Tag: Summertime

Thursday (30-June-2022) — New Jersey

Independence Day Fireworks

Montgomery Township typically celebrates Independence Day with fireworks several days before the 4th of July. The fireworks have been canceled the last couple of years due to Covid-19. The current infection rate is listed as moderate, so the township decided to go forward with the fireworks this year. Not far from where I live is a great location that overlooks the high school. I got there at about sunset. Several cars had already arrived, but I still found a good spot to set up two cameras on tripods. The settings I used were ISO 100, f/11, and an exposure of 4 or 8 seconds. I then used the images to produce the following time-lapse videos. I may go back later and add music.

Did anyone notice that I haven’t posted any bird, flower, or garden images during June? Is anyone out there… Other than the thousands of attempts to login and hack the site?

Daily Electric Energy Used (75.9 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (78.5 kWh) from Sense. Sunny. Surplus of 2.6 kWh.

Monthly Electric Energy Used (1987 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (1931 kWh) from Sense. Deficit of 56 kWh.

powered by Ambient Weather

Friday (17-September-2021) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Ruby-throated Hummingbird. This was one of the few times I saw the hummingbirds feeding on Zinnia and Morning Glory flowers. Most of the time they only went to the Canna flowers or hummingbird feeder.


Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Flowers of the day: Canna, Common Dayflower, Cosmos, Marigold, Morning Glory, Rose Mallow, Sunflower, Zinnia. Many of the flowers have rain water droplets.


Flowers of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery. <


Flowers of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

I now have a good set of Cattail plants growing in my frog pond.

Cattail. (David J Mathre)
Cattails in the Pond. Image taken with a Leica SL2 camera and 24-90 mm lens. (David J Mathre)

I noticed some strange looking mushrooms growing in the black tree mulch.


Fungi (Mushrooms) of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (45.4 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (11.3 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Cloudy and rain. Deficit of 34.1 kWh.

Sunday (21-June-2020) — New Jersey

Backyard Early Summer Nighttime Nature in New Jersey.

Now that it is summer, and a bit warmer at night, the fireflies stay active longer into the night. The battery in the camera died before the fireflies stopped flashing. Composite of images taken with a Leica SL2 camera and 24-90 mm lens (ISO 800, 66 mm, f/11, 60 sec). The problem with a high resolution sensor camera is the trails become sharper and don’t look as good unless viewed with a high resolution monitor.

Firefly Trails. Composite of images (21:35-02:04) taken with a Leica SL2 camera and 24-90 mm lens (ISO 800, 66 mm, f/11, 60 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Firefly Trails. Composite of images (21:35-02:04) taken with a Leica SL2 camera and 24-90 mm lens (ISO 800, 66 mm, f/11, 60 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)


Composite Firefly Trails in 30 minute intervals. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (57.1 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (75.6 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sun and intermittent clouds. A surplus of 18.5 kWh.

Weekly Electric Energy Used (321 kWh) from Sense. Weekly Solar Electric Energy Produced (463 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sun and intermittent clouds. A surplus of 142 kWh.


powered by Ambient Weather

Tuesday (02-July-2019) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Since I knew it was going to be hot out, I went out early to pull the invasive “mile-a-minute” vine from the section planted with daffodils. The daffodil flowers are long gone for this year and the section is getting full of weeds. While working outside, I wear a cotton jumpsuit to avoid being bitten by a tick. Been there, done that, don’t want it to happen again. I filled up a wagon load of the “mile-a-minute” vine before I got too hot. While pulling the weeds, I came across a toad that was living under the weeds. I decided to use a Leica CL as my main camera for the day. The following two images were taken using the 18-56 mm lens. The wildflower, and wildflower with insects images were taken with the 55-135 mm lens, and finally the rainbow image was taken with the 11-23 mm lens.

Mile-a-minute Vines. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18-55 mm, 55-135, or 11-23 mm lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Mile-a-minute Vines. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18-55 mm, 55-135, or 11-23 mm lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Toad. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18-55 mm, 55-135, or 11-23 mm lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Toad. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18-55 mm, 55-135, or 11-23 mm lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)

Click on the above image to access individual images in the wildflower gallery.


Click on the above image to access individual images in the insect gallery.


Backyard Evening Rainbow over the Weather Station. After the Thunderstorm. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 11-23 mm lens (ISO 100, 11 mm, f/4.5, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Backyard Evening Rainbow over the Weather Station. After the Thunderstorm. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 11-23 mm lens (ISO 100, 11 mm, f/4.5, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Power Use (54.9 kWh) from Sense and Solar Production (66.5 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. The outside temperatures were high, so the geothermal HVAC system was working hard.

Current Weather Conditions

powered by Ambient Weather

Four-Years Ago (12-August-2012) — New Jersey

Summertime Nature at the Sourland Mountain Preserve.

Clearwing Hummingbird Moth on a Thistle Bloom.  Image taken with a Nikon D4 and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/2.8, 1/1000 sec).

Clearwing Hummingbird Moth on a Thistle Bloom. Summer Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D4 and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/2.8, 1/1000 sec). (David J Mathre)
Clearwing Hummingbird Moth on a Thistle Bloom. Summer Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D4 and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/2.8, 1/1000 sec). (David J Mathre)