David's Images of the Day Photoblog
I visited the Sourland Mountain Preserve yesterday at 15:00. It was hot out, and I only lasted an hour. I saw a number of Monarch butterflies, but they were not staying still. I did catch both a Monarch butterfly and an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly feeding on a Queen Anne’s Lace flower. I don’t often see butterflies feeding on this flower.
Bumble Bee in Flight. Image taken with a Nikon D4 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/1250 sec).
Some may think I have an obsession with the beautiful Hummingbird Clearwing Moth (Hemaris thysbe). These were taken in the back section of my property where I have a number of Thistle plants in bloom. Most folks call the Thistles terrible weeds. I like them because I know from the Sourland Mountain Preserve that the flowers attract a variety of bees, butterflies, and hummingbird moths. The seeds attract Goldfinch birds. Images taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 55-200 mm OIS lens, Nikon D3x camera and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens or a Nikon D4 camera and 300 mm f/4 lens.
Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.
Pair of Bumblebees Working the Summer Goldenrod at the Sourland Mountain Preserve. Image taken with a Nikon Df camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 1400, 300 mm, f/8, 1/1250 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, and Photoshop CC 2014.
Into the Vortex. North View Star and Jet Trails with a Bonus of a Meteor Trail. Summer Night in New Jersey. Composite of 442 images taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 16 mm f/2.8 mm Fisheye lens (ISO 800, 16 mm, f/5.6, 30 sec). Images processed with Capture One Pro, and the composite created using Photoshop CC (statistics, maximum).
Back then, I still had a lot of trees right next to the house, and one partially blocked Polaris, the North Star. Most of the trees are gone either to disease or the “mile a minute” invasive vine. I am now looking into putting some solar panels on the roof.
