Skyscape - David Mathre Photography

Tuesday (22-March-2011) — California

Gone to See California. Day 3: Working in South San Francisco.

Before going to work, I took some images of a sailboat at anchor in Oyster Bay. Two of the images were combined using the Photoshop CS5 HDR module.

Sunrise with Sailboat at Anchor in Oyster Bay. Images taken with a Leica X1 (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/4.5, 1/250 + 1/2000 sec). Two image HDR processed with Photoshop CS5 HDR module (photorealistic). Noise reduction with Nik Define 2.0. (David J Mathre) — Sunrise with Sailboat at Anchor in Oyster Bay. Images taken with a Leica X1 (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/4.5, 1/250 + 1/2000 sec).

Sunday (20-March-2011) — New Jersey to California

Gone to See California. Day 1: Flight from New Jersey to San Francisco.

Aerial Photography — Somewhere over the middle of the country at 30,000 feet. I don’t know where we were, but it looks like a small town and farm land. This is the last day of winter. A lot of brown, not much green yet. I didn’t have a window seat, so only had this one chance to take an image while the person sitting next to the window was in the restroom. The flight was totally booked, and I was in the very last row. Sitting in the back row has many problems. I couldn’t lean the seat back and I now have a backache. They ran out of food, and I now have a bad headache, and I was right next to the very busy restroom. I prefer driving, even if it is all the way across the United States.

Middle America from 30k Feet. Image taken with a Leica X1 (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/5.6, 1/800 sec). (David J Mathre) — Middle America from 30k Feet. Image taken with a Leica X1 (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/5.6, 1/800 sec).

One-Year Ago (26-February-2010) — California

Photography Workshop “Yosemite in Winter: A Season of Contrast” with Michael Mariant. Day 2: Yosemite National Park.

The following image is a combination of two NIK tools, HDR Pro and Silver Efex 2. The images were taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/11, various shutter speeds) during a photography workshop one-year ago in Yosemite National Park.

Three-Years Ago (25-February-2008) — Colorado

Elderhostel “Photography in the Southwest” Workshop Day 1. Star Trails.

The following image is a composite of five 30 minute night sky exposures taken during a Elderhostel/Road Scholar photography workshop at Kelly Place outside of Cortez, Colorado in 2008. It was really dark other than the Christmas lights at the main building, and you could see a lot of stars in the sky. I moved the tripod as far away from the lights as possible and decided to do this series with a fisheye lens that would give a 180° field of view. The five images were combined using Startrails. This program is old (only works with jpg or 8-bit tif files) but works better than when I try to merge the images as layers in Photoshop.

Winter night sky looking north at Kelley's Place near Cortez, Colorado. Composite of four images taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/2.8, 30 min). (David J Mathre) — Winter night sky looking north at Kelley’s Place near Cortez, Colorado. Composite of four images taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/2.8, 30 min). (David J Mathre)

Individual images in this slide show can be viewed here.

Monday (10-January-2011) — Chile

Gone to See Patagonia 2010/2011. Photography Workshop with Thom Hogan. Day 15: Hosteria Lago Grey.

Early Morning Rainbow from Hosteria Lago Grey, Torres del Paine National Park, Chile. Composite of two images from a Nikon D3x and 24-120 mm f/4 lens (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/5.6, 1/80 sec) combined using AutoPano Giga Pro. (David J Mathre)