By Vladimir Brezina
This week’s Photo Challenge is Lost in the Details.
Big fleas have little fleas,
Upon their backs to bite ’em,
And little fleas have lesser fleas,
and so, ad infinitum.
But then the tide came in
and so I could not tell whether it really was ad infinitum.
Posted in Nature, Photography
Tagged Lost in the Details, Photography, postaweek, postaweek2013, Sea Shells, Weekly Photo Challenge
By Vladimir Brezina
Ailsa’s travel-themed photo challenge this week is Bridges.
Ailsa asks, “Are you ready to cross the bridge when you come to it?” But we follow quite another set of routes through the city, which were there before the first bridge was ever built over them…
Posted in Kayaking, New York City, Photography
Tagged Bridges, Kayaking, New York Harbor, Photography, postaweek, postaweek2013, Travel, Weekly Photo Challenge
Posted in Kayaking, Photography
Tagged Forward, Kayaking, Photography, postaweek, postaweek2013, Sea Kayaking, Weekly Photo Challenge
By Vladimir Brezina
Over on A Word In Your Ear, Sue’s A Word A Week Challenge this week is Industrial.
Paddling through New York Harbor, the ecosystem that we observe is not Nature, but Industry. Where elsewhere we might hope for close-up sightings of animals coming down to the water’s edge, in the harbor we observe the raw workings of industry. Industrial enterprises line the banks and occupy the scraps of waste land in the corners of the harbor. They present their best faces to the land, but as we paddle past, through, and sometimes even under them, we peer into their back yards…
By Vladimir Brezina
Ailsa’s travel-themed photo challenge this week is Mountains.
Hmmm… The water that we kayak on is usually horizontal and the waves are usually not mountainous. So I don’t have many photos of mountains.
I have visited the Alps and the Rockies. But I’ve found that I like best the smaller mountain ranges that, with perhaps no more than a thousand feet of elevation, still look and feel like real mountains. You can climb them in the morning and still be back below for supper. Yet up there, you still have those sharp peaks, precipitous slopes, and—especially when the mist rolls in—that exposed, lonely thrill. And when the mist clears, there are sunlit views far into the lowlands, even as far as the sea.
As, for example, in the Cordillera Central of Puerto Rico—
Posted in Photography, Travel
Tagged Mountains, Photography, postaweek, postaweek2013, Puerto Rico, Weekly Photo Challenge
By Johna Till Johnson
This week’s Photo Challenge is Kiss.
What with Couples, and Love, and Valentine’s Day, we’ve had entirely too much romantic stuff lately. So, for something completely different—
.
A few months back, a friend and client invited me to a corporate event.
Not your typical corporate event: It was a “Battle of the Bands”, in which employee-musicians competed in front of a crowd of hundreds of other employees and business partners.
Knowing my friend is a huge fan of the rock group KISS, I volunteered to come dressed in full KISS attire.
Okay, actually I didn’t volunteer. My business partner volunteered me, as in, “I’m sure Johna would love to dress up!”
Hmm… I’d love to, but… As the president and CEO of an up-and-coming technology research firm, did I really want to show up in front of clients and other professionals dressed like a rock star? Isn’t there something about, you know, having an image to uphold?
Upon further consideration, it took me about a nanosecond to agree with the idea. (After all, if I were diehard about maintaining a professional image, I wouldn’t be sporting a Billy Idol ‘do.)
Much longer, though, were the preparations.
First: Which member should I emulate? I was only dimly aware of the individual band members. My friend the KISS connoisseur advised that although Gene Simmons is better known, Ace Frehley’ Paul Stanley’s makeup is easier to do. (Note: As alert readers have noted, it was actually Paul Stanley’s makeup we emulated. I was confused by listening to “New York Groove” while writing this….)
Paul it was!
Then there were the logistics. Prior to the Battle of the Bands, there was an actual formal(ish) event during which we technology folks were to get briefed on the company’s products and services. The CEO would be attending. Did I want to show up at this event in KISS makeup?
In the end, I decided against that plan of action. Instead, after the event, my friend and I swiftly changed into KISS gear and did our makeup, rocking out to the sound of “New York Groove”.
The results? I think we were a rocking pair of Pauls! And my friend accessorized with a blow-up guitar…
By sheer coincidence, some time before Vlad had taken a photo of a Gene Simmons lookalike at the Hallowe’en festivities on the Upper East Side. He didn’t recognize the costume, though: I had to provide some additional context.
After all, by then I was an expert in KISS!
________________________________________________________
Great minds think alike!: To Mother Earth, with Love
Posted in Life, Music, Photography
Tagged Band, Kiss, Music, Photography, postaweek, postaweek2013, Rock, Weekly Photo Challenge
By Vladimir Brezina
This week’s Photo Challenge is Home. We’ve already posted one response, but here’s another.
Our home away from home—
—on a beach at Lloyds Neck, Long Island, NY
—on the banks of the Hudson River at Stockport Middle Ground
—on Magdalen Island, near Saugerties, NY
—on the Hudson River at Denning Point, Beacon, NY
—in Nickerson State Park, Cape Cod, MA
—at Jones Inlet, South Shore of Long Island, NY
—on Fire Island, NY
—at Montauk Point, NY
—in Sunken Meadow State Park, on the North Shore of Long Island, NY
And now, our home away from home awaits in its bag, ready for this year’s adventures!
By Vladimir Brezina
This week’s Photo Challenge is Home.
On our kayak trips, we paddle past homes worth millions
as well as some that are modest, but offer incomparable views and fresh sea breezes—
Another Home post is here.
Posted in Kayaking, Nature, Photography
Tagged Birds, Home, Kayaking, Nest, Photography, postaweek, postaweek2013, Weekly Photo Challenge
By Vladimir Brezina
Ailsa’s travel-themed photo challenge this week is Gaudy.
I think it’s safe to say that Ailsa will never issue a challenge on the exact word that this costume inspires, so there’s no point in holding this photo back. Gaudy it is!
Posted in Photography
Tagged Gaudy, Photography, postaweek, postaweek2013, Travel, Weekly Photo Challenge
By Vladimir Brezina
On A Word In Your Ear, Skinnywench’s photo challenge this week is Island. And on Where’s my backpack?, Ailsa’s is Shadows.
And the two just come together in my mind—warm turquoise waters, a strong tropical sun beating down, palm shadows…
Sort of like this—
Glover’s Reef Atoll, Belize, 2010. More photos are here.
Posted in Nature, Photography, Travel
Tagged A Word A Week Photo Challenge, Belize, Glover's Reef Atoll, Island, postaweek, postaweek2013, Shadow, Travel, 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.
 | Eunice Miller on A Meditation on Gratitude |
 | Johna Till Johnson on A Meditation on Gratitude |
 | Harry Itagaki on A Meditation on Gratitude |
 | CurlsnSkirls on The First Leg! |
| Johna Till Johnson on The First Leg! |
| Johna Till Johnson on The First Leg! |
 | Marilyn Albright on The First Leg! |
| CurlsnSkirls on The First Leg! |
| Johna Till Johnson on Looks Like They Made It! |
 | Pit on Looks Like They Made It! |
| Johna Till Johnson on More Scenes From the Nort… |
| CurlsnSkirls on Halfway There! |
 | Larry Jensen on More Scenes From the Nort… |
| Johna Till Johnson on R2AK: Scenes From the Northern… |
 | Frank Winters on R2AK: Scenes From the Northern… |
Wind Against Current 