Category Archives: Kayaking

Florida Paddling

By Vladimir Brezina

Look what’s floating by in the turquoise-green water!

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I collect them all

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to take them home.

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But, sadly, the brilliant colors are evanescent…

Travel Theme: Bridges

By Vladimir Brezina

Ailsa’s travel-themed photo challenge this week is Bridges.

Ailsa asks, “Are you ready to cross the bridge when you come to it?” But we follow quite another set of routes through the city, which were there before the first bridge was ever built over them…

IMGP0174 croppedNewtown CreekIMGP0069 croppedIMGP1598 cropped smallNewtown CreekIMGP1426 cropped smallNewtown CreekIMGP0018 cropped smallIMGP1021 cropped smallIMGP3804 cropped smallIMGP0902 cropped smallIMGP0058 cropped smallNewtown CreekNewtown CreekNewtown CreekNewtown CreekIMGP0003 cropped smallIMGP0660 cropped smallIMGP0920%2520cropped%2520smallNewtown CreekEast River: Queensboro BridgeIMGP0220 croppedIMGP2379 cropped smallNewtown CreekIMGP0671 croppedIMGP1609 cropped smallHudson River: George Washington BridgeHudson River: George Washington Bridge

Weekly Photo Challenge: Forward

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Forward.

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A Word A Week Challenge: Industrial

By Vladimir Brezina

Over on A Word In Your Ear, Sue’s A Word A Week Challenge this week is Industrial.

Gowanus Canal

Paddling through New York Harbor, the ecosystem that we observe is not Nature, but Industry. Where elsewhere we might hope for close-up sightings of animals coming down to the water’s edge, in the harbor we observe the raw workings of industry. Industrial enterprises line the  banks and occupy the scraps of waste land in the corners of the harbor. They present their best faces to the land, but as we paddle past, through, and sometimes even under them, we peer into their back yards…

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Home, Take Two

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Home. We’ve already posted one response, but here’s another.

Our home away from home—

IMGP2138 cropped small—on a beach at Lloyds Neck, Long Island, NY

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—on the banks of the Hudson River at Stockport Middle Ground

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IMGP0645 cropped small—on Magdalen Island, near Saugerties, NY

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IMGP2543 cropped small—on the Hudson River at Denning Point, Beacon, NY

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—in Nickerson State Park, Cape Cod, MA

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IMGP4656 cropped small—at Jones Inlet, South Shore of Long Island, NY

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—on Fire Island, NY

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IMGP5854 cropped small—at Montauk Point, NY

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IMGP6691 cropped small—in Sunken Meadow State Park, on the North Shore of Long Island, NY

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And now, our home away from home awaits in its bag, ready for this year’s adventures!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Home

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Home.

On our kayak trips, we paddle past homes worth millions

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as well as some that are modest, but offer incomparable views and fresh sea breezes—

IMGP5553 cropped smallHudson River near Catskill, NYIMGP3069 cropped smallBayonne Bridge, Kill van Kull, NY/NJ

Another Home post is here.

Travel Theme: Walls

By Vladimir Brezina

Ailsa’s travel-themed photo challenge this week is Walls.

Kayaking around the highly urban New York Harbor, we pass by many colorful and inspirational walls…

IMGP1050 cropped smallNo Guts No GloryIMGP4743 cropped small"Alas this bitter life filled with sweet dreams"IMGP0247 cropped small 2

More on the marine art of New York Harbor is here.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Beyond

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.

A Word A Week Photo Challenge — Cloud, Take Two

By Vladimir Brezina

On A Word In Your Ear , Skinnywench’s photo challenge this week is Cloud.

As I said in my first response to the challenge, I particularly remember two recent days on which a dramatic, constantly changing cloudscape absolutely dominated the scene. The first response showed the first day. Here is the second.

On Day 5 of our Long Island kayak circumnavigation last summer, we were approaching the eastern tip of Long Island when the clouds began to get interesting. The spectacular thunderstorm hit just as were rounding Montauk Point, the easternmost, most exposed point of our journey—

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The full story of that day is here.

A Word A Week Photo Challenge — Cloud

By Vladimir Brezina

On A Word In Your Ear , Skinnywench’s photo challenge this week is Cloud. Since I have so many photos of clouds—it’s hard to avoid clouds, just as it is hard to avoid water, in kayaking photos—I thought I would join in.

But, although I have many photos of clouds, the clouds of two special days stand out particularly in my memory. On those days, a dramatic, constantly changing cloudscape dominated the scene. We stared upward, mesmerized.

Here’s the first of those days.

At Pier 40Dark clouds over Coney IslandReturning to Manhattan
Spectacular skies...
... in the Upper BayCrepuscular raysSinister cloud over ManhattanEngulfed in the rain cloudRain easingClouds at sunset

The story of the day is here, more photos are here, and larger versions of some of the photos are here. And the second of the two spectacularly Cloudy days is here.