Notes on Kite Aerial Photography: Others

Wolfgang Bieck
Gallery Page

When I met Wolfgang Bieck two years ago he strongly shaped my developing sense of what kite aerial photography might be. This was in part through sharing information on equipment and technique. But it was Wolfgang's images that really spoke to me. Wolfgang somehow captures the sublime in his carefully composed Kodachromes. And he does this consistently thus dispelling any notion of luck (my principal ally). I believe he is our most talented kite aerial photographer -- past or present.

In recent correspondence Wolfgang asked if I would be interested in example images for the WWW site and I leapt at the chance. Here are the images and text that he submitted. The general theme is aerial shots of kites in flight -- an surprisingly difficult compositional task. Take a look and you will see what I mean:

Title: Delta-Conyne-Window
Date: 1995, July 08th
Location: Long Beach - WA - USA
Camera: Minolta X-300 with external winder
Film: Kodachrome 25
Lens: 1.8/35mm
Kite: Multiflare (2,7 m x 1,9 m)+9 m tail


During my 1995 trip to Washington State, I watched Brooks Leffler fly his Delta-Conyne over Long Beach. Looking up, I realized the 'window' of this kite and immediately the photo's idea was born. I asked Brooks for cooperation with my idea, because even up in the sky there is a certain privacy. The seawind was steady enough to fly my heavy SLR-rig in close proximity to Brooks Delta conyne. The flying angles of our kites diverged relative to the wind direction and this was quite helpful. For many cases my personal rule works: one roll of film per subject. To see Jim Day and his wonderful KAP-Rokkaku, centered in the Delta-Conyne's window, really was the dot over the i and made me very, very happy.

This photo symbolizes kite aerial photography in a triple manner - do you see it? Thank you Brooks for your cooperation, thank you Jim for your KAP-Rokkaku!

Title. 'Living Mosaic'
Date: 1991, May 26th
Camera: Minolta X-300 with external winder
Film: Kodachrome 25
Lens: 1.8/35 mm
Kite: Sanyo Rokkaku 2,4 m x 1,8 m


Here we see a carpet created by thousands of rape-plants growing on a field near Bad Bevensen. This photo may demonstrate my personal approach, established during 9 years of active KAP. 'The subject determines the height and/or distance of the lens. This should be seen as my personal rule, not as a law I generalize for others. The blossoms of the rape-plants are quite tiny from a high of about 20 m. This distance is more than enough to show the character of this monochrome rape-field.

The advantage of KAP of course is the perpendicular view to the field's horizontal plane. The image is also realized through the sharpness of Kodachrome 25, a film I've preferred for more than 25 years in combination with the 8-element-Minolta MC-Rokkor. Slide film is a basic requirement for my slide-presentation in public halls. To see each rape-blossom in the projected image really is a joy. This may be the reason too, I never built a KAP-rig for a compact-camera.

Title: Cherry-Tree-Plantation in Bad Bevensen
Date: 1990, April/Mai
Camera: Minolta X-300 with external winder
Film: Kodachrome 25
Lens: 1.8/35mm
Kite: Sanyo Rokkaku (2.4 m x 1.8 m)


About 1.5 km from our house there is a cherry-tree-plantation. To see the blossoms in spring by earthgrounded view really is a pleasure. Looking up in the sky, watching birds flying over the plantation, contributed to my wish to have a bird's-view too. When this image, taken by kite aerial photography, came back it was a photographic dream came true. All my fantasy, my imagination paled next to this fine reality. After nine years of KAPing there may be one important, personal realization: 'reality is more exciting than fantasy'. To be conscious of this simple truth gives a great optimism. Discovery of a bird's-eye world by human being's mind is such a fascinating matter. I think, the method Arthur Batut gave to us by disclaiming patents, will enrich my life to the end of my days.

Title: Lecornu in Flight
Date: April 4th, 1997
Camera: Minolta X-300 with external winder
Film: Fuji Provia (100 ASA)
Lens: 1.8/35 mm
Kite: Multiflare (2.7 m x 1.9 m) + 9 m-tail


About 1900 Joseph Lecornu, former president of the French Kite Club, developed his 'Multicell-Kite'(type II). It got the first prize at the 'International Kite Contest in Vincennes' during the 'World Exhibition 1900 in Paris'. Claudio Barnabè built a wonderful replica and presented it again in Berck Sur Mer where it was flown by Andrea Casalboni. The challenge of documenting the kite's flight-character led Andrea and me to a harmonious team project. He flew the kite with care while I closed my camera step by step and took aerial photos. Thank you Andrea! Your excellent work and help enabled a view back to the beginning of kite aerial photography.

Joseph Lecornu's prize-winning multicell-kite was sized as follows:

Title: Parrot-Rokkaku over Fanoe-Beach (Denmark)
Date: 14th June 1991
Camera: Minolta X-300 with external winder
Film: Kodachrome 25
Lens: 1.8/35mm
Kite: Sanyo Rokkaku 2,4m x 1,8m


This KAP photograph demonstrates a problem you may face when using an autofocus lens. If the subject isn't caught by a sensor-field, only the background would be focusses. I bought the excellent 1.8/35-mm Minolta MC-Rokkor - 8 elements inside - in 1968 or thereabouts. The manual aperture-selection and depth-of-field engravings are among its greatest advantages.

In sunny daylight there is no problem to choose aperture 8.0 for KAP, even for Kodachrome 25. When set on infinity, the depth of focus reaches from 4,66 m to infinity! This wonderful old(?) lens offers more however: I turn the engraving of 'endless' to the outer depth-of-field mark for 'aperture 8.0' and get a range of 2,6 m to infinity! Then I fix this position by a small tape. No problems of sharpness anymore!

Title: Rokkaku - Pearson-Roller over Fanoe-Beach (built by Madoc Paul - Bremerhaven - Germany)
Date: June 1993, 20th
Camera: Minolta X-300 with external winder
Film: Kodachrome 25
Lens: 1.8/35 mm
Kite: Multiflare 2.7 m x 1.9 m


The Minolta 1.8/35-mm MC-Rokkor covers an horizontal angle of 64°and a vertical one of 46°, if it's used for a landscape format shot. These may be simple facts, but it is essential to understand more of the lens' possibilities and advantages. The accompanying aerial shot of Madoc Paul's wonderful kite may show one. If the lens is immediately in front of the subject, it still opens the view to the background. The natural linear-polarized sky-light-phenomenon doesn't produce darker edges, as you might realize using 28-mm or 24-mm lenses. I've used the 1.8/35-mm lens for about 19 years and love it more than ever.

Wolfgang has promised more images to come!

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Comments to author: crisp@socrates.berkeley.edu . All content, graphics and
images contained throughout are Copyright (C) 1995 - 2005 by Charles C. Benton
and are protected by United States and International copyright laws.
No text, graphic or image may be used whole or in part, individually,
or as part of a derivative work without express written permission.

Source materials copyright (C) 1997 by Wolfgang Bieck
All rights reserved. Revised: Saturday, June 26, 2010

URL: http://www.ced.berkeley.edu/~cris/kap/others/wolfgang2.html