David Mathre Photography

This Day of the Year

  • Montgomery Township typically has its Independence Day fireworks display several days before the 4th of July. This year, for the Quarter Millennium (or Semi-quincentennial) celebration, it was Thursday night (25-June-2026).

    I set my cameras up on Grandview Road at a location with a clear view of township high school where the celebration takes place. It is approximately 2 km from where the fireworks are launched. The sky was partly overcast with the moon shining down. I mounted the cameras on tripods pointing toward where the fireworks would be launched. The cameras were set in manual mode to use the base ISO (50, 64, or 100), f/11, 8 second exposures with the internal intervalometer set to continuously take images until stopped. I confirmed there were memory cards in all of the cameras, and the batteries were fully charged.

    While I waited for the sky to get dark a number of other cars started parking along the road. Soon the fireflies started flashing. The fireworks display started at about 21:20. Last year 2025 the fireworks start was delayed about 5 minutes as a freight train passed. Once the fireworks started, I checked that the fireworks were framed on the camera display, tweaked the focus, and started the intervalometer. In some of the images you can see the light trail of at least one drone that circled the event.

    Camera 1 (230mm, ISO 64, f/11, 8 sec): Portrait Crop. Individual images can be viewed in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

    Camera 2 (90 mm, ISO 64, f/11, 8 sec): Landscape Crop. Individual images can be viewed in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

    Camera 2 (90 mm, ISO 64, f/11, 8 sec): Portrait Crop. Individual images can be viewed in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

    Camera 3 (100 mm, ISO 50, f/11, 8 sec): Landscape Crop. Individual images can be viewed in my PhotoShelter Gallery

    Camera 3 (100 mm, ISO 50, f/11, 8 sec): Portrait Crop. Individual images can be viewed in my PhotoShelter Gallery

    Camera 4 (90 mm, ISO 50, f/11, 8 sec): Landscape Crop. Individual images can be viewed in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

    Camera 4 (90 mm, ISO 50, f/11, 8 sec): Portrait Crop. Individual images can be viewed in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

    Camera 5 (200 mm, ISO 64, f/11, 8 sec): Portrait Crop. Individual images can be viewed in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

    Camera 6 (105 mm, ISO 100, f/11, 8 sec): Landscape Crop. Individual images can be viewed in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

    Camera 6 (105 mm, ISO 100, f/11, 8 sec): Portrait Crop. Individual images can be viewed in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

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  • The fireflies in my backyard are out in force this year. I set up two cameras to take a series of images of a pair of backyard garden gnomes from a distance of 75 and 200 feet to capture the firefly trails as they flashed during the night. The images were processed with Capture One Pro and composite created using Photoshop (scripts, statistics, maximum). Camera 1: Nikon Z9, 600 mm f/4 lens (ISO 800, f/11, 30 sec). Camera 2: Nikon Zf, 500 mm f/5.6 (ISO 800, f/11, 30 sec). Each composite used ~ 480 images taken over 4.5 hours.

    Pair of Backyard Garden Gnomes Meditating in a Cloud of Fireflies.
    Pair of Backyard Garden Gnomes Meditating in a Cloud of Fireflies. Composite of 480 images taken by a Nikon Z9 camera and 600 mm f/4 lens (ISO 800, f/11, 30 sec). Images processed with Capture One Pro and PhotoShop (scripts, statistics, maximum).
    Pair of Backyard Garden Gnomes Meditating in a Cloud of Fireflies.
    Pair of Backyard Garden Gnomes Meditating in a Cloud of Fireflies. Composite of 480 images taken by a Nikon Zf camera and 500 mm f/5.6 lens (ISO 800, f/11, 30 sec). Images processed with Capture One Pro and PhotoShop (scripts, statistics, maximum).

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  • Ten years ago, the MV World Odyssey was docked in San Diego. It would be my home for the next 100+ days for the Semester at Sea Spring 2016 voyage as it circumnavigated the globe from Mexico to England.

    Seagull with the MV World Odyssey in the background. San Diego Harbor, California. Waiting for the Semester at Sea, Spring 2016 Voyage to begin. Nikon 1 V3 camera and 10-30 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/10, 1/125 sec). Image Processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, and Photoshop CC.
    Seagull with the MV World Odyssey in the background. San Diego Harbor, California. Waiting for the Semester at Sea, Spring 2016 Voyage to begin. Nikon 1 V3 camera and 10-30 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/10, 1/125 sec).
    Brown Pelican. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 264 mm, f/5.6, 1/320 sec)
    Waiting at the Semester at Sea Registration Line. San Diego Harbor Hilton Hotel. Nikon 1 V3 camera and 10-30 mm lens.

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