Ricoh Theta Z1 camera set up to capture the night sky from my patio. Two versions of the 360 Equirectangular, 360 Little Planet, and 360 Tunnel view. The first ones processed directly with the jpg files from the Theta Z1 camera. For the second set, the DNG files (dual fisheye) were first processed with Capture One Pro then converted to single 360 Equirectangular 16-bit TIF files. By processing and converting the DNG files to 16-bit TIF files I was able to bring more detail out of the dark shadow areas in the images.
Backyard Late Summer Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey. Equirectangular 360 degree Panorama. Composite of 360 (jpg) images taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 360 camera (ISO 400, 2.6 mm, f/2.1, 60 sec). Star Trail composite generated with PhotoShop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum). (David J Mathre)Backyard Late Summer Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey. Little Planet 360 degree Panorama. Composite of 360 (jpg) images taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 360 camera (ISO 400, 2.6 mm, f/2.1, 60 sec). Star Trail composite and Little Planet view created with PhotoShop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum), (image size 1:1, image rotated 180 degrees, filter, distort, polar coordinates). (David J Mathre)Backyard Late Summer Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey. Inverse Little Planet (Tunnel View) 360 degree Panorama. Composite of 360 (jpg) images taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 360 camera (ISO 400, 2.6 mm, f/2.1, 60 sec). Star Trail composite and Inverse Little Planet view created with PhotoShop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum), (image size 1:1, filter, distort, polar coordinates). (David J Mathre)Backyard Late Summer Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey. Equirectangular 360 degree Panorama. Composite of 360 (DNG) images taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 360 camera (ISO 400, 2.6 mm, f/2.1, 60 sec). DNG images processed with Capture One Pro, converted to 360 Equirectangular with PTGUI, Star Trail composite generated with PhotoShop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum). (David J Mathre)Backyard Late Summer Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey. Little Planet 360 degree Panorama. Composite of 360 (DNG) images taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 360 camera (ISO 400, 2.6 mm, f/2.1, 60 sec). DNG images processed with Capture One Pro, converted to 360 Equirectangular with PTGUI, Star Trail composite generated with PhotoShop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum). Little Planet view created with PhotoShop CC (image size 1:1, image rotated 180 degrees, filter, distort, polar coordinates). (David J Mathre)Backyard Late Summer Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey. Inverse Little Planet (Tunnel View) 360 degree Panorama. Composite of 360 (DNG) images taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 360 camera (ISO 400, 2.6 mm, f/2.1, 60 sec). DNG images processed with Capture One Pro, converted to 360 Equirectangular with PTGUI, Star Trail composite generated with PhotoShop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum). Tunnel view created with PhotoShop CC (image size 1:1, filter, distort, polar coordinates). (David J Mathre)
Daily Electric Energy Used (35.3 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (54.6 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny. Geothermal HVAC system off A surplus of 19.3 kWh. Notice the hump in the afternoon solar — has to do with the Sycamore tree shading the roof mid-afternoon
Morning at the Birdfeeders: Mourning Dove, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Gray Catbird, House Finch, American Goldfinch, Song Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.
Morning at the Birdfeeders. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Afternoon at the Birdfeeders: Mourning Dove, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Gray Catbird, House Finch, Song Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.
Afternoon at the Birdfeeders. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Contact me if you are interested in a Time-lapse Video of the Afternoon session at the Birdfeeders. My setup for the birdfeeder images is a Nikon D850 camera and 200 mm f/2 VR lens set to take one image every 5 seconds over a 5 hour period (~3600 images). The new time-lapse video format is 720p (1080 x 720 pixels) and 1 frame/second. The length of the video is about 1 hour in a 1 GB MP4 file. The previous time-lapse videos of the birdfeeders were at 12 frames/second, and to be honest were too fast to identify the birds.
Daily Electric Energy Used (37.3 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (43.8 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sun and clouds. Geothermal HVAC system off A surplus of 6.5 kWh.
I noticed several articles on the net about scientists testing the 3,200 megapixel camera for the Vera Rubin Observatory’s telescope by taking an image of a Romanesco broccoli. It didn’t look like the Broccoli that I am familiar with but was fascinated by the Fractal pattern. Romanesco broccoli was available online at Whole Foods so I ordered one for my weekly grocery delivery. It looks more like a Cauliflower, but green with Fractal like towers. I used it to create my version of a high-resolution focus-stacked image. I set up a Leica SL2 camera with a 50 mm f/1.4 lens on a tripod with a 10 cm focusing rail. The SL2 camera has the capability to take 187 megapixel images using pixel shifting technology via a Multishot mode (available after a Firmware 2.0 update). I took 87 high-resolution images (ISO 50, 50 mm, f/1.4, 1/10 sec) moving the camera forward in ~1 mm intervals. This resulted in 16,269 megapixels of data. The images were processed with Capture One Pro and then Helicon Focus to afford the following focus-stacked (12510 x 10008 pixel, 717 MB) images. The images is in focus for the full depth of the Romanesco broccoli. I love the natural Fractal patterns. You can see that there are some sections where black mold has started growing. Now to clean it up and figure out how to cook it for dinner.
Romanesco broccoli. Composite of 87 focus-stacked images taken with a Leica SL2 camera and 50 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 50, 50 mm, f/1.4, 1/10 sec, multi-shot mode). Images processed with Capture One Pro and Helicon Focus (Method A (contrast), Radius 8, Smoothing 4). (David J Mathre)Romanesco broccoli. Composite of 87 focus-stacked images taken with a Leica SL2 camera and 50 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 50, 50 mm, f/1.4, 1/10 sec, multi-shot mode). Images processed with Capture One Pro and Helicon Focus (Method B (Depth Map), Radius 8, Smoothing 4). (David J Mathre)Romanesco broccoli. Composite of 87 focus-stacked images taken with a Leica SL2 camera and 50 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 50, 50 mm, f/1.4, 1/10 sec, multi-shot mode). Images processed with Capture One Pro and Helicon Focus (Method C (Pyramid), Smoothing 4). (David J Mathre)
High-Resolution Focus Stacked image of Romanesco Broccoli cropped 1x, 2x, 4x, 16x, 32x. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Morning at the Birdfeeders: Mourning Dove, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Blue Jay, American Crow, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, White-breasted Nuthatch, Gray Catbird, House Finch, American Goldfinch, Song Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.
Afternoon at the Birdfeeders. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Contact me if you are interested in a Time-lapse Video of this session at the Birdfeeders. My setup for the birdfeeder images is a Nikon D850 camera and 200 mm f/2 VR lens set to take one image every 5 seconds over a 5 hour period (~3600 images). The new time-lapse video format is 720p (1080 x 720 pixels) and 1 frame/second. The length of the video is about 1 hour in a 1 GB MP4 file. The previous time-lapse videos of the birdfeeders were at 12 frames/second, and to be honest were too fast to identify the birds.
Daily Electric Energy Used (34.9 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (35.0 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sun and clouds. A surplus of 0.1 kWh.
While out mowing the yard, one of the Trolls guarded a Mushroom growing in the backyard. After mowing, I cleared some of the invasive “mile-a-minute” vines, and came across a Praying Mantis. I tried to move it to safety, and if female hope it is able to lay eggs for next year.
Troll guarding a Mushroom while I mow the lawn. Image taken with a Leica SL2 camera and 24-90 mm lens. (David J Mathre)Praying Mantis. Image taken with a Nikon N1V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens. (David J Mathre)
Afternoon at the Birdfeeders: Mourning Dove, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Gray Catbird, House Finch, American Goldfinch, Song Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.
Afternoon at the Birdfeeders. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Contact me if you are interested in a Time-lapse Video of the Afternoon session at the Birdfeeders. My setup for the birdfeeder images is a Nikon D850 camera and 200 mm f/2 VR lens set to take one image every 5 seconds over a 5 hour period (~3600 images). The new time-lapse video format is 720p (1080 x 720 pixels) and 1 frame/second. The length of the video is about 1 hour in a 1 GB MP4 file. The previous time-lapse videos of the birdfeeders were at 12 frames/second, and to be honest were too fast to identify the birds.
Daily Electric Energy Used (41.0 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (47.2 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. More sun. A surplus of 6.2 kWh.
Out working on the patio, I harvested the Broccoli Rabe and Radishes in the Grow Towers. This opened up light for the Basil and Pepper plants. I also distributed worms in to the composting tubes in each Grow Tower. I used the Ricoh Theta Z1 360 degree camera to make time-lapse Little Planet videos of the work on the patio. Same workflow as yesterday: Theta Z1 Camera set to record images using program auto mode (shutter, aperture, white-balance, JPG + RAW (DNG) every 10 seconds. Camera mounted on a tripod just above head level. The camera collected ~ 360 images (~ 1 hour) before running out of internal storage space. The DNG dual fisheye images were processed with Capture One Pro, saved in TIF format. Then converted to 360 degree equirectangular pano images with PTGUI (batch process). The Little Planet time-lapse video was created using PhotoShop CC (image converted to 1:1 format (7430 x 7430), rotated 180 degrees, converted to polar coordinates, then exported as a MP4 video (1920 x 1920, 10p). Rotation to the video was added using Premiere Pro.
Daily Electric Energy Used (39.7 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (52.1 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. More sun. A surplus of 12.4 kWh.
