krnaturalphoto's Blog 
If you grow up as a football fan one of the coolest photography experiences you can have is being on the field photographing a football game.
It is fun to see if your instincts and anticipation for the sport allows you to capture good photos or if you are off the mark.
I love sports of all types. I really enjoy watching people perform feats of athleticism.
Being able to capture these images as a moment in time was so satisfyingly.
As someone who played football growing up and grew up a football fan my photographs from football games have a special attachment for me.
Photograph the things you love.
Photo details: Nikon D300S. Nikon 300mm f/4. Focal length 420mm. ISO 400. 1/3200 sec. f.5.6.
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I love that our local college softball team plays at a park where I am often at taking photos of other subjects
This has allowed me to photograph softball gamers kind of on the spur of the moment.
It has also allowed me to capture some cool wildlife photos while I am photographing a softball game.
My goal is to make some more intentional time to photograph our local college softball team when they are playing.
But, I do always like it when I can go out to one location and photograph some very different types of subjects.
Photo details: Nikon D300. Tamron 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3. Focal length 200mm. ISO 400. 1/1600 sec. f/6.3.
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One of the most fun ways to create photography is at local sports events.
If you have any local sports in your area take your camera with you and cerate art.
You don’t have to be down on the field. Sitting in the bleachers can create some nice images like this one.
Go out on the town and watch the high school, college, semi pro, or pro teams pay and photograph them.
If you love sports you will definitely come away with some images you will really enjoy.
Photo details: Nikon D300. Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8. Focal length 200mm. ISO 400. 1/1250 sec. f.2.8.
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Every once in a while I have opportunities to create photographs that are outside my normal.
I love photographing events.
Some of the local events I have photographed have featured live music.
I really enjoy photographing people sharing their craft with others.
Watching and photographing people doing something they enjoy is a lot of fun.
It was interesting how the contrast between the bright sunlit outdoor area in the background and the singer who was under a shade rendered the background as a flat white background.
Photo details: Nikon D300S. Nikon 300mm f/4. Focal length 420mm. ISO 400. 1/500 sec. f/5.6.
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One of my favorite activities is running. Running brings me a lot of joy and satisfaction. One of the ways I keep the good time rolling with my running is by finding new things in running to do.
This year I have been jumping into a lot of the things the Finger Lakes Running Club has going on. One of the cool new things happening at the Finger Lakes Running Club is the FLRC Challenge. This is the second year that the Finger Lakes Running Club has held the FLRC Challenge. Last year I was really tempted to do it, but never jumped on it. Many of the challenge courses featured were courses that the FLRC normally holds races for but could not hold in person races for because of the pandemic.
FLRC Challenge
This year the FLRC Challenge looked like something even more interesting. With in person racing back for the most part the challenge courses didn’t feature the regular race courses the FLRC showcases. This year the FLRC Challenge features a lot of paths and trails around the area where people just may like to run. And many of these places are places I have never run or maybe have never even been to before.
The inclusion of so many new places for me to go running really got me excited to do something new. I signed up for this challenge, looking forward to discovering new places to run. And maybe I would find some favorites to return to over and over.
The FLRC is holding group runs on some of the challenge courses. This is the perfect way to see these courses I am unfamiliar with as well as get out and run with people at the same time.
This run was at Taughannock Falls. I love this park. I go there to hike and photograph the falls regularly, but I mainly stick to the nice flat gorge trail. The challenge course takes us from the visitor center around and down the rim trail then out and back on the gorge trail and back up the other side to the visitor center again. I can’t say that I have ever run that route. And it turned out to be a very enjoyable route to run.
Some friends and I headed up to Taughannock Falls State Park to meet up for the FLRC group run on the Taughannock challenge course. I had such a good time on this route. And of course I couldn’t run it without shooting a little footage at least. Get some hills in. See some beautiful scenery. Enjoy the trails. Perfect running day.
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This photo really provides a good sense of what the topography is like in the Adirondack region of New York.
One activity that I love to do and which I was able to do more often is hike up mountains.
One of the most rewarding feelings is making the hard climb up a mountain and then being able to enjoy the beautiful scenery on the summit.
This is a photo from my first hike up to the summit of Mt. Marcy in the Adirondack region of NY.
One of the most interesting things about this hike was experiencing the way the climate changed as I ascended.
I knew intellectually that this would happen, and fortunately I was prepared for it. But there is nothing like the actual physical experience of hiking up a mountain in nice light summer clothing and then realizing at a very distinct point that now it is cold and blustery and I need a jacket now.
Photo details: Nikon D300S. Nikon 50mm f/1.8. Focal length 50mm. ISO 400. 1/160 sec. f/16.
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Always fun to explore scenic areas of Maine.
There is so much going on in this photo. Maybe too much.
Green trees and the lighthouse in one corner. Blue skies and ocean opposing that. And Rocky landscape across the rest.
One aspect that I really think is cool in this photo is the people exploring the landscape.
The photo features three people and they are all standing looking out over the landscape facing different directions.
There is something that I like about the feel that is translated by the people facing out from the center.
Photo details: Nikon D300S. Tamron 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3. Focal length 18mm. ISO 400. 1/250 sec. f/10.
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Bears are amazing creatures.
Having the opportunity to see a Black Bear is always a highlight of any day, month, or year.
Even more special is being able to actually capture photos of a Black Bear.
I always enjoy providing habitats for birds in our yard.
Our local Black Bear also enjoy that I provide habitat for the birds.
They have partaken of bird seed from feeders on multiple occasions.
On this one occasion this small Black Bear was investigating one of the bluebird houses I have hanging from a tree trunk in our yard.
I wasn’t sure if the Bear was going to tear it down or what.
The Black Bear did eventually leave the birdhouse alone without damaging it.
These days that bird house and even that tree no longer exist in our yard.
The tree died and fell down.
Photo details: Nikon D300. Nikon 300mm f/4. Focal length 300mm. ISO 3200. 1/400 sec. f/4.0.
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I love to explore new places. Especially on trails. One exploration project I have undertaken over the years has been to try and explore as much of the Finger Lakes Trail as I can.
I would love to see the entire Finger Lakes Trail eventually. And that is my goal. To slowly but surely set foot on every part of the Finger Lakes Trail. I started on the trails nearest where I live, which seems to be pretty much in the middle of the trail, and explore east and west of me.
I have undertaken these explorations a few miles at a time and in large chunks of 30 miles at a time. Exploring these trails by foot, either hiking or running. Some explorations are solo adventures and some adventures I have company.
Some of the best times I have experienced have been exploring the Finger Lakes Trail with my friends. And this was another day to add to that list of fun times.
9 new trail miles
On this trip we knocked off almost 9 miles of newly explored Finger Lakes Trail. This was the first time I have gotten out and explored a new section of the Finger Lakes Trail in a while. I was really hoping that I had accurately remembered the location of the trail head where I stopped on my last exploration. When we met up at the trail head where we would start I was relieved to see exactly what I remembered.
We drove to the trail head where we planned to end to drop off a vehicle. Then it was decision time. It was a cold morning. Not exactly freezing, but still cold. And windy. But by the time we were half way through our run the forcast was for it to be relatively mild. I could wear my warmer coat to start and stow lighter gear to change into in theback of my pack for later. Or I could just start off wearing the lighter weight gear and not have to worry about changing and carying extra clothes. When I had to finally make the call I opted for the lighter clothes at the start. I just took a buff to wear under my hat in case it was cold. A buff I ended up wearing almost the entire time. But other than that my choice of clothing worked out almost perfectly.
FLT Shindagin Hollow
We set off on the trail. Enjoying the first little section of perfectly straight, perfectly flat trail. And then that came to an abrupt end. The next section was the first and really only tough climb of the day. It was long and pretty steep. But nce we got up and over that hump the trail rewarded us with so much beautiful and fun trail to run on that we could forgive that first climb.
There was a good mix of elevation gain and descent but nothing too challenging. Climbing could las t a little while but it was never at a steep enough grade that it felt really taxing. And the descending sections were just the right angle to be perfect for running a nice comfortable downhill pace.
It was so fun to be exploring this section of the FLT as it traveled through Shindagin Hollow State Forest. Not only was it a section of the FLT I had never set foot on, but it was also a state forest I had never set foot in before. So it was a lot of new scenery that I was trying to soak in as much as I could.
This section of the Finger Lakes Trail is now one of my favorite sections of trails to run on. Not only was it a great trail running experience in the purely physical sense, but it was also a beautiful trail to experience. The scenery was so nice. Trails through the woods. Nice views at the top of climbs. A long section of trail running along a ridgeline that provided a great view of the countryside. Several different types of wild flowers growing along the trails. There were a few small stream crossings and a small waterfall. And I even ate one of our local edible wild plants. Mmmm. Tastes like onion.
As we approached our predetermined end point and our cars awaited we were running on the best most beautiful section of trail all day long. It was one of the most runnable sections. And it was one of the sections that had more vegetation springing to life than any of the others. It was a great way to close out the run.
But when we got to the car we were a little over 8 miles and we had planned for 10 miles. It felt like we had some unfinished business. We decided we could keep going on the FLT for another mile and then turn back and run to the car. That would give us our ten. Ha. Great idea that was. This ended up being the most challenging section of trail the entire day. Up a steep hillside. Then back down the other side. The downslope was essentially a wet soggy ditch from the run off pouring down the hillside. It bummed us out after the beautiful section we had just been on. We turned around short of the mile we needed and returned to our car. It was so muddy that on the climb back up and over my foot sunk in deep and my foot pulled right out of my shoe. This section was where I was extra thankfull to have my trail gaiters on over my shoes. We got back to the cars and we ran a little extra on the roads to get to 10 miles. Ha. Still got tot ten damn it.
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Grasshoppers are a pretty common insect.
There are times of the year when Grasshoppers feel ubiquitous as they spring and jump from the ground with every step you take.
Often times photographing a Grasshopper requires getting lower to the ground because that is where the Grasshoppers are.
But on this occasion the Grasshopper was atop the fence around our flower garden.
It was cool that the Grasshopper stayed put while I was able to get in nice and close with my macro lens.
Photo details: Nikon D500. Nikon 60mm f/2.8. Focal length 60mm. ISO 400. 1/4000 sec. f/3.5.
