Category: Skyscape

Views of the sky. Sunrise, sunset, clouds, and weather

Eleven-Years Ago (04-July-2007) — Colorado

Summer in Colorado. Railroad to Pikes Peak.

Eleven-years ago on a lark I drove from Boulder to Colorado Springs and then to Manitou Springs to take the Cog Wheeled Railroad to the summit of Pikes Peak. Little did I know that you needed reservations for the cog rail trip to Pikes Peak, and that all trips were sold out for the day. I was very lucky that someone in line before me was unhappy that their party was not all sitting together and turned in their tickets. Once I got on board the train, I realized that I won the lottery since my ticket was for the front seat. This allowed me to set up a tripod and camera to capture images for a time-lapse video for the train ride. So as not to annoy the other passengers on the train I used a small Gitzo travel tripod, my smallest camera body, and a small lens. Going up the mountain I used a 18-200 mm lens at 18 mm. Going down the mountain my seat was now in the rear of the train looking back. For this I used a 10.5 mm fisheye lens. This was a case of being in the right place at the right time!!!

Steam Engine at Pikes Peak Cog Railroad. Image taken with a Nikon D200 and 10.5 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 100, 10.5 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, Topaz Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Steam Engine at Pikes Peak Cog Railroad. Image taken with a Nikon D200 and 10.5 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 100, 10.5 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, Topaz Define, and Photoshop CS5.

Seven-Years Ago (30-June-2011) — New Jersey

Summer in New Jersey. Independence Day Fireworks Video.

DSLR video of the 30-June-2011 Montgomery Township Fireworks display. The Nikon D3s camera is limited to 5 minute HD (720P) video segments. I ended up with three 5 minute segments. I left the in-camera sound recording on to get the sound effects of the fireworks. I also got commentary about the fireworks from a family sitting in front of my tripod. At one point you can hear a train whistle. The other clicking sound is the shutter of my other cameras. I used Adobe Premiere Pro to combine the first and third segments, zoomed in a bit so the firework display takes up more of the image, and increased the volume. I also used Premiere Pro to add a title page to the video.

Thursday (28-June-2018) — New Jersey

Montgomery Township New Jersey Independence Day Fireworks.

My local township typically has an Independence Day fireworks celebration several days before the 4th of July. This year it was almost a week earlier. We had heavy rain in the morning, but by the afternoon things pretty much cleared up. I have a great location near my house that has a view that is above the high school where the fireworks are launched. In all I had five cameras set up to record the event. Individual images can be viewed here. While waiting for the fireworks to start, we watched the “Strawberry” full moon rise through some low clouds. Unfortunately, it was too late to find a different location where the full moon would be in the images with the fireworks.

Strawberry Full Moon Rising Through the Clouds over Montgomery Township. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 70-200 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 100, 200 mm, f/11, 6 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro. (David J Mathre)
Strawberry Full Moon Rising Through the Clouds over Montgomery Township. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 70-200 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 100, 200 mm, f/11, 6 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro. (David J Mathre)
Montgomery Township Independence Day Fireworks. Image taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 105 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 64, 105 mm, f/11, 8 sec) (David J Mathre)
Montgomery Township Independence Day Fireworks. Image taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 105 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 64, 105 mm, f/11, 8 sec) (David J Mathre)





Four-Years Ago (27-June-2014) — Spain

Gone to See Europe 2014. Day 27: Semester at Sea, Summer 2014 Semester Voyage. Bilabao, Spain.

Maman the Spider at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Selfie in the upper left corner. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and Bower 8 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens.

Maman Spider outside the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 8 mm Fisheye (ISO 200, 8 mm, f/?, 1/320 sec) (David J Mathre)
Maman Spider outside the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 8 mm Fisheye (ISO 200, 8 mm, f/?, 1/320 sec) (David J Mathre)

Tuesday (26-June-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

I haven’t done the morning dawn clouds for some time as the sun has been getting up earlier than I have. I did notice some colors this morning and shot some pictures before the colors faded. I noticed that the deer found the flowering Yucca plants, and pretty much ate all of the flowers. ARRG!. I have a new high-resolution DSLR camera to test — used for the first time on today’s walkabout for flowers and frogs.

Early Morning Pastel Colored Clouds. Composite of four images taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 18 mm, f/5.6, 1/30 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and AutoPano Giga Pro. (David J Mathre)
Early Morning Pastel Colored Clouds. Composite of four images taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 18 mm, f/5.6, 1/30 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and AutoPano Giga Pro. (David J Mathre)




Individual Images in the Slide-Shows can be viewed here.