Tag: Autumn

Wednesday (23-September-2020) — New Jersey

Early Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Morning at the Birdfeeders: Mourning Dove, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Gray Catbird, House Finch, American Goldfinch, Northern Cardinal, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.


Morning at the Birdfeeders. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Contact me if you are interested in a Time-lapse Video of the session at the Birdfeeders. My setup for the birdfeeder images is a Nikon D850 camera and 200 mm f/2 VR lens set to take one image every 5 seconds over a 5 hour period (~3600 images). The new time-lapse video format is 720p (1080 x 720 pixels) and 1 frame/second. The length of the video is about 1 hour in a 1 GB MP4 file. The previous time-lapse videos of the birdfeeders were at 12 frames/second, and to be honest were too fast to identify the birds.

Daily Electric Energy Used (38.0 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (48.5 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny. Geothermal HVAC system off A surplus of 10.5 kWh.

Tuesday (22-September-2020) — New Jersey

Early Autumn Night Sky Over New Jersey.

Fourth consecutive night with dark (relative — this is New Jersey) clear skies. This time Night Sky Star Trails with a Nikon D850 camera with a 10.5 mm f/2.8 DX fisheye lens (ISO 100, 10.5 mm, f/2.8, 30 sec). Note a full frame camera with a DX sensor lens, thus some of the sensor is not used. Star Trail composite image created with the jpg “out-of-the-camera” image files using PhotoShop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum). A lot fewer jet trails than in previous years. Clouds started coming in during the early morning hours.

alt_title. (David J Mathre)
Nighttime sky over New Jersey. Composite of images (21:45-04:29) taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 10.5 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 100, 10.5 mm, f/2.8, 30 sec). (David J Mathre)


Night Sky Composite Images (first one 45 min, others 60 min). Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (36.4 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (50.6 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny with a few clouds. Geothermal HVAC system off. A surplus of 14.2 kWh.

Friday (20-December-2019) — New Jersey

Indoor Nature in New Jersey.

I harvested my first indoor hydroponic Broccoli today. Most folks didn’t believe it could be done. The broccoli leaves were giant allowing only two plants to thrive in a single AeroGarden Farm hydroponic tray. The Cauliflower also just started to form a head. Unfortunately, since I was about to leave for Florida for a couple of weeks it would not have time to fully develop. Both the Broccoli and Cauliflower went into my stir-fry dinner.

Indoor Hydroponic Broccoli Harvest. Image taken with a Leica TL-2 camera and 35 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 400, 35 mm, f/2.5, 1/80 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Indoor Hydroponic Broccoli Harvest. Image taken with a Leica TL-2 camera and 35 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 400, 35 mm, f/2.5, 1/80 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Indoor Hydroponic Broccoli Harvest. Image taken with a Leica TL-2 camera and 35 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 400, 35 mm, f/2.5, 1/80 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Indoor Hydroponic Broccoli Harvest. Image taken with a Leica TL-2 camera and 35 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 400, 35 mm, f/2.5, 1/80 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Electric Energy Used (96.9 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (35.2 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Rained much of the day. Overall a net deficit of 61.7 kWh.

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Thursday (19-December-2019) — New Jersey

Indoor Nature in New Jersey.

I harvested the first of the indoor hydroponic strawberries today. Before tasting them I took this focus stacked image with some German chocolate.

Indoor hydroponic Strawberries and Chocolate. Composite of 50 focus stacked images taken with a Fuji X-T3 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 160, 80 mm, f/2.8. 1/15 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and Helicon Focus. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Indoor hydroponic Strawberries and Chocolate. Composite of 50 focus stacked images taken with a Fuji X-T3 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 160, 80 mm, f/2.8. 1/15 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and Helicon Focus. (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Electric Energy Used (99.5 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (27.3 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Rained much of the day. Overall a net deficit of 72.2 kWh.

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Wednesday (18-December-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Nature in New Jersey.

Ice storm yesterday with some tree limb damage. The sun came out early and things started to melt. The solar fountain in the bird bath was running. The young doe continues to stay close to the house. The turkey vultures were out looking for a meal.


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



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



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



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


Daily Electric Energy Used (84.8 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (25.5 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Rained much of the day. Overall a net deficit of 59.3 kWh.

Current Weather Conditions

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