David Mathre Photography

This Day of the Year

  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Eleven-Years Ago Today. Semester at Sea Summer 2014 Semester Voyage.

    Dawn pink clouds over the Atlantic Ocean viewed from the deck of the MV Explorer as we traveled from England to Portugal. I was out most mornings and evenings to watch the sun rise and set while on the Semester at Sea voyages. Semester at Sea no longer does the Enrichment Voyages or the Summer Semester Voyages.

    Pink clouds at dawn over the Atlantic Ocean from the deck of the MV Explorer. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera.
    Pink clouds at dawn over the Atlantic Ocean. Viewed from the deck of the MV Explorer. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera.

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