Tag: New Jersey

Wednesday (09-September-2020) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Early morning (06:35) neighborhood cat hunting under the birdfeeder.


Early Morning Neighborhood Cat Hunting Under the Birdfeeder. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Morning at the Birdfeeders: Mourning Dove, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Gray Catbird, House Finch, Song Sparrow, and Northern Cardinal.


Morning at the Birdfeeders. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Afternoon at the Birdfeeders: Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Gray Catbird, Song Sparrow, and Northern Cardinal.


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 Morning or 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 (54.2 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (35.1 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Lots of clouds. A deficit of 19.1 kWh.

Tuesday (08-September-2020) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Morning at the Birdfeeders: Mourning Dove, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Gray Catbird, House Finch, Chipping Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Baltimore Oriole, and Northern Cardinal. The Baltimore Oriole likes fruit and is pretty aggressive — willing to stare down Blue Jay’s and Gray Catbirds.


Morning at the Birdfeeders. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery. <


Bonus — Female/Immature Baltimore Oriole. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Afternoon at the Birdfeeders: Mourning Dove, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Gray Catbird, House Finch, Chipping Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Baltimore Oriole, and Northern Cardinal.

For the afternoon session (and all future sessions) I added a white card for focus, exposure, and white balance. During these multi-hour sessions the light at the birdfeeders can go from bright to rather dark and direct sunlight to cloudy to shade. I have the camera set to manual for aperture (f/8) and shutter-speed (1/400 sec) with the ISO automatically adjusted for the brightness on the white card. The white card also allows me to adjust the white balance for the lighting conditions at the birdfeeder — not the full image including the background which may have different lighting conditions.


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 Morning or 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.

I also set the Ricoh Theta Z1 camera up in the patio to take images every 2 minutes for a daytime time-Lapse video. Shown as a 360 x 180 degree Equirectangular Panorama and as a 360 Degree Little Planet Panorama. I’m not sure why I have a black line artifact in the Little Planet view. I’m also still optimizing the workflow for processing the images to create these Time-Lapse videos.

Daily Electric Energy Used (55.2 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (57.3 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. More Sun. A surplus of 2.1 kWh.

Monday (07-September-2020) — New Jersey

Summer Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey.

This was the third night in a row with a clear sky. The moon would rise a hour later. I decided to do star trails again with the Ricoh Theta Z1 360 degree camera. This time I mounted the camera horizontally so one of the fisheye lenses pointed straight up. I wanted to see if this would make a difference with the star trails. Camera settings (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/2.1, 60 sec). The images were processed with PTGUI, Capture One Pro, and Photoshop CC to create the following 360 degree Equirectangular Panorama, 360 degree Little Planet View, and 360 degree Tunnel View images. Interestingly, the camera adjusted the output with a correct horizon. It turned out that the horizontal settings were not as stable (wind jitter?). Fortunately, the PhotoShop CC settings I use to create the composite images (scripts, statistics, maximum) has a setting that tries to align images. Presumably using major common features in all of the images. If you look close, you can see some firefly trails.

Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Equirectangular Panorama). Composite of images (20:12-20:59) taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/2.1, 60 sec). Without image alignment in Photoshop CC (scrips,statistics, maximum) (DAVID J MATHRE)
Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Equirectangular Panorama). Composite of images (20:12-20:59) taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/2.1, 60 sec). Without image alignment in Photoshop CC (scrips,statistics, maximum) (DAVID J MATHRE)
Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Equirectangular Panorama). Composite of images (22:00-22:59) taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/2.1, 60 sec). With image alignment in Photoshop CC (scrips,statistics, maximum, align images) (DAVID J MATHRE)
Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Equirectangular Panorama). Composite of images (22:00-22:59) taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/2.1, 60 sec). With image alignment in Photoshop CC (scrips,statistics, maximum, align images) (DAVID J MATHRE)
Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Equirectangular Panorama). Composite of images (20:12-03:20) taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/2.1, 60 sec). With image alignment in Photoshop CC (scrips,statistics, maximum, align images) (DAVID J MATHRE)
Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Equirectangular Panorama). Composite of images (20:12-03:20) taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/2.1, 60 sec). With image alignment in Photoshop CC (scrips,statistics, maximum, align images) (DAVID J MATHRE)
Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Little Planet View Panorama). Composite of images (20:12-03:20) taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/2.1, 60 sec). With image alignment in Photoshop CC (scrips,statistics, maximum, align images) (DAVID J MATHRE)
Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Little Planet View Panorama). Composite of images (20:12-03:20) taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/2.1, 60 sec). With image alignment in Photoshop CC (scrips,statistics, maximum, align images) (DAVID J MATHRE)
Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Tunnel View Panorama). Composite of images (20:12-03:20) taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/2.1, 60 sec). With image alignment in Photoshop CC (scrips,statistics, maximum, align images) (DAVID J MATHRE)
Summertime Night Sky over New Jersey (360 Tunnel View Panorama). Composite of images (20:12-03:20) taken with a Ricoh Theta Z1 camera (ISO 400, dual 2.6 mm fisheye lens, f/2.1, 60 sec). With image alignment in Photoshop CC (scrips,statistics, maximum, align images) (DAVID J MATHRE)


Star Trails in one hour segments. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Monday (07-September-2020) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the day: Blue Jay, Gray Catbird, Northern Cardinal.


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

Neighborhood cat sitting under the birdfeeder. The reason not many birds visited the birdfeeder today.


Neighborhood Cat Posing for a Portrait. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Morning walkabout looking for flowers. White Morning Glory, Sunflower, Cosmos, Evening Primrose, Four O’clock. In the first Morning Glory image you can see the blue “Mile-a-minute” berries/seeds.


Flowers and Wildflowers. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Later in the morning I went out to spray the invasive “Mile-a-Minute” vine with a biosafe herbicide.

Daily Electric Energy Used (50.2 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (57.5 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sun and clouds. A surplus of 7.3 kWh.

Sunday (06-September-2020) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Morning at the Birdfeeders: Mourning Dove, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Gray Catbird, House Finch, American Goldfinch, Song Sparrow, and Northern Cardinal.


Morning 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 Morning 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.

Later in the evening, a male Baltimore Oriole showed up to feed on the grapes.


Male Baltimore Oriole at the Birdfeeder. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (46.9 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (59.6 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. More Sun. A surplus of 12.7 kWh.

Weekly Electric Energy Used (351 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (318 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. A deficit of 33 kWh.