# 38 Place in a Photo Contest

My winning photo! Foxy Loxy.

I love photography. I bought my first Nikon film camera when I was 22. I barely knew how to use it and pretty much ended up taking snap shots as opposed to creating any kind of photographs but it still made me happy.  When I was 24 I upgraded, going digital with a Nikon D80. Since then it has become a passion of mine. In the last two years or so my mother has also taken up an interest in photography and for fun we signed up to take a photo expedition tour with Dan's Camera City located in Allentown, Pa. The day trip was to the Lakota Wolf Preserve in Columbia, NJ.

About 30 people attended the trip which was run in conjunction with Tamron lenses. The preserve allows people on the trip to get much closer to the animals than a normal paying visitor could get. Two Tamron reps also attend the trip and let you borrow a wide array of lenses you might otherwise never get to try. It's a pretty cool deal. The trip also sponsors a photo contest with the winning photo recieveing a brand spanking new 70-300mm Tamron lens.

Foxy Loxey

The trip was a blast and I loved the time I got to spend with my mom but I have to admit part of the expedition was a bit intimidating. I'd say 80% of the people who attended were hard core. They had thousands of dollars of gear and big money lenses. Not to say that I don't have a nice setup but it sure didn't compare to some of the folks in attendance. Mainly because of this I never had any intentions of entering a photo but my mom wore me down like a river rock and two days before the deadline I finally sent in two photos. 

On December 13th I got the email that I won the contest! I couldn't believe it. About two weeks later my new swank lens showed up and #38 officially went into the books. 

# 27: Fly Fish in a Scenic Mountain River

As a self proclaimed adventure junkie every year I use my birthday as an excuse to get out of town and see some corner of the world. This past September Jim and I flew out to Colorado and spent 8 days in and around Rocky Mountain National Park. We choose this park for a number of reasons but the major one was how much I was dying to get out and fly fish. So the deal was I didn't care what we did all trip (total bluff on my part by the way, I'm a legit vacation Nazi) but come hell or high water I was fly fishing on my birthday. Lucky for me Jim was just as excited as I was.

Mountain lake on one of our many epic hikes

Bull elk during rut in RMNP

We booked our trip through Kirk's Fly Shop in Estes Park, Colorado. They came highly recommend to us by a hunting buddy who was just out in the RMNP area for a fishing trip. We were not disappointed at all. Our professional guide was Will Beggs and he spent four hours teaching us the ropes and watching us have a blast reeling in rainbows and brownies. Jim and I each pulled in 10 to 15 fish.

The catch

And release

Me getting my fish on

More bounty

The only down side to our trip was that I'm pretty sure I'm hooked...no pun intended. I told Jimbo that when I retire from fighting my new hobby will be fly fishing. So from now on wherever we vacation I'll be looking for an outfitter to get us out on some fish! So it's official...#27 went into the books on September, 27th 2012.

And So It Begins....

My father is the man who has everything therefore making him the hardest person to buy any kind of presents for. In December of 2009 during my quest to get him the perfect Christmas present the infatuation with my bucket list began. My father now in his late 50's has always talked about sky diving so it seemed a suitable idea to purchase him a gift certificate eliminating his chance to ever chicken out. My mother being the humorous soul she is purchased one for me one as well. When I gave him the gift certificate I simply wrote on the envelope "bucket list" and so it all began.

Me and my Dad (Bobby K.) prepped for our dive on 10/2/10

It was a pretty awesome experience. As we sat huddled together on the floor of a small plane among strangers rocketing into the sky I couldn't help but feel a little extra alive. I remember watching my dad who is less than in love with heights seem so relaxed. I remember being proud of him for so confidently taking on this challenge. I loved that we conquered it together. I remember awkwardly walking to the door with a split second of eye contact being shared with him. I think I smiled and said see you at the bottom Pop and then for the next 60 plus seconds I surreally experienced free falling towards the earth. It was exhilarating and my life would have been less for not doing it.

Drifting to the Earth

I made a crude list before the jump and started to refine it afterwards. I even goaded my two girlfriends into making one as well. I had hopes of us doing these items together but life doesn't always work out the way you want. Last year I knocked off another item (Visit Mesa Verde National Park) and one more this year (Judge a sanctioned fight) which has brought me to this moment and the realization that I need to start accomplishing these dreams. I need to start living the bucket list life on a regular basis instead of one item a year. My plan is to use this blog as a forum to chronicle my list and how I go about accomplishing it. Check out my full list on the tab at the top of the page.