Notes on Kite Aerial Photography: Photo Gallery
On
the left is a plan view of a
shopping cart in the tidal muck. This is what I imagined photographing as I
wandered toward the racetrack. On the right is a distant view of more shopping
carts that formed my serendipitous discovery. (Canon 24-mm, May 2000)
As the 2000 Spring Semester drew to
a blissful close I found myself prowling the Albany, California waterfront
looking for subjects to photograph. This stretch of shoreline on the San
Francisco Bay is host to a large horse racing track. It also sports a
sizable peninsula built of construction debris trucked to the bay and dumped
along the shore. This landscape of rebar and concrete, tires and rubble provides
paths out into the bay and opportunities for birding and solitude. As I walked
down the peninsula's main path I came across a sculpture made of old shopping
carts.
Closer
views of the braced arch that an anonymous artist made of grocery store shopping
carts. Shadows play an integral role in this composition (Canon 24-mm,
May
2000)
I was immediately taken with this sculpture. The carts had been carefully wired
together and anchored to the ground with rebar stakes. What had perhaps been a
simple arch -- made using the keystone cross-section of the carts -- had been buttressed
by the addition of a second arch at a 90º angle. The arch provided sufficient
clearance to allow folks to walk underneath. Kudos to the creator of this
post-consumer (one hopes) gateway to the San Francisco Bay.
More
abstract views of the cart sculpture. It was interesting to see how integral the
shadow pattern became when the assembly was viewed from above (Canon 24-mm,
May
2000)
My favorite views of the arch are close shots in which the carts and shadows
play almost interchangeable and complimentary roles. It required about two hours
of patient but pleasant waiting to get the shots due to a general absence of
wind. Having discovered the arch I hiked back to the car to get my lightest wind
kite -- a carbon fiber-framed Rokkaku. For the first hour the kite would only
fly intermittently without a load. Later a small breeze set in and I was able to
coax the camera into the air for brief periods of photography. I am glad I did.
An
oblique view featuring humans, and dogs, for scale (Canon
24-mm, May 2000)
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All rights reserved. Revised: Wednesday, May 02, 2001
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