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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."
Over the nudist beach!
134340: I am not a number. I am a free planet!
now all i need are a couple of hot models to move in next door and sun bathe naked for test objects and i'll be good to go!!
;-)
oh wait.. that's the whole purpose of my roof
plus it's november.. so i guess i better put this idea off..
"The ones who dont do anything are always the ones who try to pull you down" -- Henry Rollins
I have a feeling many cameras will be returned to the store for "spontaneously fragmenting."
I'll form my OWN solar system! With blackjack! And hookers!
you mean areola photos?
Those along waterfronts know that daily patterns of onshore and offshore breezes can aid in getting good wind.
Brooks Leffler pioneered the art with a magazine (!!!) that he still has back issues of. He even sells stabilizing tails. The most stunning pictures in my opinion have been by the vastly-experienced Chris Benton... he inspired my finally getting into this. $100 for the kite, $80 for the camera, $100 radio+misc, and you're up and going.
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 :)
I don't want to think about all the lawsuits that could arise from a curious kid with a camera on a kite! *shudder*
As opposed to... ?
example.org - powered by Linux!
...but how will all those cameras affect Charlie Brown's kite-eating tree? I'd imagine they're not too healthy.
Okay, that wasn't funny. It's late. Night night.
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
Remember when you used to play wargames as a kid? Now you can do it with your very own Spy Satellite.
"Now you'll know all of your enemies moves; where they're keeping the water ballon stash, how many they have, and if that teenage girl in the house across the street is sun bathing topless again."
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.
"Okay, I'm getting a signal now. Wait. Is this a screen-saver image?
It looks like an under-water sce.......DAMN!"
Table-ized A.I.
huh?
High Alt Balloon Group
Looks like a fun science fair project for those dads out there with kids.
What about all all of those moms out there with kids? Are they not allowed to geek it out too?
How about moms?
;-)
You didn't say "dads with sons" so presumably being old and female is the handicap? I went to school down the road from MIT and met plenty of women gifted with the geeky arts.
real-time video feed from kite
sure is a lot cheaper than a remote control helicopter. =)
My life in the land of the rising sun.
As opposed to... ?
A pimp-daddy.
You know the pirates around here do some slave trading on the weekends. Gotta supplement the ol' VCD business in order to support that luxurious case-modder lifestyle with the $400 a month video card habit.
for the predator BTW, I wonder if anyone's attached an Hellfire to a kite?
So does Anonymous Coward have good karma?
Most interesting is the rigging! This suspention reduces flopping about as the whole thing would have to lift and spin to tip sideways. Ingenious! Although, a very old idea...
I run a kite site and am fanatical about the sport, so i should hope to have a little authority on the subject. While i haven't done any KAP myself, i've read extensively on the subject. There are some amazing photos coming back from people lofting cameras on their kites. There is also some interesting tech going into the works too. I've seem plans for radio controlled microcontrollers that will depress the camera trigger, hold it till a beep for the camera to focus, then press the trigger harder to take the photo. There are setups using small video cameras and transmitters that allow the user to see what he's about to take a photo of. There are a bunch of pan-rotate-zoom setups using servos and the like. It's mostly R/C tech, but still quite cool.
My fav site for KAP is here.
My website (in sig) doesn't have much for KAP resources, but it is useful to look at to see some of the other spiffy stuff.
By the way, the kite obelisk folks are still at it, planning an even bigger lift, and with period materials. Should be exciting, but I don't have the full scoop, they are keeping it quiet until they pull it off.
At my high school (http://rhs.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 has more info.
Dads whose kids were killed by 40 pound kites with sharp metal parts attached falling out of the sky.
Did you know you can fertilize your lawn with used motor oil?
I see this one (the tiny l'espion camera), but see no supplier in the U.S. (anyone know of one?), which appears inexpensive and very light (40 grams!).
There's also the SiPix StyleCam Blink, which is about $40, and slightly larger but takes higher-res pictures, too.
What other tiny ones would be suitable for tossing on a kite (whether or not the two I've named would be), and what would be the best way to trigger them?
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
the way, what're you goin' didactic on yo ass!
example.org - powered by Linux!
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
elexon presents: earth from above
fujifilm presents: earth from above
yann arthus-bertrand
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
And a picture taken with my pencam from my R/C plane
Try this.
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?
How is it that one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
Looks like NASA has finally declassified it's old 1960's reconnaissance techniques...
To make a pun demonstrates the highest understanding of a language
don't laugh, some 3rd world countries are using this technique for air reconassance.
In modern countries, ppl are using it to spy on there neighbors. Must we wait before there is a kiteonacamera.com ? "Kites flown over hollywood celebrities residences, 100% legal. For $5.95 a month you can have 24hr aerial vision of a hollywood supermodels".
Analytic & algebraic topology of locally Euclidean meterization of infinitely differentiable Riemmanian manifold
Here's who he's talking about
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
Looks like a fun science fair project for those dads out there with kids.
*ahem* And moms. :p
You don't have to be the person you've become.
Maybe the military would be interested if you just add a bomb under it and have a longer wire.
Omigod, slippery slope! Quick, someone
:)
call ACLU! Who knows how long until they
start using kites with cameras
to snoop on everybody!
(In ye olde days, an obFUD would be included
here. So it is, by implication
Considered harmful.
Note that Charles Benton (The guy who runs the first site listed) is offering a particular geeky barter: exchanging photos for slide rules)
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 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.
Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
There's also Photoplane who published similar works (taken from a motorized model plane) on GNUArt.net
Trolling using another account since 2005.
This hobby could pay for itself. People like having photos of their houses from the sky; especially rich people with nice houses and land.
If you get the owners with their dogs in there, I bet they'd pay double!
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...?
Mordor...a magical, mythical land where women are more rare than dragons--but where every man would rather find a dragon
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 !)
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
Nice Kite: $100
:)
Not if you get a good quality proper kite, maybe if you buy from Toys 'R' Us. A Revolution 1.5 or FlexiFoil 10 is around 200UKP/300USD - course these arn't great for KAP, but its what I fly currently and serves to show that kiting is not as cheap as you might expect (cos you go and get kites for different conditions and challanges) but it is serious fun
New Digital Camera
And thats why people use simple 35mm autowinders, or cheapo all in one CMOS digitals to start with.
Crashing it into the ground on your first try
And thats why you practise until you become and expereinced kite pilot before you take up KAP to extend the enjoyment of your hobby.
Seriously you'll find the kite is probably the most expensive part of the rig.
And the scarier thing is - I was intrigued.
the major advances in civilization are processes which all but wreck the societies in which they occur - A.N. White
Looks like a fun science fair project for those dads out there with kids."
Editors modification: those responsible dads
Otherwise, our publication will be sued when the inevitable mishap occurs.
You know the one, that starts innocently like
"Provided by the management for your protection."
People have been attaching cameras to kites for quick-and-dirty aerial photographs for almost a hundred years.
Either this story has been in the queue for way too long, or you need to verify your sources.
Kite Aerial Photograhy began at least as early as the late 1880's with the work of Arthur Batut in Labruguiere, France - including this 1889 image of the city. He went so far as to use an altimeter to automatically adjust the focal length of the camera
~~~~~~
KAP seems like a great application for one of those X10 wireless cameras. Outdoors they have a range of maybe 200 feet and that could probably be enhanced with a directional antenna.
Work for Change & GET PAID!
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.
http://www.windmeadow.com/
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 $800 camera hanging underneath a kite!
Pretty cool, and the panoramas are literally like you're floating in mid-air.
http://philohome.free.fr/kitephoto/kapp.htm
Wait, NASA actually has a page for rigging a cheasy disposible camera to a kite, but nothing along the lines of an X10? China IS going to beat us back to the moon at this rate...
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Bringing new meaning to the product name...
Although given X-10's marketing strategy, I'm not sure if it is really a new meaning...
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
You slashdotted your cable box, you bastard!
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
It would only be scary if you published a recognizable image of someone without their consent. The disreputable state of your backyard, or you as you sunbathe there, can be seen by anyone in any small aircraft. Technology claimed that expectation of privacy long ago.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.