krnaturalphoto's Blog 
I love perennials for their persistence and their return. The sign of things to come. But I also love annual flowers because they are this instant burst of light and color and beauty.
Many of our perennials take a season or seasons to grow and then flower. But As soon as the local plant nurseries open for the season we can go buy some fully bloomed and beautiful flowers. And we love to adorn our yard with flowers.
We were planning to go a week earlier than we did. And it turned out to be a good thing that we were delayed because that ended up being a cold week. As it would have it we would visit all our favorite greenhouses on what ended up being a gloomy and rainy day. But it was a light rain and not too cold at least.
We found many beautiful flowers to bring home and love and hopefully keep alive. Not always our strong suit. We are trying to be a little more strategic this year. Having some degree of a plan.
We paid closer attention to how certain types of plants did or did not grow where we had them planted last year. This time we are trying to plant them in the areas that will serve them best. We are trying to coordinate how to arrange our plants a little bit more as well.
My wife has arranged her flowers in the raised garden beds in a colorfully symmetrical way. I bought a few perennials to add to the yard, but the plants I focused on for annuals were Dahlias. They have become my favorite.
This year I planned to create a raised garden beds out in the yard specifically dedicated to a variety of Dahlias. We also have a section of our porch that does not get a ton of light so I found some varieties of Dahlias that were noted to only need partial son and planted those flowers in the raised garden beds in that area.
Luckily we have these raised garden beds etc. on our porch with a roof overhead because there were cold days right after buying the flowers where it could have frosted. And it looks like there are more cold days in the future. The roof will protect the more fragile annual flowers from the frost. And I have delayed planting the Dahlias in the yard for now. Hopefully I can get those planted soon.
I have many more plants I have overwintered in the basement and I would really like it to warm up enough to be safe from frost soon. That way I can bring all those flowers up and put them out in the sun and determine what I managed to successfully overwinter and what did not survive. I am really just looking forward to more plants growing and more beauty in our lives. And maybe a few more things to photograph.
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I loved the early spring season in NY. We live up on a hill which is surprisingly enough to lower the temperature by a few degrees on a regular basis. So spring take a little longer to arrive at our house. And plants need to be a little hardier up here.
This year despite having a few unseasonably warm days where it was near 80 degrees it has been mostly an early spring season with cold mornings often with frost or nearly cold enough for frost. Which if the forecast is for 35 then it very likely will be cold enough for frost at our house. This has taken a toll on our early spring plants this year.
Our cherry tree blossomed then quickly faded. Then our small magnolia tree was getting close to flowering and just as a few flowers bloomed it got cold overnight again and most of the flowers on the tree died.
Many of our perennials have begun rising up from the dirt. Sprouting and leafing out. Some of them are pretty hardy especially ones that don’t flower until much later in the year like phlox. But there’s like our two beautiful bleeding heart plants that began growing so well now look very wilted at the tips after several very cold nights. I am not sure how that will impact their growth the rest of the season. I also really liked the look of the twisted together leaves of our hosta plants as they merged from the ground. But when I photographed them it began evident how wilted some of the leaves looked.
I love this time of year because it is literally a time of growth and renewal. It inspires me and it makes me feel invigorated. But the overnight cold naps damaging the plants is a little dispiriting. I look forward to having the plants growing in my yard throughout the year. They are part of what I love about where I live. Having the opportunity o grow and cultivate our landscape and add to nature here. It is hard when things do not go smoothly.
But that is nature and life unravels in unexpected ways sometimes. Some days it is too hot and some days it is too cold. Yet we must endure. And we must go on. Keep growing. Hopefully the struggle for growth will make us stronger in the next season of life.
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“There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative. Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever.” – Henri Cartier-Bresson
If you like red flowers click the link to see: Blooming Cactus Flower.
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The best day of birdwatching locally that I have ever had, Maybe the best day of birdwatching overall.
I am not one who usually subscribes to the belief that everything happens for a reason. But, I do think if things happen for a reason they lie more in the mundane everyday aspects of life than they do int the big amazing miraculous ways. And I was able to enjoy this amazing day of birding because things didn’t go according to plan.
I was supposed to go running. But, I during my last run I had developed a small amount of pain in one leg. So I decided to give myself an extra rest day. And this extra rest day just happened to coincide with a beautiful sunny day outside.
So, if I had not had this little bit of pain and also been in a place in my trading I where my main focus is to just stay healthy and being extra cautious about any sign of injury, I probably would have went for a run instead of going out with my camera to look for birds. And the funniest part about it all is that I would have taken the same drive and ended up at the same place no matter if I had run or if I had been set to take photos.
I run a lot at one of my favorite local parks, Eldridge Park. And that is also one of the best places for local birding. I often keep tabs on the birding while I am there running and making a mental note if I see anything that I want to try and come back to photograph later.
So, if I had been on my regular routine I would have still seen all of these amazing birds, but been unable to enjoy them to this level if I had been running, And I would have regretted not having my camera, much more than I would regret one extra rest day. Also, I just ran the next day instead.
And one of the craziest parts of this amazing day of birding is that it all happened within just a few ours during the afternoon.
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“You don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.” – Ansel Adams
You can stumble across anything from flowers to waterfalls in a forest: East Jimmy Creek Falls.
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“The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live only as you can.” – Neil Gaiman
Eldridge Park is great for a variety of photography subjects from flowers to ducks: Eldridge Park Mallard.
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When I set out to take photos for a day I really like it if I can find a place where I can take a variety of different types of photographs all in one location. I love waterfalls and if I go to a place with waterfalls that is all I will probably photograph. So I need to go somewhere a little bit different. Someplace with a lot of space to move around. And one great place for that is Seneca Lake State Park at the north end of Seneca Lake.
There is a several mile long paved path that takes you all along the north shore of Seneca Lake. It makes for great opportunities to explore and see the scenery from different angles. You can casually walk around and see what you see and plan some interesting photos.
You might be lucky enough to be there on a day where people are out in the water having fun water sports recreation like I was in October of 2021. I was able to photograph the athletes off in the distance. I framed them with the horizon and the rocks along the near shore at the bottom. I did some post processing on the image to highlight the people having fun out in the water.
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“It takes more than one image to make sense out of anything. You can get lucky with one. You can get pretty lucky with five. You have to actually start getting your shit together a bit to have ten or 20 or more in a project” – Thomas Joshua Cooper
If you like trees enjoy this next photo of a birch tree in the forests of PA: Tree trunk and green leaves.
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Over the years there are three topics I have become increasingly interested in: The environment, Health, and Animal Welfare. I have engaged in these topics in a variety of ways from reading books and articles and listening to podcasts on the subjects to writing letters to government officials to encourage support or rejection of legislature, and donating to not for profits that support these causes. And finally it came to changing the way I lived my life.
Becoming a vegan
I haven’t eaten meat in at least a decade. And I stopped eating dairy several years ago. Changing to a plant based diet. I don’t know how long I have been eating this way because the amount of time I have been doing it has never been the goal or something to brag about. The commitment to keep doing it is all that matters.
Along with this shift in the way I eat has come the desire to eliminate the use of as many products as possible that are associated with harm to animals. I try to avoid products that are tested on animals for example. And I don’t wear clothing made from dead animals.
I tend to call myself a vegan because it is the easiest way for me to convey how I practice the art of living life on a daily basis. And make no mistake, living life is a practice. And in any practice we all make mistakes and no one is perfect.
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“Think like a pessimist but act like an optimist. Have modesty about your personal role in things, which is infinitesimally tiny. But you should act as if everything in the scheme of things depended on what you personally do. I am not a big believer in having opinions about the future. I am a believer about having opinions about the things you as an individual can and should do. I am going to act as if everything I do in the here and now really matters, without being a megalomaniac. I know it doesn’t. But I believe that if a million of us believe that what we do in the here and now matters, that will matter a lot.” – David Frum
Flowering trees are beautiful. There are some beautiful ones at Buttermilk Falls State Park. You just have to be there at the right time of year: Purple and white flowering trees.
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