Friday (26-August-2016) — New Jersey

Summertime Nature at the Sourland Mountain Preserve.

Kermit the Bullfrog Chilling in the Sourland Mountain Preserve Pond. If you look closely, there are several mosquitoes on the frog. Summer Nature New Jersey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/7, 1/180 sec).

Kermit the Bullfrog in the Pond. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/180 sec). (David J Mathre)
Kermit the Bullfrog in the Pond. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/180 sec). (David J Mathre)
Kermit the Bullfrog in the Pond. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/210 sec). (David J Mathre)
Kermit the Bullfrog in the Pond. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/210 sec). (David J Mathre)

It was too hot Wednesday when I did my walkabout through the Sourland Mountain Preserve. I didn’t try it yesterday, but gave it a short try today as I am still recovering from Lyme disease. I told myself that I wouldn’t stay out more than an hour, but ended up spending almost two hours. I have three goals at this time of the year: 1) Monarch Butterflies, 2) Hummingbird Clearwing Hummingbird Moths, and 3) Praying Mantis. Bonus points for Praying Mantis with prey. I got all three plus a couple of  bonus images I wasn’t expecting today. I ended up spending nearly two hours out on my walkabout and was really overheated when I got home. A short list of images I took : 1) Turtle; 2) Fritillary butterfly; 3) Hummingbird Clearwing moth; 4) Praying Mantis; 5) Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly mating; 6) Monarch butterfly; 7) Praying Mantis with a Tiger Swallowtail for lunch; 8) American Goldfinch; 9) Frog in the pond; and 10:) American Bittern. I ended up spending two hour in the Sourland Preserve, and was exhausted after getting home. It was way too hot.

Question for those that actually read this far. Should I only do single image in a post, or are albums/collections OK? If albums/collections are OK, only 4 images (so all will be seen, and users understand how to see the image in full screen mode) or as many images as I feel are good? Is it OK when I post images from this day of the year (going back 10 years)? Should they be as processed when first posted, or reprocessed using current photo editing tools (or both)? Is it OK when I post time-lapsed videos? It doesn’t seem like anyone views the time-lapse videos.

Both my “Image of the day” photo blog https://david.mathre.com
and my photo gallery http://davidmathre.com need significant updates and/or redesign. I am interested in comments about what does and doesn’t work as I start on a redesign project.

Two-Years Ago (25-August-2014) — New Jersey

Summertime Nature at the Sourland Mountain Preserve.

Kermit the Bullfrog in the pond at the Sourland Mountain Preserve. Image taken with a Nikon Df camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 180, 300 mm, f/2.8, 1/1250 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, and Photoshop CC.

Kermit the Bullfrog in the pond at the Sourland Mountain Preserve. Image taken with a Nikon Df camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 180, 300 mm, f/2.8, 1/1250 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, and Photoshop CC. (David J Mathre)
Kermit the Bullfrog in the pond at the Sourland Mountain Preserve. Image taken with a Nikon Df camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 180, 300 mm, f/2.8, 1/1250 sec). (David J Mathre)

Friday (29-August-2014) — New Jersey

Summertime Nature in New Jersey: Sourland Mountain Preserve.

Kermit the Frog at the Pond. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 80-400 mm VR II lens (ISO 5600, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/2000 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, and Photoshop CC.

Frog at a Pond in the Sourland Mountain Preserve in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 80-400 mm VR II lens (ISO 5600, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/2000 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, and Photoshop CC. (David J Mathre)
Frog at a Pond in the Sourland Mountain Preserve in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 80-400 mm VR II lens (ISO 5600, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/2000 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, and Photoshop CC. (David J Mathre)

Monday (12-August-2013) — New Jersey

Summertime Nature in New Jersey: Sourland Mountain Preserve.

Kermit the Bull Frog Hiding in the Shade –  Pond at the Sourland Mountain Preserve.  Image taken with a Nikon D800 camera and 500 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 400, 500 mm, f/4, 1/200 sec).

Kermit the Bull Frog in a Pond in the Sourland Mountain Preserve. Summer Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D800 and 500 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 560, 500 mm, f/4, 1/200 sec). (David J Mathre)
Kermit the Bull Frog in a Pond in the Sourland Mountain Preserve. Image taken with a Nikon D800 camera and 500 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 560, 500 mm, f/4, 1/200 sec). (David J Mathre)

Wednesday (15-August-2012) — New Jersey

Summertime Nature in New Jersey: Sourland Mountain Preserve.

Kermit the Bull Frog in a Pond. Assignment One – Part Two. 

This week Thom Hogan is posting some photography assignments. Assignment One: “Here’s your first shooting assignment: pick the absolutely worst lens you own and go out and take pictures using it. Not just any pictures, but the best possible pictures you can. Learn to use whatever liability that lens has to advantage.”

I decided to do a variation of this. Instead of going back to the Sourland Mountain Preserve with a big telephoto lens, tripod, and 36 MP camera, I decided to go light, but still wanting to take close-up images of butterflies and other wildlife. I took a Nikon 1 V1 camera with the FT1 adapter with the 70-300 mm VR lens. This kit is almost 20 pounds lighter than the high end kit I was going to take. The following five images are of a bull frog at 70 mm, 100 mm, 135 mm, 200 mm, 300 mm. The field of view equivalent for this camera vs. a 35 mm sensor camera is ~190 mm, ~270 mm, ~365 mm, 540 mm, 810 mm. These are the full images (not cropped) although reduced to the 600 pixel width of the photo blog.

Bullfrog in a Pond at the Sourland Mountain Preserve. Summer Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 + FT1 + 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 70 mm, f/5.6, 1/320 sec) and monopod. [FOV Equivalent to ~ 190 mm on a 35 mm image sensor] (David J Mathre)
Bullfrog in a Pond at the Sourland Mountain Preserve. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 + FT1 + 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 70 mm, f/5.6, 1/320 sec) and monopod. [FOV Equivalent to ~ 190 mm on a 35 mm image sensor] (David J Mathre)
Bullfrog in a Pond at the Sourland Mountain Preserve. Summer Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 + FT1 + 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 100 mm, f/5.6, 1/320 sec) and monopod. [FOV Equivalent to ~ 270 mm on a 35 mm image sensor] (David J Mathre)
Bullfrog in a Pond at the Sourland Mountain Preserve. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 + FT1 + 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 100 mm, f/5.6, 1/320 sec) and monopod. [FOV Equivalent to ~ 270 mm on a 35 mm image sensor] (David J Mathre)
Bullfrog in a Pond at the Sourland Mountain Preserve. Summer Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 + FT1 + 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 135 mm, f/5.6, 1/320 sec) and monopod. [FOV Equivalent to ~ 365 mm on a 35 mm image sensor] (David J Mathre)
Bullfrog in a Pond at the Sourland Mountain Preserve. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 + FT1 + 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 135 mm, f/5.6, 1/320 sec) and monopod. [FOV Equivalent to ~ 365 mm on a 35 mm image sensor] (David J Mathre)
Bullfrog in a Pond at the Sourland Mountain Preserve. Summer Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 + FT1 + 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 200 mm, f/5.6, 1/320 sec) and monopod. [FOV Equivalent to ~ 540 mm on a 35 mm image sensor] (David J Mathre)
Bullfrog in a Pond at the Sourland Mountain Preserve. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 + FT1 + 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 200 mm, f/5.6, 1/320 sec) and monopod. [FOV Equivalent to ~ 540 mm on a 35 mm image sensor] (David J Mathre)
Bullfrog in a Pond at the Sourland Mountain Preserve. Summer Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 + FT1 + 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/320 sec) and monopod. [FOV Equivalent to ~ 810 mm on a 35 mm image sensor] (David J Mathre)
Bullfrog in a Pond at the Sourland Mountain Preserve. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 + FT1 + 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/320 sec) and monopod. [FOV Equivalent to ~ 810 mm on a 35 mm image sensor] (David J Mathre)