Little Planet View - David Mathre Photography

Friday (03-December-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Mourning Dove, Black-capped Chickadee, Blue Jay, Dark-eyed Junco.

Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Blue Jay Drinking from the Birdbath. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Red Rover time-lapse videos. (1) Installing a set of Pat’s Easy Change System for category 1 three point mounts on Red Rover. (2) Moving black mulch, used to cover the center driveway Holly and Pine tree section, and to cover the front yard Japanese Maple tree section.

A couple of notes about the Pat’s Easy Change System installation. I was looking for something to make it easier to change items attached to the Category 1 three point system on Red Rover. Like the quick change system on the front loader that I use to go between the front bucket and the forks. The installation documents for Pat’s Easy Change system were relatively straight forward. There was a note indicating that the system adds 4 inches to the length of the tractor lift arms, and that some tractor models may require a longer top link. That should have been in the information I read before purchasing the item. The first difference between the installation instruction and the package I received was they switched from using set screws with jamb nuts to hex bolts with jam nuts to align the Easy Change System. Also, my parts bag was missing the 0.25 inch roll pins used to hold the shims used to make the hitch parallel with the lift arm. I ended up using bolts and nuts to hold the shims in place. The rest of the instructions were straight forward. The installation gave me the opportunity to relevel the lift arms, and adjust the width between the arms to 26 inches. When I went to use the Easy Change system to re-connect my rear weight & tool holder to Red Rover, I found that I had to extend the top link to its maximum length (~25 inches). I may need to get a slightly longer adjustable top link. I will need to test the Easy Change system with my 3 point implements that use the PTO. Does the power drive connection to the implement extend the extra 4 inches?

Black & White images from a Leica Q2 Monochrom camera.

Black & White images from a Leica Q2 Monochrom camera. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (51.4 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (29.8 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sun and clouds. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 21.6 kWh.

Saturday (27-November-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Possum up on the patio. Looks like it has been digging up my Daffodil bulbs. ARRG

Little Planet Time-lapse Video. Afternoon on the back patio. Filling the birdfeeders, and cleaning up the patio. Recorded with a LabPano Pilot EE 360 camera, and processed with Premiere Pro using the GoPro FX Reframe plugin.

Daily Electric Energy Used (68.6 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (24.3 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sun and clouds. Deficit of 44.3 kWh.

Thursday (25-November-2021) — New Jersey

Happy Thanksgiving.

Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Blue Jay, Tufted Titmouse.

Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Continuing to learn how to use the Labpano Pilot EE 360 camera. This time I set it up to record me cooking a duck for my Thanksgiving Dinner. The time-lapse was set for 20x (0.6 seconds/frame) @ 4K (3840 x 1920). The battery ran out at ~99 minutes, even though I had the USB-C connected to an external battery. When I checked online, it appears that the USB-C power source needs to be a USB-PD fast charger. The 4K equirectangular video was processed using Premiere Pro with the GoPro FX Reframe plugin for the rotating Little Planet video. Since the time-lapse video stopped recording before I finished cooking, I’ve provided a still image of the Thanksgiving Roasted Duck Dinner for One. Beets and Onions from Clifford Family Farm, Duck and Mushrooms from Zell’s Farm, Brussel Sprouts from Whole Foods, Wild Rice from Minnesota.

Thanksgiving Duck Dinner. (David J Mathre) — Thanksgiving Dinner. Image taken with a Leica SL2 camera and 24-90 mm lens (ISO 400, 24 mm, f/2.8, 1/40 sec). (David J Mathre)

Daily Electric Energy Used (65.9 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (25.9 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny, some clouds, but cold. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 40.0 kWh.

Tuesday (23-November-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Mourning Dove, Blue Jay.

Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

The Opossum is back.

My main 360 camera a Garmin VIRB-360 is getting old and has been discontinued by the manufacturer. The one lens has a scratch, and a battery failed. I’ve started looking at alternatives. I did this once before, trying out the Nikon Mission 360 (discontinued), Ricoh Theta, Insta360 One 4K. Each had issues. Later, I found the Ricoh Theta Z1 16-GB model then 64-GB model to be useful. But with idiosyncrasies. They have an interval mode, but with a minimum interval of 6 seconds (jpg) or 10 seconds (DNG). I decided to look at some of the newer 360 cameras. Insta360 One X2 and Labpano Lab Pilot ERA.

The following night time-lapse video was taken with the Insta360 One X2. I set the camera up outdoors connected to an external USB-C power supply to take raw (DNG) images every 30 seconds. With the external battery, the camera continued taking images all night, even though the temperature dropped below freezing. Processing the raw images was a bit of a problem since the raw image is not the standard equirectangular format. You need to convert the images via the Insta360 Studio 2021 program (batch mode) to generate a standard equirectangular image. Adobe Photoshop doesn’t appear to make time-lapse videos with DNG files, so I also had to convert the images from DNG to TIFF (using Capture One Pro) before making the time-lapse videos. With this camera I will need a better workflow.

alt_title. (David J Mathre) — Autumn Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Insta360 One X2 camera. ISO 504, f/2, 2 sec. Insta360 Raw (DNG) format. (David J Mathre)

Time-lapse Video (Little Planet View).

Time-lapse Video (Tunnel View).

Daily Electric Energy Used (67.5 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (28.9 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny but cold. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 38.6 kWh.

Friday (19-November-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Nature in New Jersey, Working Outside and in the Garage.

Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: House Finch.

House Finch. (David J Mathre) — House Finch. Image taken with a Leica SL2 camera and 90-280 mm lens. (David J Mathre)

My Little Planet time-lapse video for the day. Finished removing the mower deck from the John Deere lawn tractor. Removed the agri-fabric and electric fence wire caught in the blades. Removed the blades to be sharpened. Hopefully, I will be able to reinstall the mower deck… Removed electric fence wire from the yellow plastic insulators. Completed installing the Tent Box cold weather inner insulation shell.

Daily Electric Energy Used (53.6 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (28.6 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Mostly sunny. Deficit of 25.0 kWh.