Tag Archives: postaweek2013

Weekly Photo Challenge: Let There Be Light!

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Let There Be Light!

Artificial lights are all very well, but they can’t compete with the real thing!

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(Two more interpretations of “Let There Be Light!” are here and here.)

Weekly Photo Challenge: Unexpected

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Unexpected.

On our kayak trips through New England, we expect to see birds, seals, even whales…

But one day last May, as I was paddling through the desolate Elizabeth Islands in Massachusetts, I rounded a rocky point and came face to face with this huge, shaggy, horned beast, lounging on the beach and looking at me with uncomfortable interest.

Unexpected, to say the least.

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Unexpected 2

The story of that trip and more photos are here.

Travel Theme: Fragrant

By Vladimir Brezina

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

It’s not even Thanksgiving, but the first Christmas decorations have already made their appearance in NYC store windows, so it’s not too early for this post…

No plastic Christmas trees for us. We always have a real tree. Plastic trees can look pretty, but lack an essential element of Christmas—the fragrance of a real tree, especially when that fragrance is released by the heat of real candles…

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More photos from Christmas 2011 are here, and from Christmas 2012 here. Looking forward to Christmas 2013!

Travel Theme: Short

By Vladimir Brezina

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

Compared to the Red Herring (a Feathercraft Heron kayak, 17′ 7″ long, on the right in the photo below), the Baby Vulcan (a Feathercraft K-Light kayak, on the left) is absurdly short for a sea kayak—only 12′ 10″.

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It must have looked ridiculous when I paddled it, as I did for years.

But Johna finds it to be a fun boat around town

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and quite capable of crossing the seas…

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(More on that Florida trip here and here.)

Weekly Photo Challenge: Layers

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Layers.

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At the 9/11 Memorial, Manhattan.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Habit

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Habit.

Gus the polar bear was one of the stars of Manhattan’s Central Park Zoo. New Yorkers took to him probably because, as a result of being cooped up in the equivalent of a tiny apartment, he was a creature of neurotic, not to say compulsive habits, such as obsessive swimming. But, like a true New Yorker, he managed to thrive on his neuroses—he outlived both his younger female companions, and finally died this past summer, aged 27 (which is quite old for a polar bear).

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Travel Theme: Connections

By Vladimir Brezina

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

And to travel by folding kayak, you do have to make a lot of connections…

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… and maintain them in good working order!

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For more, see here.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Eerie

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Eerie.

I hope all of you had a lovely Halloween…

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Travel Theme: Delicate

By Vladimir Brezina

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

I wanted to come up with a Fall photo, but “Delicate” keeps suggesting Spring…

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… and we do have readers in the southern hemisphere :-)

Travel Theme: Stones

By Vladimir Brezina

IMGP6389 cropped smallAilsa’s travel-themed photo challenge this week is Stone.

Kayaking along the glaciated shores of Long Island, Block Island, and Cape Cod, it’s hard to miss the many glacial erratic boulders that dot the shoreline. Some are cool green stones awash in the sea. Others, more exposed, are the favorite perches of cormorants and human fishermen…

(click on any photo to start slideshow)