Insect - David Mathre Photography

Sunday (03-July-2011) — New Jersey

Early Summer Backyard Wildlife in New Jersey.

While working on my previous post “Wild Raspberry Cluster” I found this Dog/Wood Tick crawling up my pants leg. I was only outside 10-15 minutes getting the images for the Raspberry Composite. The only thing more persistent than the ticks this year are the SEO scripters sending me spam comments, especially to my 13-June-2011 post. I do allow and like comments for my postings (especially constructive criticism) as long as they are relevant to the post.

Dog/Wood Tick. Early Summer Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/29, 1/60 sec) with SB900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre) — Dog/Wood Tick. Early Summer Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/29, 1/60 sec) with SB900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5.

Dog/Wood Tick. Early Summer Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/51, 1/60 sec) with SB900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre) — Dog/Wood Tick. Early Summer Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/51, 1/60 sec) with SB900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5.

Dog/Wood Tick. Early Summer Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/45, 1/60 sec) with SB900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre) — Dog/Wood Tick. Early Summer Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/45, 1/60 sec) with SB900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5.

Friday (01-July-2011) — New Jersey

Early Summer Nature in New Jersey. Sourland Mountain Preserve.

Morning walkabout at the local Sourland Mountain Preserve. Insects: Dragonfly, Butterflies, and Grasshopper.

Yellow Swallowtail Butterfly on Milkweed Flowers in Sourland Mountain Reserve. Summer in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 105 mm f/2.8 macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 200, 210 mm, f/6.3, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre) — Yellow Swallowtail Butterfly on Milkweed Flowers in Sourland Mountain Reserve. Summer in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 105 mm f/2.8 macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 200, 210 mm, f/6.3, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, and Photoshop CS5.

Dragonfly in Sourland Mountain Reserve. Summer in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 70-200 mm f/2.8 lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre) — Dragonfly in Sourland Mountain Reserve. Summer in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 70-200 mm f/2.8 lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, and Photoshop CS5.

Butterfly in Sourland Mountain Reserve. Summer in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 70-200 mm f/2.8 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/1000 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre) — Butterfly in Sourland Mountain Reserve. Summer in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 70-200 mm f/2.8 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/1000 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, and Photoshop CS5.

Green Grasshopper in Sourland Mountain Reserve. Summer in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 105 mm f/2.8 macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 200, 210 mm, f/6.3, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre) — Green Grasshopper in Sourland Mountain Reserve. Summer in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 105 mm f/2.8 macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 200, 210 mm, f/6.3, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, and Photoshop CS5.

Sunday (26-June-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Summer Nature in New Jersey.

Another composite image of fireflies in my backyard. This time with a telephoto lens at f/13 to try to get a deeper depth of field effect. As before, the camera was set up to take 25 second images, and the resultant 110 images combined using the Startrails program.

Backyard Fireflies. Early Summer in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 600 mm f/4 lens (ISO 2500, 600 mm, f/13, 25 sec). Images processed with Capture One Pro, Startrails (used to stack 110 images), and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre) — Backyard Fireflies. Early Summer in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 600 mm f/4 lens (ISO 2500, 600 mm, f/13, 25 sec). Images processed with Capture One Pro, Startrails (used to stack 110 images), and Photoshop CS5.

Wednesday (22-June-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Early Summertime in New Jersey: Firefly Trails.

Yesterday was the first day of summer, and my backyard is full of fireflies. I set up a camera to take 25 second images, and then used the Startrails program to combine ~150 image (ISO 400) for the first image and then ~100 images (ISO 6400) for the second image. The D3s can see in the dark, and I didn’t take it all the way up to 100K ISO.

Backyard Fireflies. Early Summer in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 200 mm f/2 lens (ISO 400, 200 mm, f/2, 25 sec). Images processed with Lightroom 3, Startrails (used to stack 150 images), and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre) — Backyard Fireflies. Early Summer in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 200 mm f/2 lens (ISO 400, 200 mm, f/2, 25 sec). Images processed with Lightroom 3, Startrails (used to stack 150 images), and Photoshop CS5.

Backyard Fireflies. Early Summer in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 200 mm f/2 lens (ISO 6400, 200 mm, f/2, 25 sec). Images processed with Lightroom 3, Startrails (used to stack 100 images), and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre) — Backyard Fireflies. Early Summer in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 200 mm f/2 lens (ISO 6400, 200 mm, f/2, 25 sec). Images processed with Lightroom 3, Startrails (used to stack 100 images), and Photoshop CS5.

Thursday (16-June-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Night Sky in New Jersey.

While reviewing images from last night, I found one where I captured a firefly flashing. So far it is early in the firefly season and I hope to get more images before the season ends.

Late Spring Night Sky with Firefly in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 200, 14 mm, f/8, 60 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, NIK Define 2, and Photoshop CS5 (David J Mathre) — Late Spring Night Sky with Firefly in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 200, 14 mm, f/8, 60 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, NIK Define 2, and Photoshop CS5