By Vladimir Brezina
What a difference a day makes!
The morning after the snowstorm, we came out into Central Park to find thousands of people playing in the snow and sunshine.
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And I took a thousand photos. I am still sorting them out, but here are a few good ones—
... 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! |
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| 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 
these are beautiful! you’ve captured the mood of the city, yet you’ve also captured some amazing details. i love the shadows of the wire as well as the shadows of many of the other photos.
sounds as if you have enough great photos for a sleek book!
z
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Me too, Z, that one’s my favorite!
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Isn’t that the most fun about a big snowfall? I especially love the last shot, looks like an iconic painting of “playing in winter!”
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Thanks, Lynn! My friend Val (an art professor) took one look at the scene and said: “Brueghel!” To which I replied, “WHO?”
For those who, like me, didn’t study art in college, Brueghel is the guy who did paintings like this one back in the late 1500s/early 1600s:
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Yes, that’s it exactly!
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Wonderful shots.
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Thanks, Gary!
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Great shots, Vlad. It’s nice to see people enjoying the snow :)
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On Vlad’s behalf, thank you! And yes, it was such fun. Especially the kids. But a friend and I (both women decidedly out of our kid-years) managed to get into a snowball fight, too!
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vivid skies, colourful clothes, winter whites and filigree shadows – what a wonderful day!
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Thanks for posting! Yes, it really was…
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Great photos, I like the blue and the shadow lines.
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The shadow squiggles are my favorite, too!
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You sure have some beauties there!
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:-) Thanks, Naomi! (On behalf of Vlad). I have a suspicion at least one of these will end up on our 2014 calendar….
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Oh what fun. I want to come out and play in the snow, but guess it will have to wait because we had none this year where I live.
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Thanks Mary! And anything is possible–a late-winter or early-spring snowstorm in Georgia surely isn’t unheard of! (Not sure if I should wish for that for you or not… :-)
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What fun! Fantastic captures!
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Thank you! (On behalf of Vlad).
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That’s terrific stuff, Vlad – such a poignant portrait of The Park, and its place in the life of the city.
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On a day like this, everybody comes out to play in the park :-)
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I just love the way trees look with the snow. That snowman is a little unusual. :-D
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Oh, there were several amazing snowmen! I took a picture of a “snow rabbit”—complete with hutch–with my cell phone. Unfortunately, it did not meet Vlad’s exacting standards for display :-)
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Very nice- the red really pops doesn’t it?
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… and the yellow, and the lime green…
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These pictures are great! It looks like they’ve never seen snow though! :) and it looks like they were having a great time! Really nice.
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Hey now, Becky! Don’t be dissin’ us Noo Yorkers… unless we were born in 2012, we’ve seen snow before! It’s just that this was our first big storm of the season–long-awaited!–and conveniently timed for the weekend.
And we DID have a wonderful time, young and old alike!
Thanks for commenting, and visiting the blog. We love yours!
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Oh no!! No disrespect from me :) I think “Noo Yorkers” are awesome! I’m glad people were able to enjoy the snow. I just came from CO and it snowed while we were there. It’s pretty, but I rather enjoy my liquid sunshine. :). Love looking at your pictures though!!
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Liquid sunshine is always welcome too! But snow is becoming a rare commodity in NYC these days, and when it’s suddenly there, everyone tries to get some :-)
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Snow always looks beautiful when it is fresh, however in a few days it is a total mess. Beautiful shots though…LOL
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Thanks for commenting, Marcia! Actually, it was pretty torn up by the end of the day Saturday–starting with the cross-country skiiers who came out at the crack of dawn, competing for the fresh “virgin” trails… :-). But beautiful nonetheless…
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The wire shadows is awesome! I’ve only seen snow in Central Park when it was one of those dreary, not quite snow/not quite rain sorts of days. It looks so pretty with the fresh snow & all the people have fun!
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Thanks for commenting, Anne Camille! I love the wire shadows, too.
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That’s wonderful that everyone came out and played! It seems sort of Brigadoon-like.
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Very Brigadoon-like! After a few days hibernating through the storm, everyone poured out into the park. (It didn’t hurt that it was a beautiful sunny, almost mild Saturday.) The same thing happens on the first warm weekend of spring…
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It’s beautiful–from 350 miles away! My favorite is the tangle of trees that has been snow blasted.
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Thanks Patti! And the cardinal on your blog banner reminds me–Vlad and I saw several cardinals out in the snow, and somewhere he’s got a wonderful shot of a cardinal and a bluejay in the same tree—bright colors against the white, and blue sky behind. Hope that one gets posted soon…
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Beautiful!
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:-) And thank you for following our blog!
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Hallo,
This is for you, for being kind to others and me, http://www.bigcards.nl/card/pickup/bc-c7cf3c10/
Sweet Valentine greetings, Summer
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Thank you so much, Summer! So sweet… :-)
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You’re welcome : ) And thanks to you too
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The snowman is my favorite!
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One of many in the park that day… :-)
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Oh, I love the Blue Jay & Cardinal – I miss those guys. What gorgeous shots – and I’m with Lisa – the wire shadows are fantastic, but what’s great is that you capture the overall feeling of the day, as well as your own take on the snow.
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Well, I went there to take photos of the snow, but as the day went on and the crowds of people grew, the patches of undisturbed snow dwindled to practically nothing—all the snow was churned up by thousands of people skiing, running, sliding off the hills, playing football, building snowmen, and throwing snowballs at each other… so they eventually became the “news” ;-)
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Very nice! That snow sticking to the tree trunks is quite amazing.
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During the actual snowstorm, the wind was blowing the snow horizontally, as some of the photos in the previous post show…
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I saw that. It was neat it stayed there even after it got sunny. It must have been the side in the shade.
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I think it hardened into ice—it stayed there for days…
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Ah, very nice! It sure makes for some different photos.
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the first picture is awesome.. makes me want to go back to new york. so if my travel budget is going to the minus – it’s your fault;-)
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I am glad these photos had that effect! (To stretch that travel budget, you can always camp out in the park ;-) )
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great idea! i’ll wait till summer for that, though:-)
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In real life, unfortunately, all NYC parks are closed between 1 and (I think) 6 a.m., precisely to prevent people from doing this kind of thing…
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i was guessing that. safetywise probably not the best idea either. since i am a big fan of the shower in the morning, i think i will have to go with the hotel:-)
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Magic City! Between the snowstorm’s blue enchantment (loved the spots of colors like acid green in the umbrella) and the gaiety and high energy of this days sunshine, you’ve covered the gamut.
(The snowman reminds me irresistibly of Winston Churchill smoking a carrot.)
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The snowmen were pretty inventive… here’s another one that attracted a lot of attention—
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Great shots… the blue shadows are hard to capture… they usually get lost in pictures. What camera or lense did you use?
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No special equipment: a Nikon D80 and a fairly ordinary telephoto zoom lens. The snow shots come out blue naturally—in fact often too blue. So the important thing is to shoot in RAW format and then adjust the images to your liking on the computer…
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Thanks… I am not so techincal :( I bought a cannon which is all automatic. It is a step up from the point and shoot. Still learning it. One day when I get that sorted I can graduate to the more difficult ;)
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