Category Archives: Nature

Weekly Photo Challenge: Let There Be Light!

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Let There Be Light!

Artificial lights are all very well, but they can’t compete with the real thing!

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(Two more interpretations of “Let There Be Light!” are here and here.)

Weekly Photo Challenge: Unexpected

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Unexpected.

On our kayak trips through New England, we expect to see birds, seals, even whales…

But one day last May, as I was paddling through the desolate Elizabeth Islands in Massachusetts, I rounded a rocky point and came face to face with this huge, shaggy, horned beast, lounging on the beach and looking at me with uncomfortable interest.

Unexpected, to say the least.

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The story of that trip and more photos are here.

Backlit

By Vladimir Brezina

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Yesterday afternoon in New York City’s Central Park (click on any photo to start slideshow)—

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More photos are here.

More Florida Birds

By Vladimir Brezina

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We’ve traveled to Florida a number of times over the past couple of years, and each time I’ve come back with hundreds—sometimes thousands!—of bird photos. The bird life on the Gulf Coast of Florida is amazingly rich and varied, and the birds have learned to tolerate, at least up to a point, human proximity…

Needless to say, processing thousands of bird photos has taken a long time.

But I’ve been getting through it. I’ve posted a few selections of the photos along the way (here, here, here, and here), and here now is the final installment.

As usual, though, I need help with identification! The identity of many of these birds is obvious, even to me, but of others not quite so obvious. But I know there are some real Florida bird experts among our readers… :-)

(click on any photo to start slideshow)

Still more photos are here and here.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Habit

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Habit.

Gus the polar bear was one of the stars of Manhattan’s Central Park Zoo. New Yorkers took to him probably because, as a result of being cooped up in the equivalent of a tiny apartment, he was a creature of neurotic, not to say compulsive habits, such as obsessive swimming. But, like a true New Yorker, he managed to thrive on his neuroses—he outlived both his younger female companions, and finally died this past summer, aged 27 (which is quite old for a polar bear).

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Travel Theme: Delicate

By Vladimir Brezina

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

I wanted to come up with a Fall photo, but “Delicate” keeps suggesting Spring…

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… and we do have readers in the southern hemisphere :-)

Fall Water

By Vladimir Brezina

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(click on any photo to start slideshow)

Travel Theme: Stones

By Vladimir Brezina

IMGP6389 cropped smallAilsa’s travel-themed photo challenge this week is Stone.

Kayaking along the glaciated shores of Long Island, Block Island, and Cape Cod, it’s hard to miss the many glacial erratic boulders that dot the shoreline. Some are cool green stones awash in the sea. Others, more exposed, are the favorite perches of cormorants and human fishermen…

(click on any photo to start slideshow)

Weekly Photo Challenge: Horizon

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Horizon.

Sunrise over open water…

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Paddling Through the Fall

By Vladimir Brezina

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Stay tuned for story and many more photos!