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George Lawrence Photography Revisited
danlor writes "We were all taken aback 4 years ago when someone linked us the history of George Lawrence and his photos of the aftermath of the 1906 San Fransisco earthquake. I personally thought to myself: man, I would love to make one of those cameras. The idea of flying 2,000-pound cameras with kites... Well, someone has actually recreated the feat. They even provide links to get large prints of the original and recreated scenes."
They forgot the kites too.... That was the most amazing part of the original photographs! Somehow the helicopter doesn't amaze me quite as much.
According to TFA, the camera weighed only a rather less impressive 46 lbs.
That's was my first thought, too, but look at it this way: They used a century-old camera, with the great-grandson of the original photographer in the helicopter, using the exact same lenses and photographic techniques. You might ding them for the helicopter -- I congratulate them for everything else.
The summary is wrong. It defies common sense that someone would be flying a 907kg (2,000lb, for SI-impaired ones) anything on a kite. Actually, the camera had around 21kg (46lb), as stated by TFA. But the kite was flying around 610m (2,000ft) high, and this is where I think the figure came from.
My neighbor's
Links:
http://www.ronkleinphotos.com.nyud.net:8090/Lawrence.html
http://www.ronkleinphotos.com.nyud.net:8090/success.html
PS. Install the Slashdotter extension for Firefox, does the CC links automagically.
.: Max Romantschuk