Monday (02-December-2013) — New Jersey

Late Autumn Backyard Night Sky Over New Jersey.

Star Trails and Time-lapse Video using the new Nikon Df camera and the 58 mm f/1.4G lens that came with the camera.

Star Trails. Backyard Night Sky Over New Jersey. Composite of images from 19:29-22:12 taken with a Nikon Df camera and 58 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 100, 58 mm, f/2, 30 sec). Images processed with Capture One Pro, and composite created with Photoshop CC Pro (scripts, statistics, maximum) (David J Mathre)
Star Trails. Backyard Night Sky Over New Jersey. Composite of images from 19:29-22:12 taken with a Nikon Df camera and 58 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 100, 58 mm, f/2, 30 sec). Images processed with Capture One Pro, and composite created with Photoshop CC Pro (scripts, statistics, maximum) (David J Mathre)


Saturday (30-November-2013) — New Jersey

Backyard Nighttime Autumn Sky Over New Jersey.

Into the Vortex. Early Morning Backyard Star Trails (and one meteor trail). Composite of 300 images taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 14 mm, f/4, 59 sec) over a 5 hour period combined using startrails.exe.

alt_title. (David J Mathre)
Into the Vortex. Early Morning Backyard Startrails. Composite of 300 images taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 14 mm, f/4, 59 sec) combined using startrails.exe. (David J Mathre)

Seven-Years Ago (03-November-2006) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Nature in New Jersey: Trees that Stay Green.

Pine cones in the afternoon sun. Images taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens.

Pine cones in the afternoon sun. Backyard autumn nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 400, 250 mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec). (David J Mathre)
Pine cones in the afternoon sun. Backyard autumn nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 400, 250 mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec). (David J Mathre)
Pine cones in the afternoon sun. Backyard autumn nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 400, 250 mm, f/7, 1/200 sec). (David J Mathre)
Pine cones in the afternoon sun. Backyard autumn nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 400, 250 mm, f/7, 1/200 sec). (David J Mathre)

Sunday (15-September-2013) — New Jersey

Late Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

I went out for a walk this morning in the local Sourland Mountain Preserve. I was stalking a small Green Heron trying to get some images of it catching a fish or frog. All of a sudden there was a commotion in the middle of the pond. Two Canada Geese started a full out smackdown. It was like a junior high school fight. The other geese in the pond formed a circle and made noises supporting their team. The small Green Heron didn’t know what to think.

I used the images taken with a Nikon N1 V2 camera, FT1 adapter, and 180 mm f/2.8D lens to create a short time-lapse video.

Saturday (14-September-2013) — New Jersey

Backyard Late Summer Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey.

Last night the sky was clear, and the waxing gibbous moon (61%) bright, so I set up a couple of cameras with big lenses out on the deck. One of the systems (Nikon D4 camera TC-E III 20 teleconverter and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 400, 1200 mm, f/8, 1/60 sec)) was set to record video (1080p, 30 fps). While reviewing the videos I noticed one with something (a bird?) passing in front of the moon. Played back at 10 fps shows the transit to occur over 25 frames.