krnaturalphoto's Blog 
“For twelve years this Nation was afflicted with hear-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing government. The nation looked to government but the government looked away. Nine mocking years with the golden calf and three long years of the scourge! Nine crazy years at the ticker and three long years in the breadlines! Nine mad years of mirage and three long years of despair! Powerful influences strive today to restore that kind of government with its doctrine that that government is best which is most indifferent. For nearly four years you have had an administration which instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves. We will keep our sleeves rolled up. We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace—business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that government by organized money is just as dangerous as government by organized mob.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
If like winter scenes click the link for a beautiful phot of a frozen lake in NY. Frozen Canandaigua Lake.
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When I first got into photography I imagined photographing majestic creatures. Bears, mountain lions, moose and similar animals. I was inspired by the types of stunning imagery you see in National Geographic.
And while I have been fortunate enough to se and photograph a few of those types of animals on occasion they do not make up the bulk of my wildlife photography. The real key is to come to appreciate the common and the underrepresented.
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Normally one of the activities I participate in most over the course of the year is running and I do a fair amount of running races. And then I like to write about it and I do a big recap at the end of the year about all my running adventures. Well this year I did much less running than normal due to an IT band issue. I only participated in two Running events and I only did any running in one of them. So, what in the world would I do with myself if I couldn’t run?
Enter cycling. I had been gradually getting more into cycling thanks to a running friend who also rides and does triathlons. My friend connected me with a someone who had this idea to ride around each of the 11 Finger Lakes over the spring and summer. This idea became the focus of my year. Initially I was planning to fit it into the background of my running plans during the spring because of events I had planned, but post injury it became my main focus.
Having one thing make up a major part of one’s identity can be a tricky high-wire to walk. And this has been happening for me progressively for running. Running is the main way I move my body and it is the main way I connect with other people.
Over the years I have been open to more different things in running. And as I have endured injury I have become more open to other activities in general. This had me primed for a boom in cycling this year.
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I don’t know if it good or bad that my favorite photos are both images that I created quite some time ago now. But at least that means I don’t have recency bias.
Part of the reason I like the first image from Lucifer’s crossing is that it required a lot of work to create that one image. I had to be on location to capture the photographs in the first place. Then review them and recognize what I could actually do with them. This image is a composite image created by combining 7 different images.
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How did I even get here? Well, ever since I became interested in endurance sports in the form of running I have been pursuing challenge. Maybe pursuing challenge is what I have always doing in all aspects of my life, but it has become increasingly obvious since I found running.
First running at all was a challenge. Then run a 5k. 5k became 10k. 10k became a half marathon. Became faster half marathons. Became trail running. Trail running introduced the concept of ultramarathon. 50k, 50 miles, 100 miles. I continued to challenge myself.
Then injury entered my life. Injury through me into cycling more than I ever had anticipated. I had only dabbled until recently. But when I could not run, but I could ride my bike and I went for it.
I would ride longer and longer distances. Then a friend said let’s ride around each of the 11 Finger Lakes in New York. A challenge that would challenge me and build me up to the point where I rode 100 miles. I did not see this coming. But I absolutely loved these bike adventures.
Along the way of this cycling journey the past few years I discovered gravel biking. This year I bought a gravel bike and began to dabble in that aspect of the sport. Gravel biking for me is the same as trail running. I love running period but I would prefer to always be trail running. And cycling is going the same way. I love riding and road riding is where most of my miles are because of convenience, but I would aspire to always be riding on a dirt road or a trail somewhere.
After visiting the local bike shop repeatedly I saw their advertisement for a race series they were a part of. It was all on gravel and dirt roads. It caught my interest. Cameron Crusher was up next. The final race of the series in October.
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When I first started creating these images it was completely by acccident. And I don’t think I liked them very much. They were not what I was hoping to create.
Now if I photograph an event and I come back without at least a few interesting swirly images I am a bit disappointed.
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In November I have had a couple of opportunities to photograph some races. It is always a fun experience to be out on a race course and capture the moments of runners putting in the effort. In early November I was out on the course for the Revenge of the Red Baron. One of the most challenging events the Southern Tier Running Club has to offer. Then at the end of the month I was on the course for the Pie and Glove 5k on Thanksgiving morning.
I just wanted to share a few of my favorite photos from these events.
Photos from Revenge of the Red Baron on 11/2/25.
The full album of photos can be found on Facebook here: STRC Revenge of the Red Baron Race Photos.
Photos from Pie and Glove 5K on 11/27/25.
The full album of photos can be found on Facebook here: STRC Pie and Glove 5k race photos.
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When we planned our adventure of riding around each of the 11 Finger Lakes we had things spaced out nicely so that we could slowly build our distance. We had time between each planned ride for more training and building our endurance as our distance climbed. But as we reached the end of our planned riding schedule things got a little cramped.
After having to delay our Seneca Lake ride because we were sick we were left with a choice. Delay our Cayuga Lake ride at least a week or ride our two biggest, longest, hardest rides on back to back weekends. If we stuck to our schedule we would have just a week between our rides. Would that be enough time to recover and then do an even longer ride?
We decided we wanted to go for it on back to back weekends. We worried that the longer we delayed the more likely we would be to run into weather issues. I for one was anxious and excited to get this ride done.
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The sky is rarely the same from moment to moment. That is except when there is a cloudless sky. And people often exclaim that it is a beautiful day with phrases such as a “bluebird sky”. And for me that doesn’t quite resonate.
Sure it is nice if it is sunny and warms up. But to me a cloudless sky is least interesting and isn’t particularly beautiful. And I don’t really like the feeling of too much direct sunlight on me. Especially as someone who spends a lot of time outside.
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On August 30, 2025 we set out to ride all the way around Seneca Lake. A route that would be over 82 miles. By far the most miles I would ride in a day to that point.
I was getting a little nervous in the lead up to this ride. Our previous high mileage day was when we rode around 2 different lakes back to back for a total of a little over 60 miles. During that day I was like burnt toast. Exhausted and overheated. I got off my bike to walk for the first time on any of our long rides during that ride. How was I going to survive 82 miles in the summer August heat?
We had what was in my opinion an unsuspecting stroke of luck in a form you would not have expected. The week we were supposed to undertake this ride both myself and my biking partner got sick. So we canned the ride for that week and pushed our schedule for our rides back one week. That landed us on 8/30 for Seneca Lake. And as luck would have it the temperatures were much more moderate for the ride on the 30th than they would have been if we had conducted the ride on the original date planned.
We had been getting most of our routes from the Bike The 11 Finger Lakes Challenge website. And one of the things I liked best about that was the routes generally tried to keep you off of the busiest highway roads. The route around Seneca Lake could be pretty simple mostly up Route 14 on the west side Then 96 and 414 on the east side. The route we followed kept us mostly off of those roads.
