By Vladimir Brezina
Ailsa’s travel-themed photo challenge this week is Bridges.
Ailsa asks, “Are you ready to cross the bridge when you come to it?” But we follow quite another set of routes through the city, which were there before the first bridge was ever built over them…
... has kayaked the waters around New York for over a decade in his red Feathercraft folding kayak. He comes originally from (the former) Czechoslovakia and has lived in the U.K. and California before settling down in New York. He is a neuroscientist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.
... is a kayaker and technology researcher at Nemertes Research. She's an erstwhile engineer, particle physicist, and science fiction writer. She was born in California and has lived in Italy, Norway, Hawaii, and a few other places. She currently resides in New York City.
What a stunning collection of urban bridges!!!!
One of our specialities… Johna in particular loves bridges! :-)
You seem to paddle through some very nice urban landscapes on your excursions :-)
Yes, I think that we do manage to see the city from a different set of angles…
What a different world it is from water level! Thanks for sharing these pictures.
You are most welcome! :-)
what a great set so diverse – I love the second shot of Johna it is both surreal and a great portrait
I got lucky with that one… as we were gliding side-by-side under the bridge, I only had a moment to take one photo…
Wow these are all great pics!!! You have such a collection of bridges!!! Wonderful!!! Thanks for sharing :)
Glad you like them! You are most welcome!!
Lovely photo of Johna.
Thanks, Gayle!
I am too claustrophobic for some of these, but they are cool to observe – from a distance :-)
That’s why we go out and brave all kinds of dangers and bring these reports to our readers… ;-)
I believe there is a freedom feeling in your heart when you are kayaking in the middle of the river / sea like that… WOW!
There is indeed—and that’s why we never tire of it…
Great photo set!
Thank you, Scott—glad you like it!
Vladi – Nice set of “underbelly” shots of all those bridges that you glide by.
That’s our point of view… :-)
what a fine selection
Thank you so much, Rosa!
ah… also wanted to add ,
you kept the best for the last one
I did want to finish with that one—it seemed somehow fitting :-)
Brilliant post, superb pictures!! :-)
Thanks so much!! :-)
That first picture is my favorite!
… and a few other people’s :-)
Vlad, how do you manage to get these wonderfully clear shots.? Specifically how do you keep water drops off your lens?
thanks for these
Drops on the lens—the bane of my existence!
Actually, by now I have the problem more or less under control, although what works for me may not be universally applicable. Strapped on my front deck, just in front of me as I paddle, I have a deck bag with a small mesh pocket facing me. I keep the camera, which is waterproof, in that pocket with the lens facing downward. So although the camera does get splashed, the lens stays clear for a long time, and at the same time I can grab the camera and take a photo when necessary within a second or two.
Eventually, the lens does acquire water drops. I usually see it right away, because I’ve learned the hard way to check the state of the lens constantly. Then I often just dip the camera in the water. That forms a film of water over the lens (actually this camera has an outer glass pane over the lens itself) that then withdraws to the edges, leaving the lens clear.
Sometimes that fails, and in any case eventually the lens becomes just plain dirty. Then I wipe it with a clean paper towel or suchlike that I keep in the deck bag…
You are not the first to ask about this—clearly I should plan a post about these kinds of practical details…
Nice Shots :)
Thanks so much! :-)
I LOVE your photos! I’m originally from New Jersey (right across the Hudson River) although I’m currently in Puerto Rico. Thanks for visiting my blog today!
You are most welcome—we loved visiting!
Awesome collection, Vlad. Love the various perspectives.
Thanks, Gracie!
Great collection !
Thanks!!
GREAT pictures! You guys make me want to get a kayak :) It looks like so much fun, and a great way to see the world from a completely different perspective! BEAUTIFUL!
Go for it! (But perhaps not in New York Harbor, to begin with… ;-) )
Ha! No, I should probably start on a little pond! :) I’ll enjoy the adventures of New York Harbor from your lens!
Love this collection. Recognize many of them, but not from that close to the water! Thanks for this vantage point!
On the back burner for a long time has been a post with photos of all the bridges over navigable waterways within the borders of NYC. I can’t remember off the top of my head exactly how many there are, but it’s more than 50, I seem to recall, and by now we have photos of almost all of them. So this is just a small selection… ;-)
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In the midst of the mostly vast modern iron and steel constructions under and through which you are paddling, a couple of photos have the astonishing intimacy of Venice or Osaka, places where the waterways are also the roads and the scale is more human.
Many wish that would be true of NYC too… but unfortunately the waterways whose scale is the most human—the Newtown Creek, the Gowanus Canal, and the Bronx River, seen in many of these photos—are also the ones that human now shun, because they are the most polluted…