By Vladimir Brezina
This week’s Photo Challenge is Big.
It’s big…
… but it always amazes me how tiny it appears when we turn the corner and see it across the harbor, against the immensity of the sea and sky. There it is, just to the left of the sunlit section of the city ahead…
It’s a matter of perspective.
... kayaked the waters around New York for more than 15 years in his red Feathercraft folding kayak. He was originally from (the former) Czechoslovakia and lived in the U.K. and California before settling down in New York. He was a neuroscientist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He died in 2016.
... 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.
 | CurlsnSkirls on The First Leg! |
 | Johna Till Johnson on The First Leg! |
| Johna Till Johnson on The First Leg! |
 | Marilyn Albright on The First Leg! |
| CurlsnSkirls on The First Leg! |
| Johna Till Johnson on Looks Like They Made It! |
 | Pit on Looks Like They Made It! |
| Johna Till Johnson on More Scenes From the Nort… |
| CurlsnSkirls on Halfway There! |
 | Larry Jensen on More Scenes From the Nort… |
| Johna Till Johnson on R2AK: Scenes From the Northern… |
 | Frank Winters on R2AK: Scenes From the Northern… |
| Johna Till Johnson on Halfway There! |
| CurlsnSkirls on Halfway There! |
| Johna Till Johnson on And They’re Off! |
Wind Against Current 
Nice Big photo!
It really appears tiny, especially for someone like me who have seen her only in movies and photos :)
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Even the largest man-made structures are dwarfed by nature…
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True – big and small: all relative…
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:-)
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Interesting. IN all the photos I have seen of this statue, I have never seen it from this perspective (didn’t know it had all this stuff at the base).
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Yes… without the pedestal, she would be much less impressive. And the pedestal was a big source of controversy, artistic as well as financial…
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I spend days in NYC but I have never gone to visit her. Did you go inside? Is this the day you took your profile picture? I think yes.
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I seem to remember I was inside once, a long time ago. But not recently. There’s too much of a line to get in, and you need special tickets, etc, etc. I don’t think it’s worth it. It’s actually not even worth getting off the boat on Liberty Island, in my opinion, since looking directly up at the statue is not as interesting as seeing it from some distance—but not too great a distance!—e.g. from the boat approaching the island. Much better to stay on the boat and get off at the next stop, Ellis Island, which is very much worth it…
No, my profile picture was taken (by Johna) on another trip. We wear these drysuits all the time in winter, so they are no indication of any particular trip…
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it really must be an impressive sight to see for real
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Especially if you get really close!
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And to think, she was a gift from the French.
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She was! Come to think of it, there might be some parallel there with your Trojan Horse ;-)
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Ha! You might be right. Fortunately, there were no French soldiers inside waiting until nightfall to attack New York :)
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It is a matter of perspective, big is all about scale. Great post!
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Thanks!
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Great photo. I hope to someday see that lady up close. Thanks for sharing ;)
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You are most welcome!
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Very nice to have both photos. I’ve visited the lady and walked up her stairs but never seen her from a small kayak bobbing in the ocean.
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She’s even more impressive from a boat, as in the first picture. Especially when there are people, like tiny ants, milling about at the base…
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Lady Liberty. She’s big and beautiful. Nice post.
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Thank you!
Actually, many have considered her to be far from beautiful. But as Gustave Eiffel, who designed the supporting steel framework inside her (and later the Eiffel Tower in Paris), said, “there is an attraction, a special charm in the colossal to which ordinary theories of art do not apply”…
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Perfect example and very impressive.
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Thanks, Fergie!
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Perfect example and very very impressive, from time to time I visit Colmar in Alsace France where a smaller copy are placed at the way in south – Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the artist was Colmar-born – a beautitul sculpture… ;-)
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Yes, and there are several other replicas, of varying sizes, in Paris and elsewhere in France…
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Someday I’d love to see this myself. It really is big!
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Definitely worth seeing in person!
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An extremely BIG expanse of water …. and …. the Statue of Liberty a distinctive signature of New York. You must have captured that photo while cayaking. Lucky you, it is GREAT.
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Yes, photographed while kayaking past. (I must have hundreds of such photos of the Statue of Liberty, in all times of day and year, by now…) Can’t get too close, though—since 9/11 there has been a security zone around the statue…
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In most minds it does not seem so big but yes as you have shown it is.
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It’s big if you make the right comparison… :-)
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nice contrasts, I like the kayak photo best
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:-)
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Oh yes, it is all about perspective, isn’t it? I love this post!
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Thank you!!
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Love this – whether something’s big or small depends on what you compare it to! And the pictures are excellent.
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Thanks so much!!
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Excellent… She is definitely huge. :-)
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… huge compared to human scale, certainly…
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Nice shots! The image of NYC in the distance behind the kayak is really cool. What a remarkable experience it must be.
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More here, and elsewhere on this blog…
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Beautiful shots – perspective is everything!
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Indeed!
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Fascinating!
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Thank you, and thank you for following our blog! :-)
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Quite true! My daughter’s comment when we saw the Lady from Battery Park last summer was, “I thought it would be bigger.” And I remember being surprised by how small the inside of her head is when I went up inside the statue years ago with my son on a school field trip!
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Well, from Battery Park she appears small—almost as small as in my second photo—because she’s far away. But it’s quite true that if you go inside she is surprisingly cramped, not spacious by any means. She’s only a statue, and at the time it took a heroic effort to make her even that big…
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with a tiny canoe headed to miss liberty – would be a too big challenge for me :-)
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:-) :-)
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Wish I hadn’t missed the big theme I have some really nice photo’s of the Golden Gate if I do say so myself but I love these photo’s, so nice.
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Thanks—and thanks for following our blog!
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No problem (:
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