krnaturalphoto's Blog 
One of my favorite places to visit for photography is Cornell Botanic Gardens and Arboretum. There are so many varieties of beautiful flowers growing and blooming at all times of the year. From wildflower gardens to gardens outside the visitor center and then even flowering trees up in the arboretum. And there is so much more.
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Yesterday my dad texted me and asked if I wanted to go look for birds later. I quickly responded and told him that I did if our schedules lined up. And they lined up perfectly. I had time to go to the pool and get my swim in for triathlon training. Then after my swim I went and picked up my dad so we could go birdwatching.
My dad recently told me he had seen a Great Egret down at the river. So we went over to the Chemung river to look for one. We stood along the flood walls right in town and peered down into the river. This is a perfect spot for birding and photography because I can lean on the wall and rest my arms from holding my large and heavy birding lens.
We quickly spotted our quarry. And they slowly stalked the low water areas amongst the rocks. Picking around and nabbing mostly objects we could not readily see. It was interesting to see the Egret this time of year. Mostly we see them at the end of the summer or early fall in this area.
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I have been involved in running for a long time now. I have run all sorts of races. 5k- 100 miles. Road to trails. Solo and relay. Flat and fast pavement to up and down ski slopes. Even on snow shoes. And I also run with my dog.
I have also been involved as a volunteer. I am in my second stint on the board of directors of our local all volunteer non profit running club, the southern Tier Running Club. In my past volunteer work on the board my involvement in helping to put on races was more on task oriented side of things. As in the Race Director would let me know what needed to be done and I would do that thing. Especially when it came to course set up and break down during an event. And I also photographed events.
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“What would you do, cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil? … and when the law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide … the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws from coast to coast. Man’s laws, not God’s. And if you cut them down … do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I give the Devil benefit of law for my own safety’s sake.” – Robert Bolt, A Man for all Seasons
Sometimes it is a perfect view to capture the image of some big beautiful flowers: Singled out pink flower.
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I never expected to enjoy gardening as much as I do. Particularly having flower gardens and planting flowers.
At first I mainly saw flowers as subjects for photography. And that is still a huge part of the reason I love having flowers. But I also love the beauty they bring to our yard. I also love that they bring so many different birds, insects, and other wildlife to our yard as sources of food etc.
Watching hummingbirds, butterflies, and moths feed on the nectar from flowers is so tranquil. Other birds eating the seeds of flowers after they complete their bloom cycle is joyful to watch.
Over the years that we have been planting flowers in our yard I have cycled through different varieties of flowers that have been my favorites. But I have really gravitated to Dahlia’s in recent years. They are annuals that come in a wide variety of types and colors. There are soooo many different colors. Some are tall and skinny stalk plants and some have huge blooms.
And what I really like is that they are pretty reliable to overwinter. That way I don’t have to buy quite so many every year. I created a set up in my basement where I keep them safe from the cold of winter. And as spring approaches they start to grow again and then once frost finally starts I will put them back outside agian.
These photos are from my first Dahlias that I overwintered this year to start flowering. I have been waiting so long, so I wanted to show them off a little. Maybe some day if our crazy spring weather in upstate NY didn’t keep throwing random days of frost at us I would be able to put them outside earlier and maybe get blooms earlier in the year.
These flowers actually started blooming on the 4th of July.
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We love to visit our state parks. And one of our favorite parks to visit is Letchworth State Park. I think in the last several years it has become an annual visit to the park at least once a year.
One of the reasons we love Letchworth State Park is that it is a huge park with lots of space. And that makes it a great place for us to visit with our dogs. Our dogs love a variety of interactions and they can get everything they need and want here.
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“Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites. … Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.” – Edmund Burke
It seems like there aren’t many flowers in nature that are blue. But this one above from the gardens. Then tiny little ones like this in nature: Creeping Speedwell.
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There are not many races that I run year after year. But Sehgahunda Trail Marathon and Relay keeps bringing me back. It takes place at a beautiful state park, that has so much to explore. The trails are some of my favorites to run on. Not too much climbing (my nemesis). And there are a variety of ways to participate in the event.
I have run this event in every configuration possible. Solo full marathon, 4 person relay multiple times, 2 person relay, 3 person relay. The only thing left is to run Sehgahunda in conjunction with the Vail of 3 Falls races the next day for a Sehgahunda 72 finish. But I don’t know if I will ever actually do that.
So, in mid May I was back for another run of Sehgahunda.
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“And if we dare to look into those eyes, then we shall feel their suffering in our hearts. More and more people have seen that appeal and felt it in their hearts. All around the world there is an awakening of understanding and compassion, and understanding that reaches out to help the suffering animals in their vanishing homelands. That embraces hungry, sick, and desperate human beings, people who are starving while the fortunate among us have so much more than we need. And if, one by one, we help them, the hurting animals, the desperate humans, then together we shall alleviate so much of the hunger, fear, and pain in the world. Together we can bring change to the world, gradually replacing fear and hatred with compassion and love. Love for all living beings.” – Jane Goodall
Shelter dogs are some of the most amazing animals and it has been my privilege to photograph them: Hunter from Stray Haven.
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“An essential element in the meaning of the common good among the members of a group is what the members would choose if they possessed the fullest attainable understanding of the experience that would result from their choice and its most relevant alternatives. Because enlightened understanding is required, I would propose to incorporate opportunities to acquire enlightened understanding as essential also to the meaning of the common good. Still further, the rights and opportunities of the democratic process are elements of the common good. Even more broadly, because the institutions of polyarchy are necessary in order to employ the democratic process on a large scale, in a unit as large as a country all of the institutions of polyarchy should also be counted as elements of the common good.” – Robert Dahl, 1989
If you like this image check out this photo looking the other way from deep in the gorge at Letchwoth State Park: Lower Falls, Letchworth State Park.
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