Summertime Nature in New Jersey: Sourland Mountain Preserve.
Clearwing Hummingbird Moth. I went for a walk at the Sourland Mountain Preserve today. I was looking to see if the thistles are now in bloom. I first noticed a Clearwing Hummingbird moth at a Joe Pye weed bloom. Further up the trail, I did find that the thistles are now in bloom. I saw many Monarch and Tiger Swallowtail butterflies — then more Clearwing Hummingbird Moths. If the weather is good, I will go back tomorrow with a bigger lens and full tripod.
Clearwing Hummingbird Moth on a Joe Pye Weed Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D4 camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/2.8, 1/2000 sec). (David J Mathre)Clearwing Hummingbird Moth on a Joe Pye Weed Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D4 camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/2.8, 1/1000 sec). (David J Mathre)Clearwing Hummingbird Moth on a Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D4 camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/2.8, 1/1000 sec). (David J Mathre)Clearwing Hummingbird Moth on a Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D4 camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/4, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)
Some images of a white moth feeding on wildflowers and a young catbird checking out the wild grapes.
White Moth. Summer in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/8, 1/160 sec). (David J Mathre)White Moth. Summer in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/8, 1/160 sec). (David J Mathre)White Moth. Summer in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/200 sec). (David J Mathre)Young Grey Catbird with Wild Grapes. Summer Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR ens (ISO 560, 300 mm, f/8, 1/125 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define 2, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Summertime Nature in New Jersey: Sourland Mountain Preserve.
Clearwing Hummingbird Moths, Black and Yellow Swallowtail Butterflies, Monarch Butterfly, Dragonfly, Robber-Fly, and an American Goldfinch.
Black Swallowtail Butterfly on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 640, 600 mm, f/16, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Yellow Swallowtail Butterfly on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 1100, 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Monarch Butterfly on Yellow Wildflower. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 220, 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Clearwing Hummingbird Moth on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 900, 600 mm, f/8, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Clearwing Hummingbird Moth on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 1600, 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Clearwing Hummingbird Moth on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 280, 600 mm, f/8, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)American Goldfinch on a Thistle. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 250, 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Summertime Nature in New Jersey: Sourland Mountain Preserve.
Life and Death in Nature. It was a great day to photograph nature at the Sourland Mountain Preserve. Many Butterflies, Clearwing Hummingbird Moths, Dragonflies,Summertime Nature in New Jersey: Sourland Mountain Preserve. Robberflies, and a few Praying Mantis carnivores. I went in with two cameras, a D3s camera with a 300 mm f/2.8 VR with an TC-E III 20 teleconverter and a D3x camera with a 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro. Humidity was high, and I had to spend the first 15 minutes equilibrating the lenses so they were not fogged. The first place I went to was the location I observed a Praying Mantis eating a Clearwing Hummingbird Moth yesterday. The first image is a Black Swollowtail Butterfly on a Thistle bloom. Soon thereafter a Clearwing Hummingbird Moth started checking out the Thistle blooms. DANGER! DANGER! It didn’t see the Praying Mantis. Minutes later the moth was breakfast for the Praying Mantis. Later, another Black Swollowtail Butterfly was breakfast to a brown Praying Mantis.
Black Swallowtail Butterfly on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 640, 600 mm, f/16, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Danger! Danger! Clearwing Hummingbird Moth being Stalked by a Praying Mantis. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 200, 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Clearwing Hummingbird Moth as a Meal for a Praying Mantis. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 320, 600 mm, f/8, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Clearwing Hummingbird Moth as a Meal for a Praying Mantis. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (ISO 320, 105 mm, f/8, 1/400 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Praying Mantis full after a Clearwing Hummingbird Moth Meal. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (ISO 800, 105 mm, f/16, 1/125 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Brown Praying Mantis. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (ISO 220, 105 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Black Swallowtail Butterfly as a Meal for a Brown Praying Mantis. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (ISO 160, 105 mm, f/8, 1/100 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Summertime Nature in New Jersey. Sourland Mountain Preserve.
The Sourland Mountain Preserve/Reserve is a local park in Somerset New Jersey. It is near where I live, so I often get to take photowalks to capture what is in season. I haven’t visited recently due to work and all of the rain we have been getting. Based on previous years, this should be a good time for butterflies and dragonflies. I had a chance to to a quick visit on the way home. I took the Nikon D700 camera and 28-300 mm VR that I often have with me in the car. In a little over 1 hour I was able to get images of Yellow and Black Swallowtail Butterflies, Hummingbird Clearwing Moths, a Praying Mantis eating a Hummingbird Clearwing Moth, A carnivorous insect (later identified as a Robber-Fly) that looks like a Dragonfly, but only has one pair of wings, and an orange Caterpillar. This is definitely a good time to visit, and I plan to return tomorrow with a macro lens and bigger telephoto lens.
I need to thank Hans for fixing the photoblog/website after the problems encountered after the security update. There are still some minor issues, but for the most part it appear that everything is working other than thumbnail images for new posts. If you notice any additional problems, let me know.
The other good thing today is that the Drobo Disk array that I ordered last Sunday arrived. I do wish that the Drobo folks had giving me a heads up on the shipping and expected delivery time (standard practice for Amazon, B&H, and most other online retailers). I was lucky to be home to sign for the delivery. The FedEx guy must have wondered why I was sweating so much, since I just got back from the Sourland Mountain Preserve. The delivery was JIT since I am running out of hard disk storage space. I have been using a combination of Western Digital 1 and 2 TB MyBook storage devices, but have run out of USB and FireWire connections to my computer. The Drobo 800i was easy to set up (with eight 2 TB Western Digital drives) format, and connect to my computer. I am now in the process of transferring the images from my previous storage drives to the Drobo disk array. This will probably take a few days. Once done, I’ll use the previous storage devices as additional off-site backup storage. Until this is complete and I have a chance to update my LightRoom database to the new image locations, I may be a bit slow with new posts.
Black Swallowtail Butterfly on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Yellow Swallowtail Butterfly on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/2000 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Butterfly on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Black Swallowtail Butterfly on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Hummingbird Clearwing Moth on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/1000 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Hummingbird Clearwing Moth on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/800 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Hummingbird Clearwing Moth on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/2000 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Praying Mantis Eating Hummingbird Clearwing Moth. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/800 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Robber-Fly This insect only has one pair of wings. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Robber-Fly Eating Black Wasp. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Insect in a Queen Anne’s Lace Flower Image taken with a Nikon D700 + 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/2500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Nik Define 2, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
