Tag: New Jersey

Thursday (06-July-2017) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

The deer keep sniffing around my wildflower meadow. There are several young fawns with spots that pass through the yard with their herd every day. I don’t mind when they eat the grass. Many more wildflower pictures, several with bumblebees working the flowers. I was pleasantly surprised to see a Clearwing Hummingbird Moth. It is smaller than others that I have seen, so it may be the Snowberry Clearwing Moth. The other interesting thing I saw in the garden were Japanese beetles that appear to be eating the hated “mile-a-minute” vine that has become invasive. As long as the Japanese beetles don’t eat too many of the wildflower plants, I am going to leave them alone.

Hummingbird Moth (Hemaris thysbe or Hemaris diffinis). Backyard summer nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR telephoto zoom lens (ISO 400, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec) (David J Mathre)
Hummingbird Moth (Hemaris thysbe or Hemaris diffinis). Backyard summer nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR telephoto zoom lens (ISO 400, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec) (David J Mathre)
Hummingbird Moth (Hemaris thysbe or Hemaris diffinis). Backyard summer nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR telephoto zoom lens (ISO 400, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec) (David J Mathre)
Hummingbird Moth (Hemaris thysbe or Hemaris diffinis). Backyard summer nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR telephoto zoom lens (ISO 400, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec) (David J Mathre)
Japanese Beetles eating the hated "Mile-a-Minute" vine in my backyard wildflower meadow. Summer nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR telephoto zoom lens (ISO 400, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec) (David J Mathre)
Japanese Beetles eating the hated “Mile-a-Minute” vine in my backyard wildflower meadow. Summer nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR telephoto zoom lens (ISO 400, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec) (David J Mathre)


Sunday (02-July-2017) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

I have been taking pictures of the backyard wildflower meadow, but have not been keeping up with processing the images. I’ve also been juggling several home renovation projects. Someday, I need to share pictures of the inside projects. The outside patio is also moving along.

Red poppy in my backyard wildflower meadow. Summer nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 56 mm f/1.2 lens (ISO 200, 56 mm, f/6.4, 1/1000 sec). (David J Mathre)
Red poppy in my backyard wildflower meadow. Summer nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 56 mm f/1.2 lens (ISO 200, 56 mm, f/6.4, 1/1000 sec). (David J Mathre)


Sunday (25-June-2017) — New Jersey

Backyard Early Summer Nighttime Nature in New Jersey.

The weather held, and I got a second chance to capture an image of the fireflies flashing in my backyard. This time I set up two cameras, reduced the aperture (so a greater distance would be in focus), increased the ISO to increase the brightness (dealt with the increased noise in post processing), and set the focus distance to ~70 feet (locking the focus ring with gaffer tape). This time the composite images were better. I will try again tomorrow.

Fireflies at night from my backdoor. Summer nature in New Jersey. Composite of 250 images taken with a Nikon Df camera and 200 mm f/2 telephoto lens (ISO 3200, 200 mm, f/11, 30 sec). Raw images processed using Capture One Pro and the composite generated using Photoshop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum). (David J Mathre)
Fireflies at night from my backdoor. Summer nature in New Jersey. Composite of 250 images taken with a Nikon Df camera and 200 mm f/2 telephoto lens (ISO 3200, 200 mm, f/11, 30 sec). Raw images processed using Capture One Pro and the composite generated using Photoshop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum). (David J Mathre)
Fireflies at night from my backdoor. Summer nature in New Jersey. Composite of 70 images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 300 mm f/4 telephoto lens (ISO 800, 300 mm, f/11, 120 sec). Raw images processed using Capture One Pro and the composite generated using Photoshop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum). (David J Mathre)
Fireflies at night from my backdoor. Summer nature in New Jersey. Composite of 70 images taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 300 mm f/4 telephoto lens (ISO 800, 300 mm, f/11, 120 sec). Raw images processed using Capture One Pro and the composite generated using Photoshop CC (scripts, statistics, maximum). (David J Mathre)

Six-Years Ago (25-June-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Nighttime Summer Nature in New Jersey.

Fireflies in my backyard. Composite of 110 images taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens. I liked this image, and have used the camera and lens parameters to help get better subsequent images.

Backyard Fireflies. Early Summer in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 600 mm f/4 lens (ISO 2500, 600 mm, f/13, 25 sec). Images processed with Capture One Pro, Startrails (used to stack 110 images), and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Backyard Fireflies. Early Summer in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 600 mm f/4 lens (ISO 2500, 600 mm, f/13, 25 sec). Images processed with Capture One Pro, Startrails (used to stack 110 images), and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)

Saturday (24-June-2017) — New Jersey

Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey.

A different type of Black-eyed Susan with a red circle showed up in the small wildflower meadow I planted last year. I didn’t add any new seeds to this section this year, so the flowers that are showing up are either perennials, bi-annuals, or got reseeded from last years flowers. So far the flowers that appeared in this section include (sort of by date) Italian (Crimson) Clover, several types of Poppies, several types of Daisies, Bachelor Buttons (Cornflowers), and now two types of Black-eyed Susan. Just before the Daisies started to bloom, a deer got in and nibbled on the flower buds. Since then I put up a seven-foot mesh (not electrified).

Black-eyed Susan wildflower. Backyard summer nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 50-140 mm f/2.8 OIS zoom lens (ISO 200, 140 mm, f/8, 1/110 sec). (© 2017 David J Mathre)
Black-eyed Susan wildflower. Backyard summer nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 50-140 mm f/2.8 OIS zoom lens (ISO 200, 140 mm, f/8, 1/110 sec). (© 2017 David J Mathre)