Time-Lapse Video - David Mathre Photography

Monday (10-June-2013) — At Sea

Gone to See Europe. Semester at Sea Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage on the MV Explorer. Day 45: At Sea between Stockholm and Copenhagen.

Late night or early in the morning (hard to tell this far north when there isn’t much darkness at night) I looked out my cabin window on the MV Explorer and saw the electric blue Noctilucent clouds. I read about them before (http://www.spaceweather.com/), but had never seen them. The clouds are ice crystals that are very high that you can only see for a short time when the sun is below the horizon. One theory is the crystals are nucleated when micro-meteors pass through the upper atmosphere. We were in the Baltic Sea traveling from Stockholm to Copenhagen and the sun doesn’t set until very late I set up a camera in my cabin and took a set of 99 images that I made into this time-lapsed video (Nikon D4 camera, 28 mm f/1.8 lens (ISO 200, 28 mm, f/1.8, 1 sec)).

Wednesday (05-December-2012) — New Jersey

Indoor Autumn Nature in New Jersey: Cricket Dance.

A few days ago I noticed a number of crickets in my basement. They are a silent variety as I haven’t heard any chirping. Once I get them identified, I’ll figure out if they are harmful or if I just ignore them. For now they are a good subject for a time-lapsed video. I set up a camera and flash to take an image every 15 seconds overnight.

Six-Years Ago (24-November-2006) — New Jersey

Backyard Vandalism in New Jersey. A Tree in my Backyard Decorated with Toilet Paper.

An interesting night six years ago. I set up my Nikon D200 camera with a 10.5 mm fisheye lens to take wide-angle night sky images from my backyard. I actually put the camera quite a way back from the house, because I wanted to have the camera looking north in my back yard so I could see Polaris (the north star) above the roof of my house. I was still early in a learning mode on how to do night skies and star trails (30 second images + 30 second long exposure noise reduction) once every 2 minutes. I started the exposures beginning about 18:30 H (6:30 PM). The EN-EL3e battery used in the D200 camera had about a 2 hour life, especially when it was cold outside. I had to go out to change the battery every ~ hour. A little after 20:00 H (8:00 PM) I realized that a tree in my back yard had been toilet papered. Going through the images taken by the camera, I could tell when it happened. I am just glad that they didn’t trip over and/or take the camera and tripod. This was reported to the local Montgomery Township police, but nothing ever came of the report.

Toilet Papered Tree. Image taken with Nikon D2xs and 18-200 mm VR lens (ISO 800, 18 mm, f/3.5, 1/60 sec). (David J Mathre)

Time lapsed video of night sky looking north. The images were taken with a Nikon D200 and 10.5 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 100, f/2.8, 30 sec).

Monday (12-November-2012) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Night Sky in New Jersey: Star Trails and Time-Lapse Video.

Last Night I tried to do some night sky photography. I had to give up after less than 3 hours as clouds moved in. With the images I had I did some star trail images, and a short time-lapsed video including the 15 minute star trail images.

Startrails Late Fall Night Sky in New Jersey. Composite of 175 images taken with a Nikon D800 and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 14 mm, f/2.8, 60 sec) using the Startrails program. (David J Mathre)

Wednesday (21-December-2011) — South Carolina to Florida

Gone to See America. December 2011 Florida Road Trip. Day 2: South Carolina to Florida.

I set up a Nikon 1 V1 camera and 10 mm f/2.8 lens on a tripod rigged into the passenger seat, and started driving south. The camera was set to take images every 10 seconds, auto ISO, f/2.8, focus manual (infinity), auto shutter speed. I would have to stop and change the battery every hour or so. The images were then used to produce the following time-lapse video of the road trip.