krnaturalphoto's Blog 
When I was planning out this part of the year Hills Creek Challenge was supposed to be an important race for my running season. This was to be the testing ground for my for my fitness going into th final weeks before my big goal race for the season taking on an event I had never done before with challenges I had never faced before. An event that I didn’t know if I could complete. Hills Creek Challenge was supposed to be a huge stepping tone on that journey.
That big race, Cayuga Trails 50 mile, has now been pushed until next year. I have officially withdrawn from the 2025 event.
I was really hoping to still run at least some at Hills Creek Challenge. My goal of getting to 50 miles in 12 hours was dashed. I just wanted to go there and have a good time. I wanted to rack up as many miles as I could. Maybe get in a 50k in 12 hours.
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I am going to say something that a my younger self would never thought possible. I love running.
My first love in sports was baseball. Then I developed a love of football and played football throughout high school.
But developing a new sports love as an adult is a whole new joyful experience. Welcome to my life running.
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I love trees. I find them endlessly fascinating for reasons I find difficult to articulate. And recent books I have read about trees have only stoked my curiosity.
Among trees I am particularly drawn to flowering trees. Native wild flowering trees specifically catch my eye. They often seem random.
Walk through a wooded area often enough and at different times of year and suddenly you will see this burst of color where there was none before.
Of these flowering trees my favorite is the Dogwood.
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I love having something fun to do outside. If it involves me going somewhere outside my normal area I like to try and make a day of it. I will try to cram as much activity as I can into one trip.
Recently a friend “convinced” me to take on the challenge of biking around each of the 11 Finger Lakes in New York over the course of this year. It really didn’t take any convincing. I was in as soon as it was mentioned. And we planned a trip to ride our third lake. This trip was to ride around Owasco Lake.
I knew approximately where Owasco Lake was and I knew that there was a state park nearby. A park that I have not been to many times. A park that I have been wanting to make time to get to. Fillmore Glen State Park was right close by to where we would be starting our bike ride. And that gave me an idea.
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I love to get out in nature. Hiking or running. Often with a camera.
One thing I always enjoy is noticing what flowers are in bloom during different times of the year.
Wildflowers are one of my favorite types of plants because they live in harmony with the environment. They seem to spend most of their time seemingly dormant or underground. They are often just a patch of green mixed in amongst everything else in the landscape.
Then BOOM. A Burst of color where there previously was none. And the color is often short lived. The flowers have evolved to perfectly exploit this one single niche. Bloom Now. This is our time. Then recede.
My favorite wildflower is the Bluet.
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As a person who experiences significant social anxiety I find it easier to meet and connect with people if I know we already have a common thread where I can relate to them. Thing is enjoy in life divide roughly into two categories. I love the artistic and creative parts of life and I love being active especially if it is outside. When I can weave these two things into connecting with other people that is my sweet spot.
I find connection to my dad in the artistic parts of life. We both create a lot of nature themed art. In a lot of ways I get this from him. We both love nature and inspire each other through our work.
One thing we both love is birds. Our art often features birds. To make birds a part of our art we have to make birds part of our lives.
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I have really grown to love flowers. I probably photograph them as much if not more than any other subject. Especially since I have really gotten to enjoy planting them and growing them right at home.
I really enjoy perennial flowers. Flowers that regrow and flower year after year. Observing how different flowers return and grow at different times of year. Their genetic makeup and the environment working together to shape how they grow and bloom.
My favorite of these flowers are Hydrangea.
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In 2009 my wife and I visited Acadia National Park in Maine for the first time. This is probably my favorite vacation we have ever been on. This trip introduced us to so much natural wonders and scenic views like nothing we have ever seen before.
As someone who mostly drives to vacation destinations I think it says a lot when you fall in love with a place so much that you are willing to make a 10 hour drive to visit the same place more than once. We have been back to Acadia National Park since our initial visit and often discuss returning again and again. We enjoyed our visit to Acadia National Park so much that it also inspired us to explore other locations on the Maine coast.
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Photography has lead me down so many avenues I never expected. That is one of the biggest blessings of falling in love with this art form. One thing I never expected to become so obsessed with is flowers.
I love flowers. And I love photographing flowers. There is so much variety in flowers that every one you see is like having an entirely new experience.
But, there is one type of flower I have really fallen in love with. That is the Dahlia.
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I don’t usually write or release as many blog posts so close together as I have this week. My post regarding my running goals was meant to come out much earlier this year. But I just could not get myself to write it. Maybe I was afraid because I was committing to big goals and didn’t want to put it out there and commit.
But now I am facing a real challenge in my training like I never have before. And it is really hard don me right now and I need to process it. And I process things best through writing. So feel free to skip this post. It is more for me than anything else.
