Monday (08-July-2019) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

It rained most of the morning. Later in the afternoon, I did see a Clearwing Hummingbird Moth (Hemaris thysbe) in my Wildflower Meadow. Right now it is attracted to the Pink Cosmos and Zinnia flowers. I am trying different camera/lens combinations to get the best images of the Hummingbird Moth. Today I used a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (exclusively at 400 mm).


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



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




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




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




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




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




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




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


Daily Power Use (45.5 kWh) from Sense and Solar Production (37.9 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. It rained all morning, and the sun didn’t come out until midday so the power generation was low. The temperatures stayed low, so the geothermal HVAC system didn’t need to work as hard to keep the indoor cool. But, I still used 8.6 kWh more power than produced by the solar panels.

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Thursday (01-November-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Nature in New Jersey.

One of the few days since I returned from Portugal that the rain stopped. The Japanese Maple tree is bright red. One pink Cosmos flower remained, and the Zinnia flowers are on their last leg. I need to mow the remaining wildflowers, and plant for next spring.

Japanese Maple. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens (David J Mathre)
Japanese Maple. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens (David J Mathre)
Japanese Maple. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens (David J Mathre)
Japanese Maple. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens (David J Mathre)
Late Blooming Pink Cosmos Flower. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens (David J Mathre)
Late Blooming Pink Cosmos Flower. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens (David J Mathre)
Late Blooming Red Zinnia Flower. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens (David J Mathre)
Late Blooming Red Zinnia Flower. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens (David J Mathre)

Sunday (30-September-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Nature in New Jersey.

Now that the sun is back out, I noticed a Monarch Butterfly feeding on my small Zinnia flowers. It needs to leave for Mexico pretty soon, as it is starting to get cool at night. I had to use the jpg image, because neither Adobe or Capture One recognize the raw files from the Fuji X-T3 camera.

Update: The latest update to Capture One (11.3) does recognize the raw file. The pink flower is not overblown when Capture One was used to reprocess the image. Also, when I reviewed my image database I found images of Monarch Butterflies from late October last year.

Monarch Butterfly on a Pink Zinnia Flower. Image taken with a Fuji X-T3 camera and 100-400 mm OIS telephoto zoom lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)
Monarch Butterfly on a Pink Zinnia Flower. Image taken with a Fuji X-T3 camera and 100-400 mm OIS telephoto zoom lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). JPG image processed with Capture One Pro. (David J Mathre)
Monarch Butterfly on a Pink Zinnia Flower. Image taken with a Fuji X-T3 camera and 100-400 mm OIS telephoto zoom lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro. (David J Mathre)
Monarch Butterfly on a Pink Zinnia Flower. Image taken with a Fuji X-T3 camera and 100-400 mm OIS telephoto zoom lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro. (David J Mathre)

Saturday (04-August-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Hummingbird Clearwing Moth

Clearwing Hummingbird Moth. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 200, 80 mm, f/2.8, 1/2900 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Clearwing Hummingbird Moth. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 200, 80 mm, f/2.8, 1/2900 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)


Thursday (19-July-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

The Monarch Butterfly is back in my wildflower garden. It likes the Zinnia flowers. Images taken with three different camera lens combos (Nikon D5 camera and 70-200 mm f/2.8 lens; Nikon D850 camera and 105 mm f/1.4 lens; and Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens).

Monarch Butterfly Leaving a Zinnia Flower. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 70-200 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 200 mm, f/8, 1/250 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)
Monarch Butterfly Leaving a Zinnia Flower. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 70-200 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 200 mm, f/8, 1/250 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)




Summer Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 70-200 mm f/2.8 lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Summer Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 70-200 mm f/2.8 lens (DAVID J MATHRE)