Author Archives: Vladimir Brezina

Happy New Year!

By Vladimir Brezina and Johna Till Johnson

Happy New Year!

We wish all the best in 2016 to all our readers!

Gathering

By Vladimir Brezina

‘Tis the season for the annual holiday gathering!

Gathering

A contribution to this week’s Photo Challenge, Gathering.

Pods

By Vladimir Brezina

PodsMilkweed pods, in NYC’s Central Park the other day…

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(click on any photo to start slideshow)

More photos are here.

Oops!

By Vladimir Brezina

Oops! 1I know this is a new, original design, but isn’t the kayak supposed to stay on top of the water?

(But they do get points for well- synchronized paddles.)

Oops! 2(2015 Cardboard Kayak Race. Full story here.)

A contribution to this week’s Photo Challenge, Oops!

Self

By Vladimir Brezina

Rigging the boatKayaking in open waters far from land, there’s not much to photograph except endless waves—and yourself!

These are photos from a kayak-sailing trip, with the camera mounted at the top of the mast.
Calm waters
Speeding along
Waves washing over the boat

A contribution to Ailsa’s travel-themed photo challenge, Self.

Eye Spy

By Vladimir Brezina

Eye Spy

A contribution to this week’s Photo Challenge, Eye Spy.

Transition

By Vladimir Brezina

Transition 1Exquisite sea shells, freshly cast up on the beach

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do not stay fresh for long.

Transition 2Transition 3

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They fade and break and fuse back into solid rock.

Transition 4(Belize, 2010)

A contribution to this week’s Photo Challenge, Transition.

But I Saw It on the Internet…

By Vladimir Brezina

The Internet instantaneously connects many millions of people in all parts of the world into a vast network. And just like a natural ecosystem, it can serve up unexpected storms at any moment.

Recently we experienced a minor storm.

One day, Wind Against Current began to get thousands of hits on this old picture:

Two suns over New Jersey

Over a day and a half, there were over 10,000 hits.

And they all came from a country where until then we hadn’t had many readers: Malaysia.

Johna said, “It’s an attack!” But closer inspection (for which WordPress has quite good tools) showed that all the hits came from a number of websites (such as this one) that published and republished a post that included our picture (and linked back to our blog, which was very nice of them!).

Things became clearer when we saw that many other Malaysian visitors came after searching for “2 suns” or something similar. And I had just happened to title this picture “Two suns over New Jersey”…

Some time later we received the following message from a stranger: “Your pic is making round on FB [Facebook] with Following details – “TWO SUNS AT A TIME in USA——The Miracle Has Happened Today USA And CANADA Saw Two Suns. This Is Called As Hunters Moon. Due To Change Of Orbit The Sun Sets And Moon Rises At the Same Time With Both Being Opposite To Each Other At A Particular Angle Or Degree Moon Reflects The Sun So Bright That It Almost Feel Like Another Sun…. Effects Stay For Couple Of Days…”

The stranger who sent us this message added: “LOL”. LOL indeed. Needless to say, this makes no sense whatever, and our picture just shows the sun’s rays reflected off the glass wall of a building…

But now we have some small insight into how the sausages of the Internet are made!

Victory

By Vladimir Brezina

She did it!!

Blackburn Challenge, 2014. The full story is here.

Victory

A contribution to this week’s Photo Challenge, Victory.

Halloween Postmortem, Part II

By Vladimir Brezina and Johna Till Johnson

Even skeletons check their cell phonesThis year’s Halloween decorations were plenty scary. But in our neighborhood, they’re just the backdrop: Every year, Carnegie Hill Neighbors, the local neighborhood association, puts on “Spooktacular”, a Halloween block party that features entertainers (including a lively DJ/MC playing dance music) and a costume contest—and of course trick-or-treating, with lots, and lots, and LOTS of candy!

Whole families show up in costume, including mother, father, kids, pets, and—this being the Upper East Side—nanny. (For those who don’t know, the Upper East Side is home to financiers, top lawyers, and other Masters of the Universe.)

The party is open to the whole neighborhood, and it seems to be getting bigger, and better, each year.  (Here are the photos from 2011, 2012, and 2013.)

Looking left... and looking rightVlad in the crowd

The photographer stalking his prey (while being stalked by a giant floating spider)…

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… and here are some of his photos:

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