Category Archives: New York City

At the Bottom of the Food Chain

By Vladimir Brezina

In the harbor ecosystem, kayaks are definitely at the bottom of the food chain.

Still, sometimes they remind me of those frisky little mammals scampering under the feet of the great lumbering dinosaurs…

Continue reading

In Memoriam

By Johna Till Johnson
Photos by Vladimir Brezina

The old World Trade Center…

It was the posters that finally made it real.

Everyone has a 9/11 story. Mine isn’t all that exceptional. I was in Midtown Manhattan that morning, preparing for a sales trip to New Jersey. I’d been awake since about 2 AM, working on a project for work.

… and the new World Trade Center

When the sirens first started, I didn’t think much of it. At least at first. But they kept going… and going… and going. Finally I looked out of the window and saw the column of smoke rising into the clear pale-blue air—and realized something serious was going on.

Then I turned on the TV and saw what everyone else did: the smoke, the helicopters, the collapse of the towers one by one.

Continue reading

Weekly Photo Challenge: Two Subjects, Take Two

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Two Subjects. I’ve already posted one response to this challenge, but I can’t resist having another go.

A few days ago we had occasion to take the Circle Line boat ride around Manhattan. The boat was packed. I came ready with my camera. But I couldn’t decide whether to focus (figuratively as well as literally) on the magnificent sights of the city coming into view one after another, or on the activities of other passengers. They, too, were snapping photos of the sights but even more of each other…

You just know what is to the left of the frame in the next photo, don’t you?

That’s right—the money shot!

Beastly (and Avian) New Yorkers

By Vladimir Brezina and Johna Till Johnson

After more than 15  (Johna) and 20 (Vlad) years living in New York City (in Vlad’s case, just one block away from Central Park), we finally managed to visit the Central Park Zoo.

The Central Park Zoo was New York City’s first zoo, starting in 1859 as a menagerie of exotic animals given to the Park. (Nowadays, owners of exotic animals that have grown uncomfortably large for small New York City apartments are too impatient for donation: they simply dump the animals in the Park—that’s how we get alligators in the sewers…) The zoo is small (6.5 acres) but manages to house a surprisingly large number of animals—we didn’t get to see even half of them—in “natural” enclosures, some of them walk-through, that do not feel at all cramped.

As it turns out, the Zoo’s inhabitants are some of the most quintessential New Yorkers: The birds and beasts embody all the characteristic New York attitudes, from vanity to boredom to slit-eyed suspicion.

Continue reading

Spring Blossoms Catch the Evening Light

By Vladimir Brezina

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.
……………………………….A.E. Housman, from A Shropshire Lad
.
OK, the cherry blossoms are already mostly over at Easter in this remarkably early Spring. But there were still plenty of trees in bloom, or with the first tender green leaves just appearing, as I walked out with my camera a few days ago at sunset …
.
New York City’s Central Park, April 5, 2012
.
.
.
.
.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Journey

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Journey.

At dawn, some leave on their journey…

… just as others arrive from theirs

More photos from that day are here.

________________________________________________________

Other nice Journeys:

Full Moon Rising over Hell Gate

By Vladimir Brezina

Last night, as a lavender dusk settled over Hell Gate

a pale shell of the full moon rose up among the high buildings

then shone white in the deepening blue sky

as the bright lights of the Second Avenue construction came on

Seals and Swells on Sunday

By Vladimir Brezina

On Sunday, Johna and I paddled once more to Swinburne Island to see seals.

Swinburne Island, a small island in New York Harbor just south of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, hosts a healthy population of seals every winter. We’ve already visited them once this winter. But now in April, especially with spring arriving so early this year, we were wondering if the seals would still be there.

We were not disappointed!

Continue reading

A Quiet Springtime Manhattan Circumnavigation

By Vladimir Brezina

Sunday, March 25, 2012

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Through

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Through.

Crowds of photographers gather as the magic moment draws near. What are they waiting for?

It’s Manhattanhenge! On two days in the year, for a brief moment before it sinks below the horizon, the setting sun is perfectly aligned with the cross-streets of Manhattan’s rectangular street grid and sends its last golden rays straight through its canyons…

These photos are from the first occurrence of Manhattanhenge last year, on May 30, 2011. More photos are here and here.

This year’s magic days will be May 29 and July 12!

________________________________________________________

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