Eleven-Years Ago (21-January-2007) — Norway

Gone to See Norway 2007 Family Winter Vacation. Day 1: Oslo.

Revisiting a family trip to Norway in 2007. Some of images have been posted before, and some are new. The trip started in Oslo. I flew in from New Jersey, and the rest of the family flew in from Florida. All together, I think there were 22-24 of us in the group. On this first day, we toured Oslo. At the end of the day we had pizza with Arnie. It took a fisheye lens to get the whole group in one image. During this trip, I was using a Nikon D2xs camera with 7 lenses (10.5 mm fisheye, 12-24 mm, 28-70 mm, 35 mm, 50 mm, 80-400 mm, and 85 mm). Before I learned to travel light…

Family in Norway, Winter in Oslo Norway (David J Mathre)
Family in Norway, Winter in Oslo Norway (David J Mathre)


Two-Years Ago (20-January-2016) — Pacific Ocean

Gone to See the World. Semester at Sea Spring 2016 Voyage on the MV World Odyssey. Day 15: Crossing the Pacific Ocean From Hawaii to Japan.

Every day the sunrise at sea is different. It was a windy day, and we were traveling into the wind so the aft decks were safe. At the end of the day, after the sun set there were unique blue colors near the horizon caused by the earth’s shadow with pastel pinks above that are called the “Belt of Venus”.  I have seen this before while camping in the mountains, but didn’t know the cause. I really wanted to see if I could capture the colors in an image since they are so subtle.



Individual images in the slide show are available here.

Two-Years Ago (19-January-2016) — Pacific Ocean

Gone to See the World. Semester at Sea Spring 2016 Voyage on the MV World Odyssey. Day 14: Crossing the Pacific Ocean From Hawaii to Japan.

I never figured that I would used the Nikon 1 V3 camera to take panoramic images. Especially since I brought it along on the voyage with only one lens, a 70-300 mm VR telephoto zoom. Its sole purpose was a much smaller and lighter weight system for bird and other wildlife photography so I would not need to lug around a much heavier DSLR camera and even heavier 80-400 mm telephoto zoom lens. The down side was the Nikon 1 V3 system has a smaller and more noisy sensor. During the voyage, I perfected a method to use this camera to take panoramic images. I had been using the in camera panorama mode of the Fuji X-T1, but didn’t like the fact that it only took jpg images and stitched them together in the camera. The method I developed with the Nikon 1 V3 camera uses the continuous burst mode (20 frames/second) coupled with a relatively fast shutter speed (1/250 second). I would focus the camera, then holding the shutter button down smoothly rotate until the camera buffer is full. You can tell when the buffer is full when the camera stops sounding like a machine gun and returns to the normal click, click, click. The raw images are then stitched together via software (AutoPano Giga Pro). This sunrise image was created using this technique. It is a composite of 20 images. Click on the image to view a larger version. The full image is 15687 x 3428 pixels (equiv to 52.3″ x 11.4″ if printed at 300 dpi).

Pacific Ocean Sunrise Panorama viewed from the aft deck of the MV World Odyssey. Composite of 20 images taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 82 mm, f/8, 1/250 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and the panorama created using AutoPano Giga Pro. (David J Mathre)
Pacific Ocean Sunrise Panorama viewed from the aft deck of the MV World Odyssey. Composite of 20 images taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 82 mm, f/8, 1/250 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and the panorama created using AutoPano Giga Pro. (David J Mathre)



Individual images in the slide show can be viewed here.

Two-Years Ago (18-January-2016) — Pacific Ocean

Gone to See the World. Semester at Sea Spring 2016 Voyage on the MV World Odyssey. Day 13: Crossing the Pacific Ocean From Hawaii to Japan.

It was a long day. I got up well before dawn, and got a silhouette image of the forward deck statue. Then a so, so sunrise image. In my cabin on the 8th deck was an oil painting, with a brass label and signature on the painting of Claude Monet. I asked one of the art history students if she could identify the painting and if it was the original or a copy? I didn’t really believe that it was the original, but the ship (MV Deutschland) when Semester at Sea wasn’t leasing it as the MV World Odyssey did have a lot of art work (paintings, statues, gold chandeliers, exotic woods, brass fittings, china dining ware, etc). When I got back home, I was able to do a Google image search, and found that it was indeed a painting by Claude Monet “Path Through the Corn at Pourville“.  The original is listed as being in a private collection. For sunset, I set up a camera to do a time-lapse sequence on the forward upper deck, which I made into a video. There was a 1980’s disco for the faculty, staff, and life-long-learners (students not invited) in the faculty lounge/bar. To end the day I got an image of the constellation Orion while standing on a moving ship. The sensors on the new cameras are amazing, and can capture images in very low light situations. In the past, I would have had to use a much longer exposure where you would see the stars as jagged lines.



Individual images in the slide show can be viewed here.

The constellation Orion in the night sky from the aft deck of the MV World Odyssey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 35 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 6400, 35 mm, f/16, 1/60 sec). (David J Mathre)
The constellation Orion in the night sky from the aft deck of the MV World Odyssey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 35 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 6400, 35 mm, f/16, 1/60 sec). (David J Mathre)

Two-Years Ago (17-January-2016) — Pacific Ocean

Gone to See the World. Semester at Sea Spring 2016 Voyage on the MV World Odyssey. Day 12: Crossing the Pacific Ocean From Hawaii to Japan.

This was the day that magic happened. We lost a day, 16-Jan-16 never happened. Look at the images carefully to find the alien pretending to be a student on the voyage, and when gravity was suspended. Too bad if anyone on the ship had their birthday on the missing day.



Individual images in this slide show can be viewed here.



Individual images in the slide show can be viewed here.

Outdoor breakfast after shooting dawn and sunrise on the deck of the MV World Odyssey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 35 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 200, 35 mm, f/7, 1/125 sec). (David J Mathre)
Outdoor breakfast after shooting dawn and sunrise on the deck of the MV World Odyssey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 35 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 200, 35 mm, f/7, 1/125 sec). (David J Mathre)



Individual images in the slide show can be viewed here.

First Quarter Moon from the deck of the MV World Odyssey. Image taken with a Nikon One V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec). Field of View equivalent to an 810 mm lens on a 35 mm sensor camera. (David J Mathre)
First Quarter Moon from the deck of the MV World Odyssey. Image taken with a Nikon One V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec). Field of View equivalent to an 810 mm lens on a 35 mm sensor camera. (David J Mathre)

We crossed the International Date Line (180 degrees) east or west (or half way around the planet) from the zero degree line going through Greenwich, England.  We actually, didn’t cross the line until 13:19 but the Captain of the ship gets to select which day we cross datelines so as not to confuse things in the middle of the day.