A Day at the Beach

Posted on September 26, 2013 by | 43 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

From dawn to dusk…

(click on any photo to start slideshow)

Before dawn
Anticipation
Sunrise
Morning run
Broad beach
Soaking up the sun
Out at sea
Coming in
Sharing the beach
Main act
Backup
Twins
Pink palace
Silver
Competition
Beach treasures 1
Transitory
Watching the sunset
Beach stroll
Beach treasures 2
Time to go home
Beach treasures 3
Sunset flight
Dusk reflections
Red sky
Last light
Soft night

43 Comments

Posted in Nature, Travel

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A Moonlight Manhattan Circumnavigation at the End of Summer

Posted on September 23, 2013 by | 43 comments

By Johna Till Johnson

(Sorry, no photos this time! For one thing, I didn’t have a camera. And for another, it was, ahem, dark. So I’ve used a few of Vlad’s photos from previous circumnavigations.)

She rose up ahead of us, brilliantly lit in all her resplendent orange glory: the Staten Island Ferry, blazing against the dark night sky.

It was around 3:30 AM, and she was docked at Whitehall, at the southern tip of Manhattan.

Regular readers of this blog know that I’m deeply wary of the Staten Island Ferry. (“Deeply wary” sounds way better than “scared silly”, which is closer to the truth—of all the ferries, this one is the largest and seems to move the fastest, and I worry irrationally that one day I’ll be caught in its churning engines.)

Staten Island Ferry

A daylight view of the Staten Island Ferry at Whitehall

This night was no exception: There were ten of us, and the brisk ebb current was pushing us relentlessly into the ferry’s path.

The question was (with apologies to the Clash): “Should I stay or should I go?” Should we bank on the ferry’s remaining docked for the five minutes it would take us to glide past, or should we hold up and wait, back-paddling against the current, while she departed?

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Posted in Kayaking, New York City

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A Brisk Paddle Up the Palisades

Posted on September 22, 2013 by | 16 comments

By Johna Till Johnson
Photos by Vladimir Brezina

IMGP7239 cropped small“Do you think we can make it to Piermont Pier?”, I asked.

“I know of no reason why not,” Vlad replied. A small alarm bell rang at the back of my head: he hadn’t exactly said, “Yes.” And Vlad is a man who uses words very precisely.

But I brushed it off. We’d come quite a distance up the Palisades—just over 19 nautical miles, in fact.  Aided by a stiff flood current, we were almost at Italian Gardens, and we were deciding whether to stop there or continue onwards.

Piermont Pier, the long finger of land extending into the Hudson just south of the Tappan Zee Bridge, was only two miles away. We hadn’t been there yet this year, and the summer was almost over.

And though we’d had a brisk northerly breeze in our faces the whole way, we’d come thus far with no trouble. As Vlad said, there was no reason why we couldn’t make it the rest of the way.

So we set off into the wind-against-current chop ahead of us.

Continue reading →

16 Comments

Posted in Kayaking, New York City

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Happy Fall!

Posted on September 22, 2013 by | 27 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

DSC_0097 cropped smallThe Fall Equinox occurs this afternoon. So, although we very much regret, especially this year, Summer’s passing—Happy Fall, everyone! (Well, everyone in the northern hemisphere… for the others, Happy Spring!)

DSC_0097 cropped small 3

27 Comments

Posted in Nature

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Weekly Photo Challenge: From Lines to Patterns, Take Two

Posted on September 21, 2013 by | 64 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is From Lines to Patterns.

In response to this challenge, I’ve already posted some of the urban lines and patterns of NYC. Here are three photos of more natural lines and patterns. I’ve selected these three because they show, it seems to me, not merely lines and patterns, but how the lines become a pattern…

DSC_0156 cropped smallDSC_0745 cropped smallIMGP3315 cropped small 

64 Comments

Posted in Nature, Photography

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Travel Theme: Through

Posted on September 21, 2013 by | 27 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

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

In our kayaks, we may find ourselves traveling through

— airy mangrove tunnels

IMGP5772 cropped small

— labyrinthine salt marshes

Milton Harbor

— dark urban tunnels

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— rocky passages…

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… guarded by wild animals :-)

Dry Salvages

27 Comments

Posted in Kayaking

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Late Summer in the Park

Posted on September 20, 2013 by | 42 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

DSC_0341 cropped smallAfter the stasis of deep Summer, when NYC’s Central Park remains, it would seem forever, darkly lush and green, there are now unmistakable signs of the end.  It’s still sunny and warm, and busy insects are still feeding from the late-summer flowers. But new colors are appearing here and there, as the days now with increasing rapidity take us into Fall…

(click on any photo to start slideshow)

Late afternoon sun lights up the foliage
Patchwork of colors
Apples are ripe
Bacchanal of fruits and colors
Spiderwebs glitter everywhere in the sun
Suspicious purple
Late-summer feast
Insects flit from flower to flower
Featherlike
Flowers with a visitor
Vegetable composition
… not just vegetable, in fact
Warning colors (large milkweed bugs)
Coated with insects
Blue flower
Sunlit with spiderwebs
Red leaf
Branching plant
Yellowing leaf
Outlined in sunlight
Orange on black
Scattered sunlight
Purple silhouette
Tall and silver
Black silhouette
Insect construction
Iridescent spiderweb

These and a few more photos are here.

42 Comments

Posted in Nature, New York City

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Weekly Photo Challenge: From Lines to Patterns

Posted on September 20, 2013 by | 43 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is From Lines to Patterns.

Here are some of the lines and patterns of New York City—

IMGP5787 cropped smallDSC_0090 cropped smallNewark BayArthur KillDSC_0048 croppedDSC_0196 cropped smallJuly 4 fireworks

And here are some more natural lines and patterns.

43 Comments

Posted in New York City, Photography

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How Many Bridges Circumnavigating Manhattan?

Posted on September 18, 2013 by | 89 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

Some of the Manhattan bridgesIt’s interesting to look occasionally through the search terms that people have entered to reach your blog. And recently, quite a few people have been arriving at Wind Against Current with the query “how many bridges circumnavigating Manhattan”. They’ll have been disappointed in not finding an answer—until now!

Another popular query is “how many islands in New York City”. Unfortunately, that question does not have a definite answer—it depends on what you consider an island, and on the state of the tide.

But “how many bridges circumnavigating Manhattan” does have a very definite answer. And the answer is…

Continue reading →

89 Comments

Posted in Kayaking, New York City, Science and Technology

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Photography 101: Shape, Line, Texture, and Pattern

Posted on September 17, 2013 by | 2 comments

<— Previous in Photography 101

This is the tenth installment of Photography 101.

Next in Photography 101 —>

2 Comments

Posted in Photography

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