Saturday (19-November-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey: Time-lapse Video and Star Trails.

Wide-angle night sky time-lapse video looking south in New Jersey (~600 1 minute images taken with a Nikon D3x and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens at 15 mm and f/5.6). The moon was from another night (video taken with a Nikon D3s and 600 mm f/4 telephoto lens). The overall video sequence created using Adobe Premiere Pro.

The images were also combined in groups of 100 using the Star Trails program to create the following south view star trails. The orange background is due to clouds being lit from the towns to the south. In the last two images the moon is visible.


Friday (18-November-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey: Leonid Meteors.

I had two cameras out monitoring the night sky with the hope of catching a Leonid Meteor. Two of the images had small meteor trails. A bit later there was something much brighter. I am not sure if it is a meteor, however it does not have parallel lights or regular strobe flashes like a jet trail. The other possibility would be a satellite trail. The curved trail is due to the fisheye lens. I used DxO to process the image to correct for the fisheye effect (4th/final image).

Late fall night sky over New Jersey with a Leonid Meteor. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Late fall night sky over New Jersey with a Leonid Meteor. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Late fall night sky over New Jersey with a Leonid Meteor. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Late fall night sky over New Jersey with a Leonid Meteor. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Late fall night sky over New Jersey with a Leonid Meteor. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Late fall night sky over New Jersey with a Leonid Meteor. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Late fall night sky over New Jersey with a Leonid Meteor. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Raw image processed with DxO Pro, Nik Define, Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Late fall night sky over New Jersey with a Leonid Meteor. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 200, 16 mm, f/5.6, 60 sec). Raw image processed with DxO Pro, Nik Define, Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)

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Wednesday (16-November-2011) — New Jersey

Coming Thru the Rye – Bronze by Fredric Remington.

Our annual departmental meeting was held this year at the former corporate headquarters of Schering-Plough. While wandering around in the nearly deserted building during a break, I came upon this bronze statue by Fredric Remington in the executive suite.

Coming Thru the Rye. Bronze by Fredric Remington. Image taken with a Leica X1 (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/2.8, 1/40 sec). Converted to B/W with Nik Silver Efex Pro 2. (David J Mathre)
Coming Thru the Rye. Bronze by Fredric Remington. Image taken with a Leica X1 (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/2.8, 1/40 sec). Converted to B/W with Nik Silver Efex Pro 2. (David J Mathre)

Saturday (05-November-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Night Sky Over New Jersey: Time-lapse Video of the Stars, Star Trails and the Moon.

It was clear and I had several cameras out capturing the night sky. I used the images to create a time-lapse video.

Thursday (03-November-2011) — New Jersey

Retirement Planning

I spent the day an Executive Retirement Planning Seminar at the corporate headquarters in Whitehouse Station. My long-term plans had been to work until I was at least 60, and probably 65. After the seminar, I ran the numbers. It was an eye-opening exercise, but it does looks like I can think about retirement earlier where I can spend more time on travel and photography. 🙂 🙂 🙂