Tag: Fall

Thursday (06-October-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey.

With a clear sky, and bright waxing gibbous moon I experimented ways to acquire sharp images of the moon through a 600 mm f/4 VR telephoto lens. The lens is mounted on a tripod with a Wimberley gimble tripod head. VR  is turned off, and the camera set for “mirror up” mode. I used a remote release, and let the system stabilize for 30 seconds (time-out for mirror up) before the shutter would be triggered. The first five images are #1 (f/16, 1/50 sec); #2 (f/11, 1/100 sec); #3 (f/8, 1/200 sec); #4 (f/5.6, 1/400 sec); and #5 (f/4, 1/800 sec). I think the best was #4 (f/5.6, 1/400 sec), although all were pretty good. The next two images used a TC-E III 20 teleconverter for an effective focal length of 1200 mm #6 (f/16, 1/50 sec); #7 (f/11, 1/100 sec). Here I think #7 (f/11, 1/100 sec) is best. With the additional magnification, a faster shutter speed is needed to counteract the motion of the moon.

I also made several DSLR videos of the moon, since I was using my Nikon D3s camera body. When I reviewed the videos, I saw that I had captured at least two satellite transits in front of the moon. These transits are less than 1 second long. Subject for another post.

Waxing Gibbous Moon (75%). Autumn Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 600 mm f/4 VR lens. (ISO 200, 600 mm, f/16, 1/50 sec). (David J Mathre)
Waxing Gibbous Moon (75%). Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens. (ISO 200, 600 mm, f/16, 1/50 sec). (David J Mathre)
Waxing Gibbous Moon (75%). Autumn Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 600 mm f/4 VR lens. (ISO 200, 600 mm, f/11, 1/100 sec). (David J Mathre)
Waxing Gibbous Moon (75%). Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens. (ISO 200, 600 mm, f/11, 1/100 sec). (David J Mathre)
Waxing Gibbous Moon (75%). Autumn Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 600 mm f/4 VR lens. (ISO 200, 600 mm, f/8, 1/200 sec). (David J Mathre)
Waxing Gibbous Moon (75%). Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens. (ISO 200, 600 mm, f/8, 1/200 sec). (David J Mathre)
Waxing Gibbous Moon (75%). Autumn Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 600 mm f/4 VR lens. (ISO 200, 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). (David J Mathre)
Waxing Gibbous Moon (75%). Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens. (ISO 200, 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). (David J Mathre)
Waxing Gibbous Moon (75%). Autumn Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 600 mm f/4 VR lens. (ISO 200, 600 mm, f/4, 1/800 sec). (David J Mathre)
Waxing Gibbous Moon (75%). Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens. (ISO 200, 600 mm, f/4, 1/800 sec). (David J Mathre)
Waxing Gibbous Moon (75%). Autumn Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 600 mm f/4 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter. (ISO 200, 1200 mm, f/16, 1/50 sec). (David J Mathre)
Waxing Gibbous Moon (75%). Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter. (ISO 200, 1200 mm, f/16, 1/50 sec). (David J Mathre)
Waxing Gibbous Moon (75%). Autumn Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 600 mm f/4 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter. (ISO 200, 1200 mm, f/11, 1/100 sec). (David J Mathre)
Waxing Gibbous Moon (75%). Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter. (ISO 200, 1200 mm, f/11, 1/100 sec). (David J Mathre)

Saturday (01-October-2011) — New Jersey

Autumn Nature in New Jersey. Sourland Mountain Preserve.

Worldwide Photo Walk 2011. Convergence. Yesterday I was thinking, weather permitting  that I should go the nearby Sourland Mountain Preserve to see if I could photograph any late season Monarch butterflies. For the last several years I have seen the last group of Monarch butterflies before they fly south to Mexico the last week of September (+/- 2 weeks). Also yesterday, I was noticing some issues with access to my photo blog (speed to load, and searching results). I woke up very early, and access to the photo blog appeared be working. While checking Google+ I saw a reminder from Scott Kelby  about his 2011 Worldwide Photo Walk’s this weekend. When I checked online, I saw that one of the Worldwide Photo Walks (led by Frank Veronsky) would be at the Sourland Mountain Preserve. I signed up (it was 4 AM, and raining). When I woke up again at 8 AM it had stopped raining but still cloudy. I got to there early to scout out if there were any thistle blooms left. Unfortunately, all of the thistles were brown and there were only a few yellow wildflowers. The trails were also very muddy from all of the rain we have been having for the last 2 months.  I actually went home at this point to switch to a Nikon D3s camera and 50 mm f/1.4 lens since I knew it would be relatively dark on the trails. I got back in time to meet up with the Worldwide Photo Walk group at the Sourland Mountain Preserve parking lot and started up on the trails a little after 10 AM. The following images are of some of the woodland forest trails in the Preserve. By the end of the Photo Walk, I only saw one Monarch butterfly, and it didn’t stay still long enough for me to get an image.

Sourland Mountain Preserve Trail. Worldwide Photo Walk 2011. Autumn in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 50 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 450, 50 mm, f/8, 1/50 sec). (David J Mathre)
Sourland Mountain Preserve Trail. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 50 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 450, 50 mm, f/8, 1/50 sec). (David J Mathre)
Sourland Mountain Preserve Trail. Worldwide Photo Walk 2011. Autumn in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 50 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 280, 50 mm, f/8, 1/50 sec). (David J Mathre)
Sourland Mountain Preserve Trail. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 50 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 280, 50 mm, f/8, 1/50 sec). (David J Mathre)
Sourland Mountain Preserve Trail. Worldwide Photo Walk 2011. Autumn in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 50 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 320, 50 mm, f/8, 1/50 sec). (David J Mathre)
Sourland Mountain Preserve Trail.  Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 50 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 320, 50 mm, f/8, 1/50 sec). (David J Mathre)
Sourland Mountain Preserve Trail. Worldwide Photo Walk 2011. Autumn in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 50 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 800, 50 mm, f/8, 1/40 sec). (David J Mathre)
Sourland Mountain Preserve Trail. Image taken with a Nikon D3s cameraand 50 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 800, 50 mm, f/8, 1/40 sec). (David J Mathre)
Sourland Mountain Preserve Trail. Worldwide Photo Walk 2011. Autumn in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 50 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 320, 50 mm, f/8, 1/50 sec). (David J Mathre)
Sourland Mountain Preserve Trail. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 50 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 320, 50 mm, f/8, 1/50 sec). (David J Mathre)
Sourland Mountain Preserve Trail. Worldwide Photo Walk 2011. Autumn in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 50 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 200, 50 mm, f/2.8, 1/100 sec). (David J Mathre)
Sourland Mountain Preserve Trail.  Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 50 mm f/1.4G lens (ISO 200, 50 mm, f/2.8, 1/100 sec). (David J Mathre)

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Monday (26-September-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Nature in New Jersey.

This young doe that only recently lost her spots looks hungry. Her ribs are showing, not a good sign as we  move into Autumn and then Winter.

Young Doe After Losing Her Spots. Image Taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 500, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)
Young Doe After Losing Her Spots. Image Taken with a Nikon D700 camera and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 500, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)

Saturday (06-November-2010) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Nature in New Jersey.

Turkey Vulture soaring. The Turkey Vultures population has increased significantly since the state quit picking up the road killed deer. This is both hunting and rutting season so we have many deer running across roads and being hit by automobiles. Robin feasting on fall “bittersweet” berries. I don’t know if this robin plans to winter, or is feasting before flying south. Finally, some fall mushrooms.