By Vladimir Brezina
Ailsa’s Travel-Themed photo challenge this eek is Spooky.
This is still an old photo, from Halloween 2011. But I will head out any day now to take fresh photos of this year’s Halloween decorations that are now cropping up in our neighborhood. It should be a spooky Halloween this year…
… unless of course Hurricane Sandy spooks us out first. Current forecasts have it arriving in New York City precisely on Halloween!
Posted in Art, New York City, Photography
Tagged Halloween, New York City, Photography, postaday, postaweek, postaweek2012, Spooky, Travel, Weekly Photo Challenge
By Vladimir Brezina
Ailsa’s travel-themed photo challenge this week is Couples.
Ah, the romance of shared travel by kayak! And what better to ensure that shared togetherness than a double kayak?
Soon arguments break out, and loud words carry over the water, to the secret amusement of other paddlers.
“Shouldn’t you be steering more to the left?”
“I know where I am going!”
“I thought we agreed to stop on that beach over there!?”
The couple have trouble paddling at the same rate and synchronizing their strokes…
and both feel that they are doing all the work
until they both just put down their paddles in frustration
No wonder double kayaks are known as “divorce boats”!
________________________________________________________
The last photo features another prominent couple in the background. And a couple of other “Couples” are here and here…
Posted in Kayaking, New York City
Tagged Couples, Double Kayak, Kayaking, New York City, Photography, postaday, postaweek, postaweek2012, Weekly Photo Challenge, World Trade Center
By Vladimir Brezina
This week’s Photo Challenge is Silhouette.
Wait, didn’t we already do that theme just a little while ago? Yes, back in August. But that was not the Daily Post’s challenge—it was Ailsa’s challenge on Where’s my backpack?, ahead of the game as usual… (Ailsa herself posted some fantastic silhouettes that you should definitely check out!)
In any case, here are some more silhouettes, or near-silhouettes. A hard-edged one in the late-afternoon sun…
and others softened as the sunlight filters through early-morning fog…
More photos from that trip are here. A second interpretation of “Silhouette” is here.
Posted in Kayaking, New York City, Photography
Tagged Kayaking, New York City, New York Harbor, Photography, postaday, postaweek, postaweek2012, Silhouette, Weekly Photo Challenge
Posted in Nature, New York City
Tagged Central Park, Evening, Manhattan, New York City, Photography
By Vladimir Brezina
This week, Ailsa’s Travel-Themed Photo Challenge is On Display.
And it’s that time of year again…
This was the display last year (more photos are here). This year’s display is already starting to go up. Watch this space in a couple of weeks!
Posted in New York City, Photography
Tagged Halloween, New York City, Photography, postaday, postaweek, postaweek2012, Street Decorations, Travel, Weekly Photo Challenge
By Vladimir Brezina
This week’s Photo Challenge is Big.
It’s big…
… but it always amazes me how tiny it appears when we turn the corner and see it across the harbor, against the immensity of the sea and sky. There it is, just to the left of the sunlit section of the city ahead…
It’s a matter of perspective.
Posted in Kayaking, New York City, Photography
Tagged Big, New York City, New York Harbor, Photography, postaday, postaweek, postaweek2012, Statue of Liberty, Weekly Photo Challenge
By Vladimir Brezina
Jakesprinter’s Sunday Post theme for this week, Favorite Spot, and the Weekly Photo Challenge theme, Mine, come together in this post…
On Sunday, Johna and I visited one of our favorite spots, New York City’s Central Park.
The trees are still mostly green, and late flowers are in bloom. But subtle signs of fall are everywhere.
We saw a late monarch butterfly, flitting from flower to flower.
Wandering through the park, we made our way, as we usually do, to our really special spot—the plot of ground that some time ago we picked out as the place where we could learn to observe and to see. And indeed, we saw there…
… a belated dandelion
.
.
.
.
.
… somebody’s eggs
.
.
.
.
… a strawberry?!
.
It sure looked like a strawberry—a last lone strawberry at the cusp of fall.
We thought of how sweet ripe wild strawberries can be… And so, despite some contraindications —the strawberry plants bore, here and there, yellow, rather than white, flowers—Johna ate the strawberry.
It had very little taste. It wasn’t a true strawberry, but (as we determined afterward) a mock strawberry.
Still, it was a lovely early fall day at our special spot in the park…
Posted in Nature, New York City
Tagged Butterflies, Central Park, Fall, Favorite Spot, Flowers, Manhattan, Mine, New York City, Photography, postaday, postaweek, postaweek2012, Sunday Post, Weekly Photo Challenge
Posted in Nature, New York City
Tagged East River, Manhattan, New York City, Photography, Sunrise
By Vladimir Brezina
On Saturday, I was in the right place at the right time. A little rain shower gave way to a golden sunset over New Jersey, with golden reflections in Manhattan…
(At home afterwards, I stitched together a panorama in Photoshop. If I’d thought of it at the time, I would have made sure to take all the matching photos for it. Oh, well…)
… and then the World Trade Center tower glittering ahead in the purple dusk and the moon overhead…
Posted in Kayaking, New York City
Tagged Hudson River, Kayaking, Manhattan, New York City, New York Harbor, Photography, Sunset
By Vladimir Brezina
Jakesprinter‘s Sunday Post theme this week is People.
Here are photos that I took on four different occasions in New York City over the past couple of years…
What do you think these people are doing? I’ll post the answers later, but in the meantime…
… the answer is here. (Answer September 26, 2012: They are photographing Manhattanhenge.)
… the answer is here. (Answer September 26, 2012: That’s Johna and a couple of kayaking friends, struggling back into their drysuits after a restaurant meal during an unplanned, comical visit to Red Hook, Brooklyn.)
… the answer is here. (Answer September 26, 2012: It’s the spinach-eating contest during the Great North River Tugboat Race & Competition.)
… and the answer is here. (Answer September 26, 2012: It’s the scary-looking ladies of the organizing committee at our local Halloween block party.)
Posted in New York City, Photography
Tagged People, Photography, postaday, postaweek, postaweek2012, Sunday Post, Weekly Photo Challenge
... kayaked the waters around New York for more than 15 years in his red Feathercraft folding kayak. He was originally from (the former) Czechoslovakia and lived in the U.K. and California before settling down in New York. He was a neuroscientist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He died in 2016.
... is a kayaker and technology researcher at Nemertes Research. She's an erstwhile engineer, particle physicist, and science fiction writer. She was born in California and has lived in Italy, Norway, Hawaii, and a few other places. She currently resides in New York City.
 | Johna Till Johnson on Where We Like to Land on Sandy… |
| Canada to Key West P… on “A Bizarre Boating … | |
 | Eunice Miller on A Meditation on Gratitude |
 | Harry on A Meditation on Gratitude |
| Johna Till Johnson on A Meditation on Gratitude |
| Harry Itagaki on A Meditation on Gratitude |
 | Love is still the an… on Travel Theme: Signs |
 | David McLean on Where We Like to Land on Sandy… |
 | davidloh24 on Endless Reflection |
| Paddle Log: North Mo… on Circumnavigating Monomoy | |
 | Brian on Long Island Kayak Circumnaviga… |
 | Andi the Slime on Yellow |
 | Mark S on The Dry Salvages |
 | Dudi on Everglades Challenge, the Days… |
 | Francie Chew on The First Leg! |
Wind Against Current 