Orange clouds and silhouettes of trees without leaves just before the sunrise. I looked out 20 minutes earlier, and didn’t see any clouds so didn’t expect a colorful display this morning. Then while washing some dishes, I looked out my kitchen window and saw the colors developing. Composite of eight images taken with a Nikon Df camera and 28 mm f/1.8 lens.
Orange Clouds at Dawn. Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Composite of 8 mages taken with a Nikon Df camera and 28 mm f/1.8 lens (ISO 100, 28 mm, f/5.6, 1/100 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and AutoPano Giga Pro. (David J Mathre)
Backyard Autumn Night Sky in New Jersey: Star Trails Looking West.
Night sky view from the back of the house. This was the first time I did star trail series looking west. The first composite is from 336 images taken between 18:30-23:59 (PM), and the second composite is from 375 images taken between 00:40-05:40 (AM). All taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 14 mm, f/2.8, 59 sec). There is significant distortion due to the wide-angle lens. I should look at reprocessing the data using the DxO image processing program to remove the distortion.
Star trails looking west (18:20-23:59 PM). Composite of 336 images taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 14 mm, f/2.8, 59 sec). (David J Mathre)Star trails looking west (00:40-05:40 AM). Composite of 375 images taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 14 mm, f/2.8, 59 sec). (David J Mathre)
Contrail, clouds, and silhouettes of trees without leaves early this morning. Composite of eleven images taken with a Nikon Df camera and 28 mm f/1.8 lens. Let me know if you like the version in color with the pastel clouds, or the one converted to B&W.
Backyard Autumn Clouds at Dawn. Composite of 11 images taken with a Nikon Df camera and 28 mm f/1.8 lens (ISO 100, 28 mm, f/1.8, 1/125 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro, and the composite produced with AutoPano Giga Pro. (David J Mathre)Backyard Autumn Clouds at Dawn. Composite of 11 images taken with a Nikon Df camera and 28 mm f/1.8 lens (ISO 100, 28 mm, f/1.8, 1/125 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro, composite produced with AutoPano Giga Pro, and converted to B&W with Nik Silver Efex Pro (David J Mathre)
Backyard Autumn Nature in New Jersey: Talking Doe.
I was testing the sharpness of the Nikon 600 mm f/4 lens coupled with a TC-E III 20 teleconverter (effective 1200 mm, f/8 aperture).
Talking Doe. Backyard Autumn Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens with a TC-EIII 2x teleconverter (ISO 1400, 1200 mm, f/8, 1/320 sec). (David J Mathre)
I was out in the backyard using a rototiller to prepare a new section for the expanding wildflower meadow. The land had been a farm years ago, but this section had become overgrown with brush. The brush was cleared last year, and this summer the section was covered with a black tarp to solarize the soil (kill the weeds, especially the invasive “mile-a-minute” vine). The rototiller found lots of rocks, and roots from the brush. At one point, I noticed something silver being thrown back by rototiller. It turned out to be a spoon. The rototiller blades did a bit of damage to the spoon. I brought it inside, and washed it off. The only identification of the spoon was an imprint on the back of the handle “Oneida Silversmiths”. After doing some research online, I think I identified the design of the spool as Oneida silverplate “Clairhill-Fairhill (1978). One site had it on sale for less than eight dollars. So, not an antique π . The house was built around that time, but how the spoon got 200 feet behind the house is a mystery.
Oneida Silversmiths Spoon. Backyard Archaeology in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (ISO 200, 105 mm, f/16, 1/3 sec) (David J Mathre)Oneida Silversmiths Spoon. Backyard Archaeology in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (ISO 200, 105 mm, f/16, 1/3 sec) (David J Mathre)