David Mathre Photography

This Day of the Year

  • Quarter Millennium Independence Day Fireworks Celebration (25-June-2026)

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    David Mathre
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    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.

    Links to Montgomery Township fireworks from previous years: 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2011

    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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  • Backyard Garden Gnomes Meditating in a Cloud of Fireflies (24-June-2026)

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    David Mathre
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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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  • Spraying Mile-a-Minute Vine (17-August-2025)

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  • Dead Tree Removal (21-July-2025)

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  • Independence Day Fireworks (26-June-2025)

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    Montgomery Township New Jersey. Independence Day Fireworks.

    Montgomery Township typically celebrates Independence Day with fireworks several days before the 4th of July. I live near a great location that overlooks the high school where the township holds the Independence Day celebration. It is away from the crowds. I got there just before sunset. One car arrived before me but there was still plenty of space to set up the tripods and cameras. In 2023, one camera wasn’t in focus, so I made sure all of the cameras were set up, framed and focused. I confirmed that the memory cards were inserted, and the batteries fully charged. Also, since the cameras were all on tripods, I made sure that the “vibration reduction/stabilization” was turned off. As it got dark a few fireflies were visible, but since the fireworks are orders of magnitude brighter than the fireflies you won’t see both in the images. I set the cameras up as follows: Base ISO (50, 64, or 100 depending on the camera), f/11, and 8 second exposures with the intervalometer set to repeat until stopped. It appeared that the folks running the show waited for a train to pass before starting. The fireworks started just before 21:25. It took a little bit of time to confirm the framing, focus, and to start the interval timers.

    Images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

    Images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

    Images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

    Images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

    Images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

    Montgomery Township Fireworks from previous years. 27-June-2024, 29-June-2023, 30-June-2022, 28-June-2018, 28-June-2012, 30-June-2011

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    One response to “Independence Day Fireworks (26-June-2025)”

    1. Khürt Williams Avatar
      Khürt Williams

      My family and I have attended the township’s fireworks since we moved here in 2001—except during the pandemic, of course. When they started hosting the event at the high school, I began photographing them regularly. It became a bit of a tradition. Over time, I started documenting the entire event—not just the fireworks display, but also the atmosphere leading up to it: the golden light at sunset, the anticipation, the small gatherings of families and friends on blankets and lawn chairs. We haven’t gone in the last two or three years, though. With the kids out of the house, I think my wife no longer feels a reason to endure the heat, the bugs, or the hassle.

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  • Whitetail Dragonfly on a Stick (20-June-2008)

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    David Mathre
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    Seventeen-Years Ago Today. Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

    I noticed this dragonfly on a stick while on my afternoon backyard walkabout. This was on the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. It is a male Common Whitetail Dragonfly (Plathemis lydia) also known as a longtail skimmer. I see them quite often in the back yard, more so now that I have enlarged the pond. I consider them valuable since they consume mosquitoes (both adult and mosquito larvae). This one seems to have part of its rear wing damaged. You can spend hours watching their aerial acrobatics while guarding their territory.

    Dragonfly on a stick. Backyard spring nature in new Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 200 mm f/2 telephoto lens and TC-E II 2x teleconverter (ISO 900, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/1000 sec).
    Dragonfly on a stick. Backyard spring nature in new Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 200 mm f/2 telephoto lens and TC-E II 2x teleconverter (ISO 900, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/1000 sec).

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  • Wrong Side of the Fence (19-June-2019)

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    David Mathre
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    Six-Years Ago Today. Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey.

    Garden Gnome caught on the wrong side of the electric deer fence. It looks like the American Crow was on guard duty. The electric deer fence was not effective keeping the deer out and ultimately was replaced with an eight-foot-tall deer fence. A project completed while staying at home during the Covid-19 period.

    American Crow and Garden Gnome. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS telephoto zoom lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/320 sec).

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  • Hairy Spider (18-June-2018)

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    David Mathre
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    Seven-Years Ago Today. Springtime Nature in New Jersey.

    I noticed this hairy spider with some iridescent green at my front door. It stuck around long enough for me to get a camera with a macro lens. I think it is fascinating how many eyes spiders have. I just wish it would do a better job keeping the stink-bug population down.

    Hairy Spider at my Front Door. Image taken with a Leica TL2 camera and 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 160, f/4, 1/160 sec).
    Hairy Spider at my Front Door. Image taken with a Leica TL2 camera and 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 160, f/4, 1/160 sec).

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  • Wildflower Meadow Selfie (16-June-2020)

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    David Mathre
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    Five-Years Ago Today. Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey.

    Back in the days of Covid-19 I had the backyard wildflower meadow as my own private outdoor retreat. This is a Little Planet selfie view of the wildflower meadow. The main flowers at that time were the yellow Lance-leaf Coreopsis. There are also a few Red Poppies, Larkspur, and Blue Cornflowers (Bachelor Buttons). This was before the new 8-foot deer fence. Back then I was using a lower electric fence that the deer would jump over. So, the main wildflowers were the ones that the deer didn’t eat. I wore the overalls to protect myself from the deer ticks.

    Wildflower Meadow — Little Planet View. Image taken with a Garmin VIRB-360 camera (ISO 100, 1 mm, f/2, 1/1996 sec).

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  • Honeysuckle Flowers (15-June-2018)

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    David Mathre
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    Seven-Years Ago Today. Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey.

    I love the smell of the Honeysuckle flowers. I used to have a lot of the vines growing in my backyard. In recent years I haven’t seen as many of the flowers. This week I did see a vine and some of the flowers on the deer fence which I will leave and hope more return.

    Honeysuckle Flowers. Image taken with a Leica TL2 camera and 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens.
    Honeysuckle Flowers. Image taken with a Leica TL2 camera and 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens.

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About the author

I am a scientist by training (Eckerd College, BSc; Caltech, Ph.D.). I worked for 27 years as a Chemist in the Pharmaceutical Industry developing processes to manufacture medicines for human and animal health. I now spend my time as a photographer and world traveler. My interests include the natural world, wildlife, landscapes, sky, and seascapes, travel, and astrophotography. I look for unique ways of viewing the world and presenting my images. I have traveled to over 55 countries in six continents, often on Semester at Sea voyages. While at home in New Jersey, I spend time observing and photographing the plants and animals while expanding a wildflower garden/meadow in the backyard. When the sky is clear, I have telescopes viewing the night sky.

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