Tag: New Jersey

Friday (20-May-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey.

The first thing I noticed when I got home from the Semester at Sea Spring Enrichment Voyage to Central America and the Panama Canal was that the Rhododendorn’s in my yard were in bloom. To qualify, the only flowers were above level that the local deer couldn’t reach last winter. My sister told me that she had coupled a Nikon TC-E 20 II (2x) teleconverter with a 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens and has been getting some good macro images. I thought that I had previously tried coupling a teleconverter with the 105 macro and that it didn’t work, but decided to try again. It worked!!! In this case a Nikon TC-E 20 III (2x) teleconverter with a 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens.

I am going to need to do a test between the 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens with the 2x TC vs. the 200 mm f/4 macro lens.

Rhotodendron Flowers. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR Macro with a TC-E 20 III (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/11, 0.4 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, and converted to jpg/sRGB with Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Rhotodendron Flowers. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR Macro with a TC-E 20 III (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/11, 0.4 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, and converted to jpg/sRGB with Photoshop CS5.

Monday (25-April-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey.

I was afraid I was going to miss the Plum Tree in bloom this year. The tree took a lot of hits this winter and some significant cuts by the power company.  I also got an image of a new maple leaf.

Early Spring Plum Bloom. Image taken with a Leica D-Lux 5 camera (ISO 100, 19.2 mm, f/3.3, 1/800 sec) (David J Mathre)
Early Spring Plum Bloom. Image taken with a Leica D-Lux 5 camera (ISO 100, 19.2 mm, f/3.3, 1/800 sec)
Early Spring Maple Tree Leaf. Image taken with a Leica D-Lux 5 camera (ISO 100, 14.9 mm, f/4, 1/1000 sec) (David J Mathre)
Early Spring Maple Tree Leaf. Image taken with a Leica D-Lux 5 camera (ISO 100, 14.9 mm, f/4, 1/1000 sec)

Saturday (23-April-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey.

It is raining today. A couple of images from near the house taken with a Leica X1 camera. The first is some daffodils still in bloom (most are already done) and the other of wet holly leaves. In both cases these are the “out of the camera” jpg images.

Spring Rain and Daffodils. Image taken with a Leica X1 (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/4.5, 1/125 sec). (David J Mathre)
Spring Rain and Daffodils. Image taken with a Leica X1 (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/4.5, 1/125 sec).
Spring Rain and Holly Leaves. Image taken with a Leica X1 (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/3.2, 1/50 sec). (David J Mathre)
Spring Rain and Holly Leaves. Image taken with a Leica X1 (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/3.2, 1/50 sec).

Friday (22-April-2011) — New Jersey

Springtime Nature in New Jersey. Sourland Mountain Preserve.

I found a Canada Goose nesting near the pond at the Sourland Mountain Preserve. This was the first time I visited this spring, and only had a small Leica point & shoot to take any images. The bird is well hidden, and has filled the nest with a bed of feathers. I’ll need to get back and check the nest out with a DSLR with a telephoto lens.

Nesting Canadian Goose, Sourland Mountain Reserve. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 20 camera (ISO 200, 49.2 mm, f/4.9, 1/125 sec) (David J. Mathre)
Nesting Canada Goose, Sourland Mountain Preserve. Image taken with a Leica V-Lux 20 camera (ISO 200, 49.2 mm, f/4.9, 1/125 sec)

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Thursday (21-April-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey

Pink Flower — Macro and Wide Depth of Field. I used the pink flower from yesterday as an exercise to practice with a macro lens, flash, and Helicon Focus to get a macro image of a flower with an extreme depth of field in focus. Ten images of the flower were taken from rear focus to front focus by manually adjusting the focus distance on the lens. The raw images were processed with Capture One Pro, converted to 16 bit Tiff files, and then processed with Helicon Focus. Even though the lens was set at f/22, the actual focus plane was very narrow and thus needing several focus distances for Helicon Focus.

Pink Flower Macro and Helicon Focus Study. Image taken with a Nikon D3x, 200 mm f/4 macro lens, and SB-200R flash (ISO 100, 200 mm, f/22, 1/60 sec). Composite of 10 focus layers combined using Helicon Focus. (David J Mathre)
Pink Flower Macro and Helicon Focus Study. Image taken with a Nikon D3x, 200 mm f/4 macro lens, and SB-200R flash (ISO 100, 200 mm, f/22, 1/60 sec). Composite of 10 focus layers combined using Helicon Focus. (David J Mathre)