photoartflightHappy 4th Of July – Flag With Blue Dasher Dragonfly
Posted on July 4, 2022
Hope everyone has a Great & Safe 4th of July!
Happy Independence Day!
Brigantine Multi-Image Panoramas, Set 1
Posted on February 4, 2022
On our visit to the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR I was using a variety of cameras to make a series of multi-image panoramas. I shot a lot of images so I would have a “library” of images to use for posting here during the Winter months. I was using the following cameras – Canon R with a 150-600mm lens, Panasonic LX-1 Pocket Camera in 16×9 format, OM-D 1 Olympus with a 7.5mm Fisheye lens and a iPhone 11 Pro. For this post all images were with the iPhone 11 Pro with mostly the 1.5mm lens (Full Frame Field of View Equivalent ~ 13mm) & the 4.3mm lens (Full Frame Field of View Equivalent ~ 26mm). The Featured Image was taken early in the am before the Wildlife Drive got crowded. I used my iPhone 11 with the 4.3mm lens to take a series of 12 overlapping images for the panorama image.
First Junk Bug of the Season
Posted on August 12, 2021
I had not seen any Junk Bugs in our gardens so far this year until now. Some call them garbage bugs, or even trash bugs. We noticed this one working it’s way around the plants when were checking our gardens. It is actually a lacewing larva or sometimes they just get called a “junk bug” because of the junk it carries around on its back for disguise. The junk bug is actually a killer. The heap is often made up of dead bodies from the prey it eats. The junk bug, also known as an aphid lion, is a voracious predator, common around the world. The bug is actually the larval stage of the green lacewing, a delicate and lovely flying insect. The tiny larvae comes up with all sorts of creative disguises to confuse predators. I have seen these in other gardens, but never tried to find out what they were until a couple of years ago. But they do make interesting photo subjects!
New Jersey Brood X cicadas
Posted on June 6, 2021
We went to one of the local parks to see if we could find some dragonflies to photograph. As I was trying to get closer to one of the Dragonflies, I noticed a large insect on the plants along the path. I was surprised to see a very large Cicada with those big red eyes staring at me. I was very close so I used my iPhone 11 Pro with the 4.3mm lens to get a couple of images. The featured image is made from 2 iP11 images to get sharper focus on the Cicada eyes and then focused on the back wingtips. Apparently this is the year Cicadas will re-emerge in NJ from their 17 year life cycle. So I guess it will be getting really noisy soon! Thousands of Cicadas were seen on tree trunks, leaves and fence posts at the Updike Farm in Princeton, NJ.
Cicada, 2 image focus stack, iP11 Pro, 4.3mm lens
Cicada, iP11 Pro, 4.3mm lens
Cicada, 2 image Focus Stack, iP11 Pro, 4.3mm lens
Cicada, m43 Olympus, 100-300mm lens @ 300mm
The audio in the iPhone videos below are actually less loud then the actual sound being there!
Raindrops At Plainsboro Preserve
Posted on April 23, 2021
The other day we went to take a walk at the Audobon Plainsbore Preserve. It was a gray day but it is a nice location to walk, never knowing what you might see to photograph. It started to rain so we started heading back to the car. Along the way I noticed the raindrops looked interesting in the water along the path. I was using my iPhone iP11 Pro with the 6mm lens (Full Frame Equivalent Field of View ~ 52mm) since it was more weatherproof than my Olympus camera I had under my jacket. I quickly took 9 images thinking at least one might have interesting raindrop patterns in the water. As I was working on the images I thought why not use all 9 images to get even more raindrops & maybe a more interesting & colorful image. The Featured Image is 9 images, auto-blended in Photoshop. Blending the image allowed an assortment of colors from the sky in the water as the clouds were moving overhead. This gave an interesting blend of colors. The image below is just 1 of the images that make up the blended image. Which do you like?
Colorful Trees From Our Community
Posted on April 12, 2021
These images are from a recent walk in our community. I have not posted much lately because I scratched my cornea but it is feeling much better now. I also have a lot of Fisheye images to post soon. The images here are all taken with my iPhone 11 Pro. I noted in the captions when they are made with a series of multiple images for the final image. The Featured image is made from 8 handheld iPhone 11 images taken with the 1.5mm lens. (Full frame camera lens equivalent ~ 13mm.)
Very Rare NJ Snow Gator
Posted on February 16, 2021
The weather here in NJ started to get a little warmer and the heavy snow fall finally started to melt. Which meant we could actually get out for a walk. It felt Great to be able to get a nice walk outside. As we were walking I was surprised to see this very rare New Jersey Snow Gator warming on a sidewalk. It was one of the largest I have seen here. I managed to get a couple of images of this rare sighting. The featured image was taken with an iPhone 11 Pro with 6mm lens (Full Frame Equivalent 52mm). It was not moving so we were able to get by it and continued on our walk with the satisfaction of getting a few images of this rare NJ Snow Gator. If you come across one beware of it’s Frost Bite! Thanks for humoring me!
Sky & Trees Reflecting In Puddle
Posted on November 18, 2020
While taking a walk at Plainsboro Preserve I saw this puddle with the bright blue sky & trees reflecting in the water. I thought it looked interesting with the floating leaves in the water. I shot 2 vertical images with the 6mm lens on my iP11 Pro to make a 2 image pano fitting in most of the puddle and the reflecting sky & trees. Sometimes you have to look down to see interesting images.
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