Photo Techniques - David Mathre Photography

Sunday (25-June-2017) — New Jersey

Backyard Early Summer Nighttime Nature in New Jersey.

The weather held, and I got a second chance to capture an image of the fireflies flashing in my backyard. This time I set up two cameras, reduced the aperture (so a greater distance would be in focus), increased the ISO to increase the brightness (dealt with the increased noise in post processing), and set the focus distance to ~70 feet (locking the focus ring with gaffer tape). This time the composite images were better. I will try again tomorrow.

Fireflies at night from my backdoor. Summer nature in New Jersey. Composite of 250 images taken with a Nikon Df camera and 200 mm f/2 telephoto lens (ISO 3200, 200 mm, f/11, 30 sec). Raw images processed using Capture One Pro and the composite generated using Photoshop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum). (David J Mathre)

Fireflies at night from my backdoor. Summer nature in New Jersey. Composite of 70 images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 300 mm f/4 telephoto lens (ISO 800, 300 mm, f/11, 120 sec). Raw images processed using Capture One Pro and the composite generated using Photoshop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum). (David J Mathre)

Six-Years Ago (25-June-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Nighttime Summer Nature in New Jersey.

Fireflies in my backyard. Composite of 110 images taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens. I liked this image, and have used the camera and lens parameters to help get better subsequent images.

Backyard Fireflies. Early Summer in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 600 mm f/4 lens (ISO 2500, 600 mm, f/13, 25 sec). Images processed with Capture One Pro, Startrails (used to stack 110 images), and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)

Saturday (24-June-2017) — New Jersey

Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey.

A different type of Black-eyed Susan with a red circle showed up in the small wildflower meadow I planted last year. I didn’t add any new seeds to this section this year, so the flowers that are showing up are either perennials, bi-annuals, or got reseeded from last years flowers. So far the flowers that appeared in this section include (sort of by date) Italian (Crimson) Clover, several types of Poppies, several types of Daisies, Bachelor Buttons (Cornflowers), and now two types of Black-eyed Susan. Just before the Daisies started to bloom, a deer got in and nibbled on the flower buds. Since then I put up a seven-foot mesh (not electrified).

Black-eyed Susan wildflower. Backyard summer nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 50-140 mm f/2.8 OIS zoom lens (ISO 200, 140 mm, f/8, 1/110 sec). (© 2017 David J Mathre)

Saturday (24-June-2017) — New Jersey

Backyard Summer Nighttime Nature in New Jersey.

It was relatively dark out, and I could see a large number of fireflies out my backyard. I set up a camera, and took a series of images which I used to create a nearly two-hour composite image. I am not happy that all of the fireflies were out of focus — I didn’t guess right with the distance from the camera and/or the focus dial moved as I was setting the camera up in the dark. Weather permitting I am going to try again tomorrow night.

Fireflies out my backdoor. Summer nature in New Jersey. Composite of 222 mages taken with a Nikon Df camera and 200 mm f/2 VR lens (ISO 800, 200 mm, f/8, 30 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and the the composite generated using Photoshop CC (statistics, maximum). (David J Mathre)

Tuesday (20-June-2017) — New Jersey

Backyard Late Springtime Nature in New Jersey.

Walkabout in my backyard on the last day of spring. In addition to the poppies, a number of new flowers are starting to appear (Babies Breath, Bachelors Buttons, Coreopsis, Cosmos, various Daisies, Larkspur, and Black-eyed Susan). The yellow prickly pear cactus flowers only open for one day.