Tag Archives: Manhattan

Manhattan Island Marathon Swim 2013: Photos

Posted on June 17, 2013 by | 41 Comments

By Vladimir Brezina

IMGP4221 cropped smallEach summer, NYC Swim organizes a series of shorter and longer swims in New York City’s waterways. The premier event is the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim (MIMS), a 28.5-mile race around Manhattan. Along with the English Channel and Catalina Channel swims, it is one of the three swims in the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming.

Each swimmer is accompanied by a kayaker (as well as a motor boat). So on Saturday a week ago, I kayaked around Manhattan with swimmer Katy Dooley. Katy already knew all about swimming around Manhattan, having swum in MIMS in 2011 as well as 2012—but in both cases as part of a relay. This was going to be her first solo round-Manhattan swim.

This year’s MIMS turned out to be interesting, to say the least. Due to a cascading series of problems, some traceable all the way back to last year’s Hurricane Sandy, others to the unseasonably cold water, and still others to the heavy rains in the previous couple of days, only 11 of the 39 solo swimmers completed the entire swim unassisted.

But Katy was one of them! She powered through, finishing 5th (and 2nd woman) in 7 hours, 44 minutes. And by completing her swim around Manhattan, she became only the 69th swimmer to join the elite club of Triple Crown open water swimmers. A major accomplishment on a very difficult day—and inspiring to watch from close up!

I’ll write more about the swim in a future post. (My writeups of MIMS 2011 and 2012 are here and here.) But in the meantime, here are some of the photographic highlights of MIMS 2013.

Continue reading →

→ 41 Comments

Posted in Kayaking, New York City, Sports

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Manhattanhenge 2013

Posted on May 29, 2013 by | 88 Comments

By Vladimir Brezina

Manhattanhenge is the phenomenon for which, future archeologists might well conclude, the rectangular street grid of Manhattan was built.  As Neil deGrasse Tyson, the astronomer who has spread the word about Manhattanhenge, writes:

What will future civilizations think of Manhattan Island when they dig it up and find a carefully laid out network of streets and avenues? Surely the grid would be presumed to have astronomical significance, just as we have found for the pre-historic circle of large vertical rocks known as Stonehenge, in the Salisbury Plain of England. For Stonehenge, the special day is the summer solstice, when the Sun rises in perfect alignment with several of the stones, signaling the change of season.

For Manhattan, a place where evening matters more than morning, that special day comes twice a year. For 2013 they fall on May 28th, and July 13th, when the setting Sun aligns precisely with the Manhattan street grid, creating a radiant glow of light across Manhattan’s brick and steel canyons, simultaneously illuminating both the north and south sides of every cross street of the borough’s grid. A rare and beautiful sight. These two days happen to correspond with Memorial Day and Baseball’s All Star break. Future anthropologists might conclude that, via the Sun, the people who called themselves Americans worshiped War and Baseball.

So Manhattanhenge proper—when half of the sun’s disk would have appeared on the horizon at the end of the cross streets at sunset—was actually yesterday, May 28th. But it was cloudy. And anyway, from Midtown Manhattan it’s not really possible to keep the sun in sight as it sinks all the way down to the horizon. New Jersey is in the way.

But today, May 29th, the full disk of the sun was to appear at the end of the cross streets at sunset. Even better!

Two years ago I observed Manhattanhenge from 34th Street. Today, for a change, I went to 42nd Street.

DSC_0226 cropped small

The venue: 42nd Street

DSC_0228 cropped small

Photographers gather

DSC_0221 cropped small

That’s where it will happen

DSC_0240 cropped small

Here it comes!

DSC_0243 cropped small

It’s going to be good!

DSC_0247 cropped small

Excitement mounts ;-)

DSC_0265 cropped small

The magic moment

DSC_0265 cropped small 2

Crowds worship the setting Sun on 42nd Street

→ 88 Comments

Posted in Nature, New York City

Tagged , , , , ,

Weekly Photo Challenge: Change

Posted on April 12, 2013 by | 71 Comments

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Change.

A place of great change, sudden and gradual, catastrophic and constructive, individual and collective, visible all around—

DSC_0003 cropped smallDSC_0065 cropped smallDSC_0153 cropped smallDSC_0279 cropped smallDSC_0041 cropped small

—the 9/11 Memorial in Manhattan.

→ 71 Comments

Posted in New York City, Photography

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Weekly Photo Challenge: A Day in My Life

Posted on April 2, 2013 by | 64 Comments

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is A Day in My Life.

Last Saturday, toward evening, I took a walk through NYC’s Central Park.

First I visited our patch of ground. And on that patch, which we had picked for being so unremarkable, a crop of colorful crocuses had sprung up…

(click on any photo to start slideshow)

On our patch of ground, a crop of crocuses
Blue
White
Yellow
More white…
… with orange centers
Joggers on the bridle path
Joggers around the Reservoir
Still in winter’s grip
Dramatic sky
Old and new
Sun and clouds
Purple
Silhouettes
Figures in the park
Last year’s acorns
On the West Side, looking east
Favorite outlook over the Reservoir
Gleam of sunlight through the darkening park
Last rays of sunlight light up the East Side
Reflections
Lone duck
Duck dive
Abstract
Home through the darkening streets
Entering the subway
Dusk in Manhattan

A few more photos are here.

→ 64 Comments

Posted in New York City, Photography

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

A Magical Maiden Voyage

Posted on March 24, 2013 by | 107 Comments

By Johna Till Johnson
Photos by Vladimir Brezina

“This will be your best circumnav ever,” said Randy, smiling.

I smiled back, a bit dubiously.

Randy’s a friend and the owner of the New York Kayak Company.  I’d just bought a new kayak from him—a red-and-black-and-white Tiderace Xplore-S Carbon Pro, a long, lean, lightweight boat designed for expedition sea kayaking.

IMGP0884 cropped small

Solstice

I loved the new boat—which I promptly named Solstice—but I was feeling a bit squeamish about taking her for a maiden voyage on a Manhattan circumnavigation. It’s always a bit tricky paddling a new boat, particularly one that handles considerably differently than your previous one.

Solstice is a good 15 inches longer than Photon, my old Valley Avocet, and an inch or two narrower.  That design makes for a boat that’s faster and more powerful, but also potentially harder to control. And although circumnavigating Manhattan isn’t an inherently challenging proposition, there are some tricky bits, even in calm conditions.

The  swirling eddies at Hell Gate can almost always be counted on to provide some excitement, for instance, as can the ferries at the Battery (and their wakes).  Being unable to handle your boat  in such situations is not a good thing—even less so in winter, when a capsize can lead to hypothermia, even if the rescue or self-rescue is effective. So taking a brand-new boat out for a 6-hour trip seemed, under the circumstances, slightly risky.

IMGP0885 cropped small

In the water for the first time!

IMGP0895 cropped small

A longer, narrower boat…

But Randy’s confidence was contagious, and I tried my best to shelve the worries.  And as Vlad and I launched a bit later that day, we were both looking forward to the outing, our first longer paddle in the NYC area since before Hurricane Sandy.  I hoped Randy was right.

IMGP0899 cropped small

First strokes

I had no idea how right he’d turn out to be. The trip was… well, “magical” is the best way I can describe it. Or maybe “enchanted”…

Continue reading →

→ 107 Comments

Posted in Kayaking, New York City

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Winter Life at the Reservoir

Posted on January 30, 2013 by | 86 Comments

By Vladimir Brezina

Last weekend at NYC’s Central Park Reservoir. An icy cold day. The Reservoir is mostly frozen over, leaving just a patch of open water where all of the Reservoir’s birds have congregated.

Johna surveys the panorama. (Click to enlarge any photo.)

Central Park Reservoir panorama small

Midtown Manhattan rises up beyond.

DSC_0010 cropped small

The birds are mostly Canada Geese and ducks, including some varieties that we’ve never noticed here before—they are probably from Canada, down for the winter. They paddle through the patch of open water, squabble, or just stand silently on the ice, beaks tucked into their back feathers, facing into the cold wind.

DSC_0025 cropped smallDSC_0042 cropped smallDSC_0071 cropped smallDSC_0072 cropped smallDSC_0074 cropped smallDSC_0068 cropped smallDSC_0088 cropped small

The blue shadows lengthen as the sun goes down, lighting up the East Side on the other side of the Reservoir with its last rays.

DSC_0152 cropped smallDSC_0166 cropped smallDSC_0186 cropped small

More photos are here.

→ 86 Comments

Posted in Nature, New York City

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Weekly Photo Challenge: Beyond

Posted on January 18, 2013 by | 111 Comments

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Beyond.

When paddling counterclockwise around Manhattan, or down the Hudson River back to the city, there comes that breathtaking moment when the distant vista of Midtown Manhattan comes into view beyond the George Washington Bridge.

I always take a photo at that point. By now I have many, in rain and sunshine, day and night… Here are a few of them.

IMGP0145 croppedDCP_0532 croppedVista of the cityIMGP2369 cropped smallIMGP4480%2520cropped%2520smallIMGP7311 cropped smallDCP_0499 croppedIMGP2381 cropped smallApril 2012IMGP4474 cropped smallIMGP7312 cropped smallApril 2012IMGP2910 cropped small

More photos from these trips are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

→ 111 Comments

Posted in Kayaking, New York City, Photography

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Last Manhattan Circumnavigation of 2012

Posted on January 2, 2013 by | 33 Comments

By Johna Till Johnson
Photos by Vladimir Brezina

At the time, it didn’t seem like a big deal: On a sunny weekend in late October, we decided to circumnavigate Manhattan.

We didn’t anticipate, though, that, thanks to Hurricane Sandy, it would be our last circumnavigation of the year, indeed our last major trip in New York waters. And so this trip has a special resonance in our memories.

A Manhattan circumnavigation is usually a pretty predictable trip, though always a treat. It’s not particularly long by our standards, but packed with variety. The scenery ranges from the urban…

Midtown Manhattan from the East River

In the East River: the Empire State Building, with Vlad in the foreground (photo by Johna)

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

to the bucolic…

Fall colors in the Harlem River

Fall colors in the Harlem River

.

…

.

.

.

.

.

Ferries in the East River

Riding the chop and keeping an eye on the ferries down by the Battery

and the paddling conditions vary nearly as much: The water down by the Battery is often exciting (enhanced by ferry and other shipping traffic)…

.

.

Up the Harlem River

Heading up the Harlem River

but  the  long glide up the Harlem River is usually tranquil.

.

.

.

.

.
All in all, we looked forward to a lovely, if unexceptional trip.

Unexceptional except for being our last long trip of the year.  The following weekend, we toured the Gowanus Canal—a scenic, but short, excursion.

And the Monday after that, Sandy arrived.

Our Manhattan paddling home at Pier 40 was shut down, and the pier itself remains closed (though we’re hopeful it will reopen soon). In addition, there continue to be some restrictions on paddling in New York Harbor. So we haven’t been out (in New York waterways, at least) since.

Which made this “unexceptional” trip rather exceptional, after all.

So our recollection of this circumnavigation is tinged with a bit of melancholy and a sense of loss. As the graffiti has it:

Poetic graffiti in the East River

“Alas this bitter life filled with sweet dreams” — Poetic graffiti in the East River

But even an “ordinary” trip has moments of incandescent beauty, which will live on in our memories…

Yellow and blue nocturne

The George Washington Bridge: Yellow and blue nocturne

We hope to be back on the waters around Manhattan in 2013!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The individual photos are here.

→ 33 Comments

Posted in Kayaking, New York City

Tagged , , , , , ,

The Daily Light Show from a Manhattan Highrise

Posted on November 13, 2012 by | 50 Comments

By Vladimir Brezina

Dawn to dusk…

→ 50 Comments

Posted in New York City

Tagged , , , ,

Weekly Photo Challenge: Geometry, Take Two

Posted on November 2, 2012 by | 59 Comments

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Geometry.

9/11 Memorial and surrounding buildings, Manhattan. More photos and story are here.

Two other responses to the “Geometry” challenge are here and here.

→ 59 Comments

Posted in Architecture, New York City, Photography

Tagged , , , , , , , ,