By Vladimir Brezina
This week’s Photo Challenge is Fresh.
Kayaking, we soon become familiar with a distinct hierarchy of freshness. In descending order, there is—
Fresh off the tree!
(story is here)
Fresh and cold from the store!
(more photos are here)
Fruit that stays surprisingly fresh on a long trip…
(more photos are here)
and something that was fresh once in the depths of the dry bag.
(story is here)
Posted in Kayaking, Photography
Tagged Fresh, Kayaking, Photography, postaweek, postaweek2013, Weekly Photo Challenge
By Vladimir Brezina
Ailsa’s travel-themed photo challenge this week is Tilted.
Here’s a photo of me sailing my kayak through New York Harbor—that’s the Empire State Building in the distance—back in 2007. The camera, set to take a photo automatically every 10 minutes, was mounted on the outrigger arm, but evidently not very firmly: it started rotating round it, so that when I got home, I found I had photos tilted at all angles, even some upside down…
More about my kayak sailing adventures can be found here, here, and here.
Posted in Kayaking, Photography
Tagged Kayak Sailing, Photography, postaweek, postaweek2013, Tilted, Travel, Weekly Photo Challenge
By Vladimir Brezina
We are constantly racking our brains trying to come up with new things for people who visit us in NYC to do.
Empire State Building? They’ve been there. Statue of Liberty? They’ve done that.
But how about… a round-Manhattan paddle!
Here are some photos from last Saturday’s Manhattan circumnavigation on which we took our friend R.
And I think she got all the excitement, as well as the unexpected quiet beauty, that she could have wished for.
(click on any photo to start slideshow)
.
Posted in Kayaking, New York City
Tagged Manhattan, New York Harbor, Photography, Sea Kayaking
<— Previous in Photography 101
This is the fifth installment of Photography 101.
By Vladimir Brezina
This week’s Photo Challenge is The Golden Hour.
Most obviously, the golden hour brings with it the golden light of the rising or setting sun itself, as in my first two posts, here and here. But the real glory of the golden hour is the soft glow with which it lights up every object it still reaches, briefly between the lengthening shadows…
All in Central Park, New York City.
Posted in Nature, Photography
Tagged Fall Colors, Photography, postaweek, postaweek2013, Spring Blossoms, The Golden Hour, Weekly Photo Challenge
By Vladimir Brezina
This week’s Photo Challenge is The Golden Hour.
One golden hour was here. But I can’t resist posting another one, which was so perfectly golden—
(Belize, 2010. More photos are here. And yet a third “Golden Hour” post is here.)
Posted in Nature, Photography, Sports
Tagged Photography, postaweek, postaweek2013, Stand Up Paddle Board, Surfing, The Golden Hour, Weekly Photo Challenge
By Vladimir Brezina
Ailsa’s travel-themed photo challenge this week is Simplicity.
A block of wood is very simple—
Posted in Nature, Photography
Tagged Abstract, Photography, postaweek, postaweek2013, Simplicity, Travel, Weekly Photo Challenge, Wood
By Vladimir Brezina
This week’s Photo Challenge is The Golden Hour.
When I saw this week’s theme, I thought, how timely! For today (and tomorrow) is the second round of this year’s Manhattanhenge, the culmination of a very special golden hour in Manhattan. (Here are the photos from the first round of Manhattanhenge in May, and from 2011.) And I was going to urge all New Yorkers reading this post to go and see it. And even-out-of towners—you’ve still got a few hours to get on that plane so as to be in Manhattan by 8: 23 PM EDT ;-)
Unfortunately, a solid overcast, with occasional showers and thunderstorms, is forecast for both today and tomorrow. Indeed, as I write this, the rain is already beginning.
It will be a wash.
So, instead, here is another golden hour that I remember fondly.
It was last summer, during our kayak circumnavigation of Long Island. We were camped at the easternmost point of Long Island, at Montauk, in a grove of trees that faced the rising sun. The light that flooded our camp that morning was truly golden. And equally golden was the extra hour of sleep that we allowed ourselves that morning after our exertions of the day before…
<— Previous in Photography 101
This the fourth installment of Photography 101.
By Johna Till Johnson
Photos by Vladimir Brezina
Yesterday was a perfect summer’s day.
Well, if your definition of “perfect” includes placid weather, blue skies, and hot sunshine. Mine does—if I’m on the water and can cool off with a roll or two. Vlad is not so happy in the heat—and prefers more exciting “conditions”. As you’ll see, we both got our preferences…
We decided to go for a long trip—“long” being anything more than 30 nautical miles—not something we’ve done much of lately. The currents dictated it would be to Sandy Hook and back, returning after dark—again, a pleasant change of pace.
And the conditions were calm—a light breeze from the south, which would be in our faces on the way down, cooling us down, then helping us along on the return.
Well, not “helping”, exactly. As you’ll hear…
... 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.
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| Johna Till Johnson on A Meditation on Gratitude |
| Harry Itagaki on A Meditation on Gratitude |
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| Paddle Log: North Mo… on Circumnavigating Monomoy | |
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Wind Against Current 