David Mathre Photography

This Day of the Year

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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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  • 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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  • 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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