Category: Photo Techniques

Friday (05-July-2019) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Something other than just flowers and wildflowers today. I saw my first Clearwing Hummingbird Moth this year feeding on some small blue Forget-me-not flowers. One of my photography mentors once told me that the best image is behind you — so when I turned around I saw my first Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly this year feeding on an orange Zinnia flower. I may not have had the best camera or lens for these subjects, but as someone else said “the best camera is the one in your hand”. I’d been waiting for both the Clearwing Hummingbird Moth and the Swallowtail Butterflies since planting the wildflower meadows earlier this spring. Later in the evening, while sitting on the back patio I saw a real hummingbird and caught a couple of pictures before it flew off. I will be watching for all three the rest of the summer, and will also be on the lookout for the Monarch Butterflies.

Clearwing Hummingbird Moth feeding on Forget-me-not. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Clearwing Hummingbird Moth feeding on Forget-me-not. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Clearwing Hummingbird Moth feeding on Forget-me-not. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Clearwing Hummingbird Moth feeding on Forget-me-not. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Clearwing Hummingbird Moth feeding on Forget-me-not. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Clearwing Hummingbird Moth feeding on Forget-me-not. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Clearwing Hummingbird Moth feeding on Forget-me-not. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Clearwing Hummingbird Moth feeding on Forget-me-not. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Clearwing Hummingbird Moth feeding on Forget-me-not. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Clearwing Hummingbird Moth feeding on Forget-me-not. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Clearwing Hummingbird Moth feeding on Forget-me-not. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Clearwing Hummingbird Moth feeding on Forget-me-not. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly feeding on Zinnia. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly feeding on Zinnia. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly feeding on Zinnia. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly feeding on Zinnia. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly feeding on Zinnia. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly feeding on Zinnia. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly feeding on Zinnia. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly feeding on Zinnia. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Hummingbird. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Hummingbird. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Hummingbird. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Hummingbird. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Power Use (56.5 kWh) from Sense and Solar Production (50.14 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. It was cloudy out much of the day, so I generated less power than the geothermal HVAC system needed to keep the house cool.

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Thursday (04-July-2019) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

For the Fourth of July, I did my walkabout with a Nikon D850 camera and a different macro lens. This time an older Nikon 105 mm f/2.8 VR lens (some of the time with a TC-E III 2x teleconverter). During the night a racoon knocked down a sunflower plant while trying to climb up the birdfeeder. I was specifically looking for insects that are attracted to the flowers and wildflowers. The larger bumblebees like the Cosmos flowers. The Poppies attract honey bees and hoverflies. The hoverflies also like the Chicory. Lots of Poppy images. The other flowers and wildflowers include: Red allium, Black-eyed Susan, Blue Flax, Chicory, Coreopsis, Cornflower, Cosmos, Godetia, Larkspur, Leopard’s bane, Love-in-a-mist, Phlox, Siberian Wallflower, Sunflower, and Zinnia. While out stalking the flowers and insects, I also got images of a young fawn just outside the electric fence and a neighborhood cat.


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



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



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



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


Neighborhood Cat -- was hunting songbirds under the birdfeeder until I came out with the camera. Image taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Neighborhood Cat — was hunting songbirds under the birdfeeder until I came out with the camera. Image taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Power Use (56.5 kWh) from Sense and Solar Production (81.8 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. The sun was out most of the day, so I generated more power than the geothermal HVAC system needed to keep the house cool.

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Wednesday (03-July-2019) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Another hot summer day. Red-bellied Woodpecker at the bird feeder. It likes the sunflower seeds, and is aggressive enough to keep the Blue Jay and Cardinal away. A doe walked by covered with black flies. Some wide views of the wildflower gardens and meadows. Then closeup, macro images of the flowers and wildflowers: Red allium, Black-eyed Susan, Coreopsis, Cornflower, Cosmos, Creeping Daisy, Five spots, Forget-me-not, Godetia, Italian clover, Larkspur, Leopard’s bane, Love-in-a-mist, Phlox, Poppy, Sunflower, Yucca, Zinnia, and several I have not identified. Since it is hotter on the patio where I have my garden towers, the hot peppers are already turning red.

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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


Hot Peppers. Image taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Hot Peppers. Image taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Hot Peppers. Image taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Hot Peppers. Image taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Power Use (61.6 kWh) from Sense and Solar Production (55.4 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. The outside temperatures were high, so the geothermal HVAC system was working hard and I ended up using more energy that the solar panels could produce. You can see in the graph that there were clouds that reduced the solar energy production.

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Tuesday (02-July-2019) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

There were seven deer in the back section. Two does, four fawns, and a buck. Looks like each of the does had twins. They are staying outside of the electric fenced wildflower meadows (fingers crossed…). Images taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 500 mm f/4 VR telephoto lens from my back patio. Click on the following image to access all of the images in the slideshow.


Daily Power Use (54.9 kWh) from Sense and Solar Production (66.5 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. The outside temperatures were high, so the geothermal HVAC system was working hard.

Current Weather Conditions

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Tuesday (02-July-2019) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Since I knew it was going to be hot out, I went out early to pull the invasive “mile-a-minute” vine from the section planted with daffodils. The daffodil flowers are long gone for this year and the section is getting full of weeds. While working outside, I wear a cotton jumpsuit to avoid being bitten by a tick. Been there, done that, don’t want it to happen again. I filled up a wagon load of the “mile-a-minute” vine before I got too hot. While pulling the weeds, I came across a toad that was living under the weeds. I decided to use a Leica CL as my main camera for the day. The following two images were taken using the 18-56 mm lens. The wildflower, and wildflower with insects images were taken with the 55-135 mm lens, and finally the rainbow image was taken with the 11-23 mm lens.

Mile-a-minute Vines. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18-55 mm, 55-135, or 11-23 mm lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Mile-a-minute Vines. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18-55 mm, 55-135, or 11-23 mm lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Toad. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18-55 mm, 55-135, or 11-23 mm lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Toad. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18-55 mm, 55-135, or 11-23 mm lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)

Click on the above image to access individual images in the wildflower gallery.


Click on the above image to access individual images in the insect gallery.


Backyard Evening Rainbow over the Weather Station. After the Thunderstorm. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 11-23 mm lens (ISO 100, 11 mm, f/4.5, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Backyard Evening Rainbow over the Weather Station. After the Thunderstorm. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 11-23 mm lens (ISO 100, 11 mm, f/4.5, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Power Use (54.9 kWh) from Sense and Solar Production (66.5 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. The outside temperatures were high, so the geothermal HVAC system was working hard.

Current Weather Conditions

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