Notes on Kite Aerial Photography: Photo Gallery
The nose knows -- a smiling sand castle face
courtesy of KMD Architects and Potrero Middle School. I bumped into Paul Jamtgaard, a
former teaching assistant, working on the KMD team. Two days later this image graced the
KMD intranet home page. (46K jpg, Canon 15-mm, October 1998).
Each year the Bay Area is treated to a sand castle contest coordinated by Learning in Education through the Arts Project (LEAP). This innovative program teams local architectural firms with fifth grade classes from schools around the area. Each team has a limited amount of time to build a sand castle following the contest's annual theme. This year the theme was (find theme).
I read about the contest at some point during the summer
and on the appointed day I headed for San Francisco's Ocean Beach with no idea where
exactly the contest could be found. It turns out that it was easy to recognize with a
crowd of perhaps 1,000 people gathered around 20 or so teams busy with construction.
Claudia and I arrived around 2 pm and found the contest nearing completion. After chatting
with a few folks I launched the Sutton 30 into a steady 15 mph breeze and watched it fly
for ten minutes or so. This is my little ritual -- flying the kite before launching the
camera tells me much about the nature of the wind I have to work with and it lets me think
about the shots I am preparing to take. After ten minutes in a beautifully steady breeze I
mounted the camera cradle and set about taking photographs of the sand castle teams.
High views of the sand castle contest area
looking south (left, 45K jpg) and north (right, 47K jpg, Canon 24-mm, October 1998).
There were several aspects of this outing that were particularly pleasant. One was bumping
into folks I know in the San Francisco Bay architecture community. Quite a few folks at
the sand castle contest knew me professionally as an architectural consultant and educator
but not as a kite aerial photographer. It was fun to let them see that side of me.
As often happens, the flying camera
attracted a crowd as I worked my way up and down the sand castle line. These crowds, in
fact, were particularly enthusiastic due to the high population of fifth graders.The
throng teeming on the left is from Interior Architects and Alice Fung Yu School. I bumped
into another former teaching assistant, Allan Daly, on the beach. Allan, holding
four-month-old Cameron, is shown on the right with wife Jen and friends. (42K jpg
left and 30K jpg right, Canon 24-mm, October 1998).
Another pleasure was seeing the crowds reaction to the flying camera. This was a setting
with kids everywhere and they seemed particularly entranced by the camera -- groups would
follow it around posing underneath. This session definitely falls into my third category
of KAP shots: the social landscape. I would not have flown above people in this manner
three years ago. However, the steady breeze and the hundreds of hours I have flying this
rig made it seem a reasonable thing to do. I am pleased with the people shots.
Closer views of interesting sand castles: on
the left is a globe and moon creation by Gordon H. Chong and Partners with Holy Name
School. The lovely hippo and serpent creation on the right (my favorite) is by Skidmore,
Owens, & Merrill with Bella Vista School (45K jpg left and 48K jpg right,
Canon 24-mm, October 1998).
On the left we have a deconstructed tongue
(with stud no less) and nose by Studios Architecture with Jean Parker School while the
detailed watch bridge to pyramids on the right is by by (46K jpg left and
44K jpg right, Canon 24-mm, October 1998).
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All rights reserved. Revised: Monday, August 02, 1999
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