Tag Archives: Photography

Kayaking Gold on Cape Cod Bay

Posted on May 22, 2012 by | 46 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

We really can’t set off on this summer’s kayaking adventures before we’ve written up all of last summer’s!

So, here is the last of them.

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The previous days of our 2011 New England kayaking vacation (see here and here) were exhilarating, but by the same token just a tiny bit tense—although we had good conditions, they were exposed trips on which you can never really relax until you are safe home again.

In contrast, this leisurely trip on the protected, warm Cape Cod Bay was pure gold.

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46 Comments

Posted in Kayaking, Nature

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Travel Theme: Summer

Posted on May 18, 2012 by | 61 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

Update, May 25, 2012: A week later, it turns out that the theme of the official Photo Challenge is also Summer. Ailsa and Sara should really coordinate a bit better! On the other hand, I have my entry all ready:

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Ailsa of Where’s my backpack?, who stepped into the breach and organized last week’s wildly successful Alternative Photo Challenge on the theme of “Reflections”—and then found the time to look at the hundreds of photos and answer the hundreds of comments that flooded in—wants to do it again!

This time she’s proposed a theme that combines her love of travel and that of the summer now upon us, at least those of us in the northern hemisphere…

As soon as I saw her double theme, I knew I had just the photos for her! I offer you… the English summer holiday at the seaside!

Lonely as a cloud

The traditional pony ride

Wetsuits of August

Please, let’s have no indignant defenses of the English summer. I know what I am talking about!

(Or, if you must, do first review the categories that this post is listed under…)

More photos are here.

61 Comments

Posted in Humor, Photography, Travel

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Hands

Posted on May 18, 2012 by | 68 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Hands.

It’s all about the hands!  (Well, and a few other body parts…) Here’s Joe the Guide (guess which one he is) showing a bunch of newbies the proper forward stroke.

It’s amazing how expressive the hands are, and how much we are drawn to look to them for clues—especially after we’ve cut off the heads!

Continue reading →

68 Comments

Posted in Kayaking, Photography

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Alien Life

Posted on May 15, 2012 by | 14 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

For a whole year it had been just sitting there, not doing anything much. Then, one day, we noticed that it had suddenly sprouted a pod.

This was a couple of weeks ago. Now it’s back to its old self, just sitting there… that’s the Amaryllis flower over for another year!

More photos are here.

14 Comments

Posted in Nature

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Blue

Posted on May 14, 2012 by | 61 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

The Daily Post‘s Weekly Photo Challenge is usually posted on Fridays. It’s now mid-day Monday… Over the weekend, I, and many other people who have been trained to eagerly anticipate the challenge, were almost giving up. In fact, to fill the absence, on Saturday night Ailsa on her blog Where’s my backpack? proposed her own alternative challenge on the theme of “Reflections“, and has been getting a very lively response indeed. My two “Reflections” posts are here and here.

Still, better late than never! This week’s official Photo Challenge is finally here, and it is Blue.

… And immediately

Rather than words comes the thought of high windows:
The sun-comprehending glass,
And beyond it, the deep blue air, that shows
Nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless.

Philip Larkin, High Windows

That’s it: Blue means opening up, spaces without limits, endless possibilities…

Actually, some of the photos from my “Reflections” posts, here and here, would also have fit the theme very well…

61 Comments

Posted in Literature, New York City, Photography

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Reflections, Take Two

Posted on May 13, 2012 by | 57 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

OK, I can’t resist having another go at Ailsa‘s Alternative Photo Challenge on the theme of “Reflections“…

More photos from these places, along the Hudson River and in Long Island Sound, are here, here, and here.

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Some other nice “Reflections” posts:

57 Comments

Posted in Kayaking, Nature, Photography

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Reflections

Posted on May 13, 2012 by | 34 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

WordPress has not yet posted a theme for this week’s Photo Challenge… So photo-bloggers addicted to a regular weekly Challenge have impatiently begun taking matters into their own hands. Over at her blog Where’s my backpack?, Ailsa has proposed a Photo Challenge of her own, which everyone is invited to join, with the theme of “Reflections“.

“Reflections” is a perfect theme for me. Kayaking, or just walking around after the rain as Ailsa did, inverted reflections in water are everywhere, often more intriguing and mysterious than the scenes reflected. I’ve already posted some of these water reflections here and here and here and here and here…

But “Reflections” also brings to mind our recent visit to the 9/11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan. The surfaces of the memorial, and the glass walls of the towers now rising all around, are full of reverberating reflections: of each other, of the clouds, of the visitors, of memories…

More photos are here.
And my second take on “Reflections” is here.

34 Comments

Posted in New York City, Photography

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… And Once More to Sandy Hook

Posted on May 11, 2012 by | 15 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

Last weekend, the currents in New York Harbor dictated a southbound kayak trip. So we paddled, once more, down to Sandy Hook. Here is a slideshow of the highlights.

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It was the weekend of the Supermoon. And the currents were strange. The flood on the way back to Manhattan was much stronger than usual, but the ebb on the way to Sandy Hook was paradoxically much weaker…

For Johna’s feelings toward the Staten Island Ferry, see her last post.

The individual photos are here.

15 Comments

Posted in Kayaking, New York City

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One Year of Wind Against Current

Posted on May 10, 2012 by | 25 comments

By Vladimir Brezina and Johna Till Johnson

It’s hard to believe that a whole year has gone by since we published  our first post on May 9, 2011.

We have to credit Tugster with the idea. He’d asked us for a guest post about a kayaker’s-eye view on maritime traffic and life on the water. We still haven’t written that one (one day soon, Will, we promise!).

But we pondered the idea…  And meanwhile, Vlad kept taking photos, and Johna kept writing essays, until the idea of a blog was born.

Blogs are harder than they look, as anyone who writes on a regular basis knows well.

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25 Comments

Posted in Life, The Virtual World

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Unfocused

Posted on May 4, 2012 by | 81 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Unfocused.

Returning home after a few drinks, it’s sometimes hard to get the eyes to focus.

Supposedly, it was in such a state that Li Po died trying to embrace the reflection of the moon in the water…

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81 Comments

Posted in Nature, Photography

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