Notes on Kite Aerial Photography: Photo Gallery
Scarab
beetles resting during the day. These fine craft were associated with the DMV --
Department of Mutant Vehicles (Canon 24-mm, August 2001)
Burning Man is justly know for a form
of expression known as art vehicles. I'm afraid that I did not do these fine
creations justice on this trip. Perhaps it is because many of the vehicles
seemed to have a nocturnal bent and were just coming out as the sun set (and the
paraglider grounded my kite). On the other hand I recall more than one occasion
when I brought the camera back to the ground only to find that an omitted step
in the procedure (e.g., plug cable into camera, turn camera to the correct mode)
resulted in a roll of unexposed film. I hate it when that happens -- 36
exposures worth of composition and thinking with naught to show for it. And it
rarely happens to me these days. Hmmm, could be related to the occasional (and
very refreshing) ice cold beer enjoyed during the hot playa afternoon. Next year
I will try harder because there are some fine photos waiting.
The
CatBus disgorges passengers outside of Center Camp. It turns out one of the
passengers was a former student who exclaimed "Professor Benton!" (Canon 24-mm, August 2001)
Kiki, a Burning Man 2001 participant,
sent me an e-mail explaining that "the CatBus touched me far more than I
even expected. He's one of my all-time favorite characters from Studio
Ghibli's many films. For more info, check out http://www.nausicaa.net
and look for My Neighbor Totoro. There's not many pictures [if any?] of
the NekoBasu [literally "Cat Bus"] on the site, but it has info on the
movie. It's one of *the* sweetest and most lovely films I've ever
seen. It's been dubbed and can easily be found in just about any video
rental store, in the kid's section. If you've not seen it, you
should!"
The
desert was full of art cars but I did not do a particularly good job of
photographing them. Here at least is an old truck chassis with sofa on the truck
bed and the furry, yellow cat bus. One of those waving upward from the bus is a
former student named Doug. (Canon 24-mm, August 2001)
I vow to work more diligently on the
vehicles next year and even have the beginnings of a plan. I plan to print out a
brief handout that I can hand to passing vehicles. It will explain what I am up
to (some quickly get it and some do not) and suggests the vehicle execute a
360° on the playa to commence a photo opportunity fly-by. They could even honk
the horn (or whatever) as they pass under the camera. Come to think of it I can
produce similar sheets for the BM KAP Aerial Portrait Series.
The remainder of this page will include a few random goings on about the playa. As I wandered about with kite aloft I would come across the little vignettes that make Burning Man an interesting place.
On
the left is a setup where instruction was offered in the fair art of roping
steers. Cattle being inconvenient beasts for the desert the instructors have
substituted a stuffed steer head (?) sitting on a stump for the real thing. The
image offers great detail of rope and shadow in what is regrettably a missed
toss. On the left are citizens of Black Rock City gazing at a display of large
panoramic photographs showing the playa before and during the Burning Man event. (Canon 24-mm, August 2001)
The wood frame pictured in the left-hand
image below shows the framework for an installation that graced the evening
horizon. On this wood frame some ingenious soul had installed an array of
standard four-foot fluorescent tubes to form a display of four characters
with eight segments per character. The segments were controlled by a gang of electrical
switches. At night, the citizens of Black Rock City could head out to this
installation and claim a few minutes of fame by sending a four-character missive
to the thousands of folks within eyesight. It was great fun. If I can find a
night shot I will post it here later.
An underwhelming daytime view of one of my favorite playa installations -
a manually configured readout using fluorescent lamps and an aerial view of
banners (Canon 24-mm, August 2001)
I confess Burning Man earned a place on my list of possible KAP subjects when I
saw an image of 50 or so mud caked, nude folks frolicking around in a muddy pit
of some sort. The fact that all involved had taken on a new "skin"
that caused them to be uniformly the color of playa soil struck me as
particularly photogenic and the stuff of KAP legend. It turns out that one venue
for mud wrestling, dancing, and so forth was located just down the Esplanade
from our camp. The mud pit was immediately below the apex of a pyramid structure
that housed photographers. I had been scooped!
I could not begin to describe the activities of the Troupe of the Traditional Burning Man Opera as they go about "boldly recreated life as it was lived thousands of years ago, during the visit of the Pleiadians to our planet." Suffice it to say that they appear to have great fun in the endeavor. I refer you to their WWW site for details. I did take a couple of images of the Water Woman sculpture that marks their camp.
Water
Woman guards the entry to the Pyramid and mud pit
Ray Cirino creator of Water Woman
Now for a slight non-sequitur. I received an email the other day
from John Gilmore that read as follows:
"We were camped near you, in the Oregon Country Fair camp. I came by your camp and gave you some miniature flashlights for potential night flying experiments, receiving a great aerial photo of a San Francisco pier in return.
The
image at right shows our camp (the large grey tarp structure with visible PVC
ribs underneath, on the Esplanade). However, the picture is
mirror-reversed; the stage and the bus (also visible on the Esplanade) were on
the LEFT side of our camp, not the RIGHT side.
Since this picture is the best aerial view we've ever seen of one of our camps, can you let us have the highest-resolution scan of it that you have handy?
Our camp is the
whole section from the Esplanade back to the next street (e.g. the double row of
white tents, occupied by the Tuna Guys), roughly a quarter of the picture.
We have our 'wagons' parked several-deep in a circle, keeping the central plaza
of our camp (immediately behind the crossed-grey-tarps structure) open for
walking and gathering."
What a fun note. I remember, of course, John's visit and his generous offering of three LED flashlights as fodder for nighttime aerial experiments (thanks John!). And I was somewhat taken aback to learn that I had reversed the world. I did make those scans in a great hurry. What if there were more inadvertently reversed images? If you find any that are disquieting let me know.
And then there is the matter of the
Tuna Guys. Who are they? How did I miss them?
Early
morning aerials in the vicinity of the Oregon Country Fair camp (Canon 24-mm, August 2001)
high-res image 1
high-res image 2
In any event I do have additional images of the Oregon Country Fair Camp (posted above and below). The associated links will take John and the occasional willing reader to high resolution scans.
Images of the Oregon Country Fair camp with a
little less dust (Canon 24-mm, August 2001)
high-res
image 3
high-res image 4
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All rights reserved. Revised: Friday, November 30, 2001
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