monthly Weather (0.99 inches rain).

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