Notes on Kite Aerial Photography: Photo Gallery
Rigging
the El Toros to start the day (a ground based shot, 31K jpg,
Canon 28-105-mm, November 1997).
I
enjoy my flying sessions out at the Richmond Yacht Club. As my
regular readers have no doubt surmised, I'm intrigued by the
visual aspect of boats. When viewed from above boats, and
particularly sailboats, reveal shapes born of function and
generations of empirical and theoretical refinement. Yet overlaid
on this functional beginning are often other considerations
related to class rules or intended use. Cruising boats clearly
differ from their lean racing-only cousins. So far, my boat
photographs have been largely based from land. I am eager to
begin a series capturing sailboats under sail, the results could
be stunning.
A
view of "B" Dock from around 300 feet up and boats on
trailers in the parking lot (32K jpg left and 29K jpg right,
Canon 24-mm, November 1997).
For now I am entertaining myself with images of boats taken from
land. The view of "B" Dock above was taken from about
100 meters above the ground. This is about as high as I send the
camera rig these days. I'm in the center of the image. This shows
up clearly in the prints but not in the scans. Recently, when the
kite has flown very well, I've taken to tying it off to an anchor
and then walking around to help compose the view. In this case
the Sutton 30 was flying quite nicely so I tied the kite off to
the roof rack of Claudia's car. I then spent 15 minutes walking
about (for instance, on the dock in the image) composing my
photos. This technique has worked fine but it does require a
stable kite and a secure anchorage.
In the image of boats on trailers (above) I am working in my usual mode of walking around with the kiteline in my hand. Here I eased the camera rig toward the boat mast until it was just adjacent and a little above the mast. I like the resulting three-dimensional character provided by a foreground object.
The big boats at "A" dock with a complement of El Toros
for scale (31K jpg left and 32K jpg right, Canon 24-mm, November
1997).
Here are a couple of lower level shots taken near "A" dock. In the image to the left the camera's relationship with the boat mast sets up a nice three-point perspective. The yawl and its neighbor in the right image provide a fine color scheme of white with blue nautical canvas trim.
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