Sunday (09-December-2012) — New Jersey

Backyard Late Autumn Nature in New Jersey: Young Doe.

I took this image from my back deck using a Nikon 1 V1 camera and 500 mm f/4 VR lens connected using the FT1 adapter. With the smaller sensor size in the N1V1 the effective field of view (FOV) is equivalent to using a 1350 mm lens on a 35 mm FX sensor camera. This image is not cropped — almost too much magnification to have the whole deer in the frame. The lens was supported on a monopod, and VR was turned on to help stabilize the image. The mass on the lower part of the doe’s neck appears to be a deer fibroma, thought to be caused by a papilloma virus infection. I am seeing more of these abnormalities on the local herd of deer.

Young Doe in My Backyard. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 camera and 500 mm f/4 VR lens connected with a FT1 adapter (ISO 400, 1350 mm, f/4, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)
Young Doe in My Backyard. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 camera and 500 mm f/4 VR lens connected with a FT1 adapter (ISO 400, 1350 mm, f/4, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)

Monday (03-December-2012) — New Jersey

Late Fall Backyard Nature in New Jersey: Deer.

The deer are very skittish right now, between rutting season and hunting season. There were a few does in the backyard late Sunday afternoon. As soon as I got out onto the back deck to try to get some images, there was a series of shotgun blasts in the distance. White tail up and the deer quickly took off. I thought that hunting wasn’t permitted on Sundays for those of us that like to go walking in the woods.

I processed the raw image with a trial version of Capture One Pro 7, and then converted it using Nik Silver Efex Pro. The new version of Capture One is going to take some getting used too — some new features, but also some idiosyncrasies that will take some time to understand.

Late Fall Doe. Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 100, 600 mm, f/4, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 7 and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2. (David J Mathre)
Late Fall Doe. Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 100, 600 mm, f/4, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 7 and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2. (David J Mathre)
Late Fall Doe. Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 100, 600 mm, f/4, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 7 and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2. (David J Mathre)
Late Fall Doe. Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 100, 600 mm, f/4, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 7 and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2. (David J Mathre)

Friday (07-October-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Nature in New Jersey.

Doe Portrait Session. When I got home from work, I noticed a couple of young deer in the backyard. I quickly went in and picked up the camera with the 600 mm telephoto lens that I used last night for the moon. I didn’t have time to set up a tripod or find the monopod, so these images are hand-held. One does not hand-hold this lens for very long. I forgot that the TC-E III 20 teleconverter was still on the camera, so 1200 mm.

Doe Portrait Session. Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 600 mm f/4 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverer (ISO 1000, 1200 mm, f/8, 1/160 sec). (David J Mathre)
Doe Portrait Session. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 600 mm f/4 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverer (ISO 1000, 1200 mm, f/8, 1/160 sec). (David J Mathre)
Doe Portrait Session. Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 600 mm f/4 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverer (ISO 560, 1200 mm, f/8, 1/160 sec). (David J Mathre)
Doe Portrait Session. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 600 mm f/4 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverer (ISO 560, 1200 mm, f/8, 1/160 sec). (David J Mathre)