Tag: Time-Lapse Video

Friday (05-February-2021) — New Jersey

Wintertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

More snow early this morning. I went out after the snow stopped to widen the path to the road using the Brush Mower with Snow-blower attachment. First had to replace the broken collar connecting the Snow-blower attachment to the Brush Mower. Luckily, an extra collar was included in the assembly kit from the manufacture. Some of the snow had melted and refrozen making the task more difficult. I need to get chains for the wheels. Time-lapse video taken with a Garmin VIRB-360 camera.

Daily Electric Energy Used (70.7 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (8.5 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny, however the solar panels still significantly covered with snow. Geothermal HVAC system on. A deficit of 62.2 kWh.

Seven-Years Ago (06-December-2013) — New Jersey

LG Combination Washer/Dryer Vibrations: Troll Family Dance

The combination LG washing machine/dryer arrived seven years ago. It was a bit of a challenge getting it into the house, and into the laundry room. Once in the laundry room, it was very easy to set-up. It only required a single outlet (120 V, 15 A), hot & cold water connections, and the drain. The previous electric dryer required higher voltage and current (220 V, 40 A), and an outdoor vent. There was a bit of vibration (actually a lot of vibration during the spin dry cycle until I leveled the unit). The house trolls quickly discovered that it worked as a great dance floor. The unit is still running (2020), although did have to replace the drain pump last year.

Daily Electric Energy Used (57.9 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (31.1 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny with some clouds. Geothermal HVAC system on. A deficit of 26.8 kWh.

Weekly Electric Energy Used (365 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (110 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. A deficit of 255 kWh.

Wednesday (16-September-2020) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

While out mowing the yard, one of the Trolls guarded a Mushroom growing in the backyard. After mowing, I cleared some of the invasive “mile-a-minute” vines, and came across a Praying Mantis. I tried to move it to safety, and if female hope it is able to lay eggs for next year.

Troll guarding a Mushroom. (David J Mathre)
Troll guarding a Mushroom while I mow the lawn. Image taken with a Leica SL2 camera and 24-90 mm lens. (David J Mathre)
Praying Mantis. (David J Mathre)
Praying Mantis. Image taken with a Nikon N1V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens. (David J Mathre)

Afternoon at the Birdfeeders: Mourning Dove, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Gray Catbird, House Finch, American Goldfinch, Song Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.


Afternoon at the Birdfeeders. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Contact me if you are interested in a Time-lapse Video of the Afternoon session at the Birdfeeders. My setup for the birdfeeder images is a Nikon D850 camera and 200 mm f/2 VR lens set to take one image every 5 seconds over a 5 hour period (~3600 images). The new time-lapse video format is 720p (1080 x 720 pixels) and 1 frame/second. The length of the video is about 1 hour in a 1 GB MP4 file. The previous time-lapse videos of the birdfeeders were at 12 frames/second, and to be honest were too fast to identify the birds.

Daily Electric Energy Used (41.0 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (47.2 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. More sun. A surplus of 6.2 kWh.

Tuesday (15-September-2020) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Out working on the patio, I harvested the Broccoli Rabe and Radishes in the Grow Towers. This opened up light for the Basil and Pepper plants. I also distributed worms in to the composting tubes in each Grow Tower. I used the Ricoh Theta Z1 360 degree camera to make time-lapse Little Planet videos of the work on the patio. Same workflow as yesterday: Theta Z1 Camera set to record images using program auto mode (shutter, aperture, white-balance, JPG + RAW (DNG) every 10 seconds. Camera mounted on a tripod just above head level. The camera collected ~ 360 images (~ 1 hour) before running out of internal storage space. The DNG dual fisheye images were processed with Capture One Pro, saved in TIF format. Then converted to 360 degree equirectangular pano images with PTGUI (batch process). The Little Planet time-lapse video was created using PhotoShop CC (image converted to 1:1 format (7430 x 7430), rotated 180 degrees, converted to polar coordinates, then exported as a MP4 video (1920 x 1920, 10p). Rotation to the video was added using Premiere Pro.

Daily Electric Energy Used (39.7 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (52.1 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. More sun. A surplus of 12.4 kWh.

Monday (14-September-2020) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Morning at the Birdfeeders: Mourning Dove, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Gray Catbird, House Finch, Song Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.


Morning at the Birdfeeders. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Contact me if you are interested in a Time-lapse Video of the Morning session at the Birdfeeders. My setup for the birdfeeder images is a Nikon D850 camera and 200 mm f/2 VR lens set to take one image every 5 seconds over a 5 hour period (~3600 images). The new time-lapse video format is 720p (1080 x 720 pixels) and 1 frame/second. The length of the video is about 1 hour in a 1 GB MP4 file. The previous time-lapse videos of the birdfeeders were at 12 frames/second, and to be honest were too fast to identify the birds.

Out on the patio, I planted some Garlic for next spring and watered the Grow Towers. Theta Z1 Camera set to record images using program auto mode (shutter, aperture, white-balance, JPG + RAW (DNG) every 10 seconds. Camera mounted on a tripod just above head level. The camera collected ~ 360 images (~ 1 hour) before running out of internal storage space. The DNG dual fisheye images were processed with Capture One Pro, saved in TIF format. Then converted to 360 degree equirectangular pano images with PTGUI (batch process). The Little Planet time-lapse video was created using PhotoShop CC (image converted to 1:1 format (7430 x 7430), rotated 180 degrees, converted to polar coordinates, then exported as a MP4 video (1920 x 1920, 10p). Rotation to the video was added using Premiere Pro.

Daily Electric Energy Used (48.6 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (51.5 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Lots of clouds. A surplus of 2.9 kWh.