Author Archives: Vladimir Brezina

Weekly Photo Challenge: Unusual

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Unusual.

Even for jaded New Yorkers, this picnic in the park was perhaps just a bit unusual…

(Click on the photo to enlarge)

Update March 18, 2012:

OK, I confess. This wasn’t quite an ordinary picnic in the park, even a New York City park…

It was a performance piece called Imaginary Picnic by the Push Pops that we saw at last year’s Figment NYC, a two-day art festival held in June on Governors Island in New York Harbor. We wrote about our visit here, and more photos—some of them likewise a bit unusual!—are here.

Unfortunately, it rained pretty steadily the whole day of our visit. Consequently the Imaginary Picnic was a bit wilted. But its full glory can be seen here:

To see, and photograph, more unusual scenes, visit this year’s Figment! Figment NYC 2012 will be held, again on Governors Island, on June 9-10. We’ll see you there!

________________________________________________________

Some other nice interpretations of “Unusual” that I’ve seen:

Spring Has Sprung, Seemingly

By Vladimir Brezina

Contrary to the Groundhog’s prediction (he is right only 39% of the time, after all), the season seem to be well advanced into Spring.

In New York City, temperatures are reaching into the 60s or even 70s each day. Crocuses and daffodils are out, two or three weeks earlier than usual. Even some fruit trees are beginning to flower in Central Park. Nobody expects Winter to come back any more.

Continue reading

Weekly Photo Challenge: Contrast

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Contrast.

And New York City is a city of contrasts, photographically and otherwise:

A couple of these photos are already elsewhere on this blog, but I do like them and they seem to fit well this week’s theme…

More New York Cityscapes are here.

Some other nice interpretations I’ve seen:

Sea Kayaker’s Deep Trouble

By Vladimir Brezina

Sea Kayaker’s Deep Trouble:
True Stories and Their Lessons from Sea Kayaker Magazine
Matt Broze and George Gronseth
Edited by Christopher Cunningham
Ragged Mountain Press
Camden, Maine, 1997

When I first started kayaking, in those spare moments when I wasn’t actually on the water I eagerly read every kayaking book I could lay my hands on. And this book was one that all experienced paddlers recommended. Possibly they were tired of explaining afresh to each clueless newbie all the things that could go wrong. This book does that job soberingly well.

Continue reading

Finials: A Photoessay

By Vladimir Brezina

Fierce eagles on top of poles are a grand imperial convention

but in Florida every pole has on it a bird

that is not an eagle, but (usually) a pelican.

They perform, preen

or just sleep.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Distorted

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Distorted.

Sometimes it’s the smoothest mirror that gives the most distorted picture…

Other nice interpretations that I’ve seen:

Pas de Deux

By Vladimir Brezina

Performers: Two Brown Pelicans, Pelecanus occidentalis

(It’s nice to think that they were a male and a female. But it’s very hard to tell male and female pelicans apart by external appearance alone.)

Venue: A piling just off John’s Pass Boardwalk, Madeira Beach, Florida (near St. Petersburg, on the Gulf coast)

Date: February 23, 2012, as the sun set…

Continue reading

In Preparation for Landing, Please Return Your Seat Backs to Their Full Upright Position… and Take Out Your Cameras!

By Vladimir Brezina

Like everyone who travels often enough by airplane, I’ve seen breathtaking things from the plane’s window: towering cloud formations, lightning storms, the brilliant colors of sunrise and sunset, and the map-like pattern of land and water sliding into view below.

But until yesterday, I’ve never taken out my camera. Looking out through a misted, scratched window at a cramped angle not under my control, the photographic situation didn’t seem too promising.

Still, I’ve always been tempted in one case—when landing in New York City. When landing at LaGuardia Airport, especially, if the wind is right the plane flies along the length of Manhattan, offering spectacular low-altitude views of the city.

So yesterday, when it looked like we were following that flight path once again, I got out my camera. And I was not disappointed!

Continue reading

Weekly Photo Challenge: Indulge

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Indulge.

I think the photo says it all…

Other nice interpretations that I’ve seen:

The Bright Lights of the Big City from Space

By Vladimir Brezina

.

[For best viewing, click on the HD icon in the top right corner, then expand to full screen by clicking on the icon in the bottom right corner]

Video courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center:

This video was taken by the crew of Expedition 30 on board the International Space Station. The sequence of shots was taken January 29, 2012 from 05:33:11 to 05:48:10 GMT, on a pass from just southwest of Mexico to the North Atlantic Ocean, northeast of Newfoundland. This pass begins looking over Central America towards the Gulf of Mexico and the southeastern United States. As the ISS travels northeast over the gulf, some southeastern United States cities can be distinguished, like New Orleans, Mobile, Jacksonville, and Atlanta. Continuing up the east coast, some northeastern states, like Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City stand out brightly along the coastline. The Aurora Borealis shines in the background as the pass finishes near Newfoundland.

And notice the firmament of fixed stars unchanging above…

This is just one of the many amazing videos at this site.