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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!
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.
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.
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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."
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.
High Alt Balloon Group
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.
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.
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 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
While it's a good idea to keep things light, it's not the over-riding factor. The kites being used for KAP are usually capable of lifting considerable weights. There are quite a few kites out there (in the $300 or more price range) that need about 250-300 pounds of sand anchors to be safely operated. I've heard of large inflatable show kites that will pull two dumpsters full of sand across the beach.
As for control, it's all R/C servos. It can be done with as little as one servo to pull the trigger but most people like to be able to at least pan some, so that's another servo. There are also some triggers out there that are just timer based... you set the timer, and hope you can get the rig up to altitude and pointing at the target by the time the trigger goes off... not flexible, but cheap and effective.
Looks like NASA has finally declassified it's old 1960's reconnaissance techniques...
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Looks like a fun science fair project for those dads out there with kids.
*ahem* And moms. :p
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