Eleven-Years Ago (30-August-2008) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Harvey, my outdoor rabbit posing for some portraits. Images taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 80-400 mm VR lens. It was getting late and the amount of light was going down, so I was pushing the ISO higher. Images reprocessed with the new standalone Topaz Denoise AI program to remove the background noise. In the past I mainly used the NIK Define filter to reduce the noise level in high ISO images. For troublesome noisey images (especially jpg images) I would use a previous version of the Topaz Denoise filter.

Harvey the Rabbit. Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 1600, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/60 sec). (David J Mathre)
Harvey the Rabbit. Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 1600, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/60 sec). (David J Mathre)
Harvey the Rabbit. Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 2800, 280 mm, f/8, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)
Harvey the Rabbit. Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 2800, 280 mm, f/8, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)

 

Thursday (29-August-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

A Blue Morning Glory flower outside my bedroom window. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 800, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/160 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro and Topaz Deniose AI.

Morning Glory Flower. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 800, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/160 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro and Topaz Deniose AI (DAVID J MATHRE)
Morning Glory Flower. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 800, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/160 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Electric Energy Used (45.2 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (69.3 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Still cool outside and more sun for a net surplus of 24.1 kWh.

Current Weather Conditions

powered by Ambient Weather

Wednesday (28-August-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

When I woke up, I noticed a number of deer in the back. One doe with a bad case of mange was down. As soon as it saw me, it got up and one of the fawns joined it.


Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.


Daily Electric Energy Used (45.9 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (40.9 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Still cool outside but more clouds for a net deficit of 5 kWh.

Current Weather Conditions

powered by Ambient Weather

Eight-Years Ago (28-August-2011) — New Jersey

Hurricane Irene. Central New Jersey.

My Sunday afternoon post from eight-years ago. Today we are watching as Hurricane Dorian tracks toward central Florida.

By mid-afternoon, I still was not able to report the downed power lines in my yard. I drove to the nearby High School where there I could get much better ATT wireless Internet reception. I logged onto the PSE&G site and reported that I didn’t have power and that I had downed wires in the yard. The automated response let me know that they would have power restored by 8 PM 04-September (next Sunday). I figured that I would be living in my RV for the week. By the time that I got back to the house, I was very surprised to see 3 PSE&G trucks pulling up. It took them some time to free the downed wire from the trees and vines. It was right around this time that the wind and a small amount of rain started up from the back side of the hurricane. I commend the PSE&G workers for their dedication to be out working before the storm had passed. After they completed here, they fixed some other local problems and were able to restore power before it got dark. I feel lucky this time that power was restored this quickly. I know that there are many others still without power and the PSE&G crews will be busy for the next several days. The following images were taken with a Leica X1 camera. Images taken with a Nikon D700 camera will be included in another post.

PSE&G Truck and Crew Getting Set Up oo Repair the Downed Power Line. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)
PSE&G Truck and Crew Getting Set Up oo Repair the Downed Power Line. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)
PSE&G Workers Viewing the Downed Power Line. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)
PSE&G Workers Viewing the Downed Power Line. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)
Downed Power Line. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)
Downed Power Line. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)
Downed Power Line. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)
Downed Power Line. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)
PSE&G Truck and Crew Working on the Downed Power Line. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)
PSE&G Truck and Crew Working on the Downed Power Line. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)
PSE&G Worker Working to Free the the Downed Power Line from Trees and Vines. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)
PSE&G Worker Working to Free the the Downed Power Line from Trees and Vines. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)

Eight-Years Ago (28-August-2011) — New Jersey

Hurricane Irene. Central New Jersey.

My Sunday morning post from eight-years ago. Today we are watching Hurricane  Dorian as it tracks toward Florida.

I spent Friday and Saturday getting prepared for Hurricane Irene. The storm intensity started increasing late Saturday night. At about 11:30 PM, I heard a crash and the lights went out. When I got up Sunday morning the wind and rain had decreased significantly. I guess this was when the eye of the hurricane was moving up the coast of New Jersey directly east. When I went out I saw that a tree had fallen next to the road and took down the power, cable, and phone lines. I tried to call in the fallen lines to PSE&G, but couldn’t get past the automated emergency reporting system. My wireless Internet connection also didn’t work. A lot of branches and tree limbs were down in the yard, but thankfully no damage to the house or vehicles. The following images are of the nearby Rock Brook and local woods. Normally at this time of the year, the brook is almost dry. The road closed sign was right in front of my driveway.

Road Closed. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)
Road Closed. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)
Rock Brook Flooding. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)
Rock Brook Flooding. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)
Rock Brook Flooding. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)
Rock Brook Flooding. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)
Rock Brook Flooding. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)
Rock Brook Flooding. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)
Rock Brook Flooding. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)
Rock Brook Flooding. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)
Rock Brook Flooding. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)
Rock Brook Flooding. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)