Kite Aerial Photography

SethJohnson writes "People have been attaching cameras to kites for quick-and-dirty aerial photographs for almost a hundred years. Hobbyists have progressed the art far beyond it's quick-and-dirty origins to produce stunning results. NASA even has a fairly detailed how-to using a disposable camera. Looks like a fun science fair project for those dads out there with kids."

balloons?

[orangeaaron]

how about a timer-controlled camera on a helium balloon. it could take a picture every 10 seconds or something... the only tricky part would be getting the camera back after it had floated off. maybe you could promise whoever found it that you would send them reprints :)

Estes Rocket

[SirCrashALot]

There is/was an estes rocket that did this. Two of my friends had them... One never recovered the rocket(typical of our launches) and the other pictures came out great!
It's not as controlled as a kite, but you get great landscape pictures.

Kite are advancing

[stonezone]

Kites have become the sport of choice lately, not only with photography, but with wakeboarders, surfers and skiers. Take a look at the popularity of kitesurfing on water and snow. Kites have evolved a long way in 20 years, from paragliders, to leading edge inflatables that relaunch when you drop them in the water.I have heard that guys are getting 50m high and 30sec air on skis now in the alps, and here in hawaii, kitsurfing in the winter surf is pretty nuts. Guys around here have been flying kites over the waves to take photos for at least 5 years, although rarely.

huh?

Re:Estes Rocket

[AntiPasto]

I looked into these, radio controlled airplanes, and others. Kites are a) very cool b) very broad in design c) what spawned aircraft. It's also fairly cheap combined with the amount of control. You can go up to SLR cameras (any may do) and I've seen enough sadness in my dad's RC plane buddies to know that losing a plane *and* a camera would be devistating. Kites of course need wind, and in lack of wind there's always balloons, but I felt in my study of all of this that it was less risky than other low-altitude photography.

We don't need no stinkin' kite!

[AmigaAvenger]

We've sent our little 35mm's up to 112,000 feet! try that with a kite!

High Alt Balloon Group [space.edu]

Interesting Rigging for Stability

[AntiPasto]

Most interesting is the rigging! [fortunecity.com] This suspention reduces flopping about as the whole thing would have to lift and spin to tip sideways. Ingenious! Although, a very old idea...

Kite photography at my High School

[nkrumm]

At my high school (http://rhs.seattleschools.org [seattleschools.org]) we have an after school club that builds rigs for kite arial photography. The trick is making the rig lightweight, yet strong enough that it doesnt suddenly snap 500 ft above the surface. Our mentor will be traveling to Antarctica this winter, and he will be taking a few of the rigs we have built. The Drachen Foundation [drachen.org] has more info.

'earth from above'

[Jean-Pierre]

yann arthus-bertrand's absolutely tremendous photography was on display in chicago late this summer. yann took his images from a helicopter so i can imagine they are a bit more costly than its little brother kite. these images are nothing short of amazing.

chicago department of cultural affairs: earth from above [chi.il.us]
elexon presents: earth from above [earthfroma...hicago.org]
fujifilm presents: earth from above [fujifilm.com]
yann arthus-bertrand [yannarthusbertrand.com]

Pencam - much smaller, lighter, and easier

[pm]

I attach a small, cheap, 1.3MP digital Pencam to my R/C planes for aerial shots. Aiptek makes a 1.3MP "pencam" that weighs about 50grams. (without batteries) that works pretty well. The pictures out of the CMOS sensor and the cheap lens aren't as nice as conventional photographs - even from disposable cameras - but you can take a lot of them, and the really bad ones don't cost anything to develop.

The camera is ~US$60-70 at Walmart and Circuit City.

The official Pencam web site [aiptek.com.tw]

And a picture taken with my pencam from my R/C plane [rcgroups.com]

If only my kites would fly...

[Blimey85]

This sounds like a great idea. I've done something similar using model rockets but had pretty lousy results. With model rockets there is exhaust vapors that you have to contend with and since the camera was aimed down the tube, most of the picture was blurry/smokey. I have two kites and I could mount a camera on either one pretty easy as they both have strong frames.. the only problem is that I've no success getting them to fly. Either it hasn't been windy enough or I'm doing something wrong.

I used to fly kites a lot as a kid (was also when I did the model rocket photography) and never had a problem but now that I have these so called stunt kites, all that I'm ever able to do is a nose dive.

The more I think about this, the more I like the idea though. If I get a better kite (that's a lot easier to fly and requires less wind), and I use a small wireless camera transmitting to my laptop, I wonder what kind of images I could get... could be quite impressive.

How come all of the good ideas involving the outdoors seem to come around when the rainy season hits? I live in Seattle and the rainy season is upon us... I'll have to wait until the beach has some people worth photographing and then I'll give this a try. What's a very cheap wireless camera that can survive slamming into the ground repeatedly when the kite crashes? Any ideas?

Re:If only my kites would fly...

[MxTxL]

If you are having trouble, you are in luck living where you do. There are a large number of kite flyers living in Washington state. One of the best [prismkites.com] stunt kite makers are based out of Seattle. There are quite a few kite flyers in that area and an active kite club [wka-kiteflyers.org] as well. These people will be more than happy to help you figure out what you are doing wrong, and better yet, will lend you there kites... the best of friends.

Re:how about X10

[Rolo Tomasi]

This guy [mh.ttu.ee] has some interesting info & footage.

Don't forget rockets!

[NerveGas]

There are also plenty of people who take pictures and/or videos from high-power rockets as well - and I'm not talking about the cheap Estes camera rockets. The preferred way to get still-shots is to use a decent-enough "point-and-shoot" with auto-advance, and wire a timer to the contacts of the button which takes the picture, although others use a servo to actuate the button, like this [v-serv.com] example.

It seems like even more people take videos, however - everything from a tiny "X10"-style camera with a transmitter to the full monty, where multiple digital video cameras are mounted inside the rockets. One of the founders of Xircom, Dirk Gates, has some very high-quality DV videos of his rocket flights at http://gbrocketry.com/movie_theater.htm [gbrocketry.com].

Radio-Controlled Trigger and Advance?

[Kaz Riprock]

Are there any camera/trigger combo mechanisms which could take more than one picture per flight? I mean if I let a kite out for 6 minutes, it's going to get a great shot from really high up...but then I have to reel the kite back in to take another picture.

Anybody have any ideas on a fairly easy way to hook up something like an RC button to both shoot the picture and advance the film...or maybe a lightweight camera that auto-advances...so the RC motor only has to hit the exposure button...?

Broken cameras - digital cameras

[dsfd]

For an outsider like me, it seems that the risk of ending with a totally broken camera is high. How often does it happen ?

I've browsed the pages and they dont seem to mention digital cameras. Is it because they are too expensive to risk them ? (my aim is NOT to reopen the passionate discussion about digital/conventional cameras !)

Re:Priceless....

[fyonn]

Nice Kite: $100

$100? hohoho, spot the guy who doesn't fly em :)

if you're making it yourself then thats 10 times too much, and if you're buying a nice kite from a shop then thats not enough :)

my pbsk warrior standard was over $300, although, to be fair, thats a damn nice kite.

if you're talking commerical parafoil's (ie the ones that look like james bond style controllable parachutes) then really you're talking up to and over $1000 depending on how big and what make, although the second hand market can get you some good deals, my best friend recently bought an 11.8 metre (yes, metre) wipika waterkite for a few hundred quid

dave

Watch out for the cops?

[bear_phillips]

I have been doing kite aerial photography for a while. pictures here [chadphillips.org].

After 911 the cops have given me much more problems. On more than one occasion I have the police come up and ask me what I have hanging from my kite. Usually after I explain things it is cool with them, but I have heard stories of people having the cops pull guns on them thinking they are distributing anthrax or other badness.

An even more interesting site...

[dcigary]

Phillipe Hurbain, a fellow panoramic/spherical panoramic photographer in France, has a site up on how he took a full-spherical panoramic picture from a kite. He's obviously much braver than me to put a $800 camera hanging underneath a kite!

Pretty cool, and the panoramas are literally like you're floating in mid-air.

http://philohome.free.fr/kitephoto/kapp.htm