Four-Years Ago (31-July-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Summer Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey.

Star Trails taken by three cameras. (1) Looking North: Nikon D3s camera and 24 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 400, 24 mm, f/4, 30 sec). (2) Looking South: Nikon D3 camera and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 400, 24 mm, f/4, 30 sec). (3) Looking South and Up: Nikon D3x camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 400, 14 mm, f/4, 30 sec). One hour composite star trail images. Dew settled on the 14-24 mm lens making the center of the image darker and making it look like there are few stars.




Individual images from the slide shows can be viewed here.

Seven-Years Ago (31-July-2008) — Colorado

Summer Nighttime Sky Over Colorado.

Star trails from my room at the Marriott Residence Inn in Boulder, Colorado. Composite of 180 images taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/5.6, 30 sec exposures). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro 8, and combined using Photoshop CC 2014 (scripts, statistics, maximum). Note that these images were taken using the in-camera intervalometer and noise reduction so for every minute, only 30 seconds of exposure. I’ve learned how to do it better since then — using an external intervalometer and doing the noise reduction post processing.

Star trails from my room at the Marriott Residence Inn in Boulder, Colorado. Composite of 180 images taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/5.6, 30 sec exposures). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro 8, and combined using Photoshop CC 2014 (scripts, statistics, maximum). (David J Mathre)
Star trails from my room at the Marriott Residence Inn in Boulder, Colorado. Composite of 180 images taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/5.6, 30 sec exposures). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro 8, and combined using Photoshop CC 2014 (scripts, statistics, maximum). (David J Mathre)

Seven-Years Ago (30-July-2008) — Colorado

Summer Night Sky Over Boulder, Colorado.

Startrails from my room at the Marriott Residence Inn in Boulder, Colorado. Composite of 200 images taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/5.6, 30 sec exposures). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro 8, and combined using Photoshop CC 2014 (scripts, statistics, maximum).

Summer Nighttime Sky Over Boulder. Composite of 200 images taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 24 mm lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/5.6, 30 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro, and the composite generated using Photoshop CC (statistics, maximum) (David J Mathre)
Summer Nighttime Sky Over Boulder. Composite of 200 images taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 24 mm lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/5.6, 30 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro, and the composite generated using Photoshop CC (statistics, maximum) (David J Mathre)

Wednesday (29-July-2015) — New Jersey

Summer Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey.

Nearly Full Moon Sequence. In camera composite of moon images taken with a Nikon D4 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 100, 600 mm, f/16, 1/60 sec). Images taken every 2 minutes. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 8, Focus Magic, and Photoshop CC.

It is two nights before the July Full “Blue Moon” but I am not sure that the sky will be clear on that night so I took this sequence early this morning.

Nearly Full Moon Sequence. In camera composite of moon images taken with a Nikon D4 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 100, 600 mm, f/16, 1/60 sec). Images taken every 2 minutes. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 8, Focus Magic, and Photoshop CC. (David J Mathre)
Nearly Full Moon Sequence. In camera composite of moon images taken with a Nikon D4 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 100, 600 mm, f/16, 1/60 sec). Images taken every 2 minutes. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 8, Focus Magic, and Photoshop CC. (David J Mathre)

Tuesday (14-July-2015) — New Jersey

Backyard Summer Nighttime Nature in New Jersey.

Firefly Trails. Backyard Summer Nature in New Jersey. Composite of 250 images taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 55-200 mm lens (ISO 1600, 100 mm, f/8, 30 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro then combined with Photoshop CC (statistics/maximum).

Firefly Trails. Composite of 253 images taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 55-200 mm lens (ISO 1600, 100 mm, f/8, 30 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and the composite generated using Photoshop CC (statistics, maximum). (David J Mathre)
Firefly Trails. Composite of 253 images taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 55-200 mm lens (ISO 1600, 100 mm, f/8, 30 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and the composite generated using Photoshop CC (statistics, maximum). (David J Mathre)