Category Archives: Nature

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.

Travel Theme: Multiples

By Vladimir Brezina

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

I seem to recall that it was Couples just a few short weeks ago. And now it’s Multiples already? To be sure, it’s quite natural—

DSC_0113 cropped small 200464_n_10afatqsq30464 cropped smallDSC_0019 cropped smallDSC_0126 cropped small 3IMGP0527 cropped small

Out With the Old, In With the New

By Vladimir Brezina

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

The leaves of the old year blaze forth in a last burst of color. But among the old, at first almost unnoticed, are already the buds

DSC_0066 cropped smallDSC_0074 cropped small

that, as the last old leaf drops away, await the new year!

DSC_0012 cropped small

(Magnolias, Central Park, New York City)

Happy 2013!

Emergence

By Vladimir Brezina

DSC_0069 cropped small

… like a sea-anemone
Or simple snail, there cautiously
Unfolds, emerges, what I am.

Philip Larkin, Best Society

DSC_0070 cropped smallDSC_0084 cropped smallDSC_0158 cropped smallDSC_0183 cropped smallDSC_0188 cropped smallDSC_0221 cropped smallDSC_0224 cropped small

But, contrary to Larkin, the best society is not always solitude…

DSC_0118 cropped small

(St. Pete Beach, Florida, December 2012)

Weekly Photo Challenge: Delicate

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Delicate.

Flowers, of course… but also the way insects hold on to them, right way up or upside down, with a delicate touch…

Fly on crocusMonarch 1Monarch 2Cloudless Sulphur and bee

Continue reading

Lilies

By Vladimir Brezina

DSC_0065 cropped small 3DSC_0014 cropped smallDSC_0026 cropped smallDSC_0057 cropped small

Weekly Photo Challenge: Changing Seasons

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Changing Seasons.

Looking through photos that I’ve taken in Central Park in the Spring, and in the Fall, I am momentarily confused. Which season is which?

In both, the leaves glow with color…

But the Spring leaves have fresh young faces

DSC_0016 cropped small

whereas the Fall leaves have lived

DSC_0013 cropped small

More photos from the Spring and Fall are, respectively, here and here.

Travel Theme: Circles

By Vladimir Brezina

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

Here are some natural circles.

DSC_0112 cropped smallDSC_0083 cropped smallDSC_0111 cropped small 2DSC_0704

Weekly Photo Challenge: Reflections, Take Three

By Vladimir Brezina

Here’s a third response to this week’s Photo Challenge, Reflections. (Our first two responses were here and here.)

This was a particularly colorful, and reflective, sunset during our kayak circumnavigation of Long Island, NY, this past summer…

At Play in the Land of the Giants

By Johna Till Johnson and Vladimir Brezina

It started like any other kayak trip.

The night before, we prepared. We made sure we had our paddling equipment (life jackets, spray skirts, tow ropes, pumps and sponges). Navigation gear (compasses, GPS, charts). And clothing: it’s definitely the season for drysuits now, with plenty of insulation underneath. And pogies–can’t forget the pogies! (Pogies are kayaking “mittens” that allow your bare hands to grip the paddle, but simultaneously sheath them in delightfully warm neoprene.) The Jetboil, so we’d be able to make hot coffee during the trip. And food, water, all the usual.

Continue reading