Notes on Kite Aerial Photography: Photo Gallery
An early morning outing on the Intracoastal Waterway. On the left are son Charlie at the wheel, Alice Sheridan, wife Claudia, and father Valentino. The righthand image shows brother Tino Sheridan's boat skimming through the marsh. (35K jpg left and 25K jpg right, Canon 24-mm, August 1997).
One of my unfinished KAP projects is taking photographs of small racing dinghies while they are under sail. To do this I have imagined flying my KAP rig from a motorboat that parallels the dinghy's course while it is on a beam reach. From the motorboat I could fly and control the camera rig while the dinghy skipper sailed to place his/her boat under the camera. An early morning fishing expedition gave me an opportunity to try the technique to photography not a sailing dinghy but my brother Tino's beloved fishing skiff. These shots were taken after the fish quit biting and we had time to "mess around in boats."
This
shot shows the picture taking setup for the shots below. I am flying the kite from the
pontoon boat (upper left) while Tino is guiding his boat below the camera. Also
visible in the attached jpg are the shadow of the kite and the legs of the camera rig.
(34K jpg, Canon 15-mm, August 1997).
With Claudia piloting a pontoon boat we had rented I found it quite easy to launch the Sutton 30, attach the Canon rig, and send it aloft. We were able to spend about 20 minutes taking photographs -- just enough time to shoot a test roll. I am generally quite pleased with the way they turned out.
An
oblique view of Tino's boat (35K jpg, Canon 24-mm, August 1997).
Tino found it easy to maneuver his small skiff below
the camera for plan views or to its side for obliques. Ample light allowed higher,
"water stopping" shutter speeds. The original photographs are quite sharp.
I am eager to try this with a sailing dinghy but lack access to a motorboat at this time.
I'm working on it.
Near plan views of Tino's boat while underway, son
Thomas is the passenger. This session was a trial run for my ultimate intention of
using this technique to shoot sailing dinghies while they are underway. Imaging a
low-altitude shot of an International 14 with water texture, a dramatic wake, the filled
sails, gleaming hardware and the crew on the trapeze. (40K jpg left and 35K jpg
right, Canon 24-mm, August 1997).
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