Backyard Wintertime Nature in New Jersey.


David's Images of the Day Photoblog
The Turkey Vultures keep getting closer. There were nearly 40 in my neighbor’s yard and trees before I went out to take some pictures. I don’t want them on my roof leaving their droppings on the solar panels!
The predicted snow didn’t happen. Instead heavy rain last night (~ 1.8 inches. When I woke up it was foggy out and warm (~ 45 °F). During the day the temperature is forecast to drop 30-40 degrees with heavy winds. During the day the sky cleared so I plan to see and photograph the lunar eclipse (“Wolf Blood Moon”). It will be cold, and I will need to tie down the camera tripods.
Individual images from the slideshow can be viewed here.
I woke up early, and could see some interesting dawn colors developing. I set up a Fuji X-T3 camera and a brand new Fujion 8-16 mm f/2.8 lens to take a series of images for a time-lapse video. I also brought out a Leica T camera with a 11-23 mm lens for some dawn panorama images. I had forgotten how ornery the Leica T camera is in cold weather. It was a little below freezing (26°F, -3°C). I had a hard time changing the camera settings, so did the best I could. I’ve said this before, it is difficult to believe that a German designed and built camera doesn’t work well at temperatures below freezing. When I asked Leica about this their response was the working temperature specifications for the camera only went down to 0°C. Doesn’t it ever get colder than that in Germany??? In addition to the dawn panorama images, I’ve included some showing a swarm of Turkey Vultures starting to soar just before sunrise.