When I was a teenager, I thought it would be really great to mount a camera on a kite and take aerial photographs. That was over twenty years ago when the art and science of kite flying was not developed to the point it is today. Back then, the kites I flew cost under fifty cents and were small diamond shape designs consisting of two pine sticks covered with a thin sheet of plastic or newspaper. Now days there are specialty kite shops selling kites made of colorful nylon sailcloth and framed with exotic graphite or fiberglass spars. Things have definitely come a long way.

In the spring of 1996, I was exploring the Internet and discovered Charles Benton's excellent Kite Aerial Photography web site. Looking at his site made me remember and consider again my teenage idea of putting a camera on a kite. This source provided me with the inspiration I needed to get started. Soon, I was taking some interesting pictures of my backyard and neighborhood. You can see more of my kite aerial photographs at the bottom of this page.

The basic components of a kite aerial photography system include: a big kite, kite line, a winder or spool for the line, a camera mount, a camera, and some sort of trigger system. Although many people prefer to build their own kite, camera mount, and control equipment, I thought it would be more convenient to purchase commercial off-the-shelf equipment.

A good mail order source for kites and supplies is a firm called "Into the Wind". Their catalog features a wide variety of kites. In the spring of 1996 I purchased one of their airfoil kites, called the Stratoscoop 2. This kite was rated as having a lifting power of 6 pounds in moderate winds. The Stratoscoop comes with a single drogue tail. I soon learned that in gusty winds, the kite had a tendency to dive to earth. After a number of crashes (sans camera, thankfully), I needed to find a method of stabilizing the kite or I would soon be crashing a camera. I put out a question on the rec.kites news group, and was told to add more drag by using an additional tail. I borrowed a tail consisting of multiple strips of colored vinyl from an old kite we had, and it proved to be just what I was looking for. I now no longer had to worry about the kite crashing.

The Stratoscoop is a very nice kite but is difficult to launch by oneself. It is also hard to launch in low winds. In 1997, I purchased a second kite. My second kite is a Sun Oak Delta Conyne (DC). This kite is easier to launch solo compared to the Stratoscoop. I now use Sun Oak Delta Conyne for all my kite aerial photography.

My first camera mount was also purchased from "Into the Wind". The mount is a pendulum design that always tries to level itself no matter what angle the kite line is at. The mount weighs about one pound. Since purchasing the unit, I have learned that contemporary practitioners favor a design called the picavet (pronounced pickavay) over the pendulum mount. I built a basic picavet style mount that includes a battery powered motor to rotate the camera at one revolution per minute. I started using this mount in June of 1997 and have been very pleased with it, although the picavet lines get tangled rather easily when packing and unpacking the mount.

As far as cameras are concerned I have tried a variety of models. At first, I thought my best bet would be to obtain a small point and shoot rangefinder camera that could be electronically triggered. The camera I selected was a Ricoh Shotmaster. It weighed in at 9 ounces. I didn't feel that I should put a good (but heavy) 35mm SLR up on the kite. As my skill with the kite progressed, I did have the opportunity to fly a 35mm SLR (Nikon FA with motor drive, 50 ounces with lens) on a windy evening. I selected a shutter speed of 1/1,000 second and made my sharpest pictures to date. The short shutter speed combined with the SLR camera's sharper lens really proved to me the value of putting a good camera up on the kite.

Most small point and shoot cameras like the Ricoh do not let the user select photographic parameters like shutter speed and f/number. To obtain short exposure times, one has to load the camera with high speed film (ISO 400). In addition many of these small cameras have minimum shutter speeds of only 1/400 second.

The Nikon FA proved too heavy to fly in most wind conditions. Since it was an older camera that I didn't use very often, I decided to part with it. I sold the FA and purchased a Canon Rebel SLR camera that weighs in at about 17 oz with a 28mm lens. This camera takes very nice pictures. I use it in either manual or shutter priority modes. I usually select a shutter speed shorter than 1/1,000 of a second and shoot with ISO 100 color negative film. The Rebel is powered by lithium batteries. The batteries are fine during the summer, but I find the camera stops working after about 20 minutes in the cold winter air. The camera works fine again after the batteries warm up indoors. I now use the Canon Rebel 2000 for all my kite aerial photography.

After launching my kite, I let it climb to at least 100 hundred feet. When it appears that the winds are stable and there is enough lift for my camera, I then attach the camera mount to the line. I have a reel that holds one thousand feet of 250-lb. line. I have marked the line at 100 foot increments with a blue marker. I have one mark at 100 feet, two marks at 200 feet, three at 300 feet, etc. I generally attach the camera after letting out about 200 feet of line. I then will let out more line until I get to either the 600 or 800 foot mark. I estimate my camera altitude to be about 200 feet above ground level at the 600 foot line mark and 300 feet high at the 800 foot line mark. I rarely let out all 1,000 feet of line. Even with all the line out, my camera is still lower than most planes fly, and I am able to capture pictures with incredible detail.

I read about a good technique for improving the quality of picture taken from kites in a no longer published newsletter called-the aerial eye. In the fall 1995 issue, author Craig Wilson described how to reduce kite line vibration at the camera mount by using a small rubber ring held against the kite line with a short dowel. I tried this technique and it seems to help. I use two rubber rings and dowels. One is located above the camera mount and one is below the mount.

Most of the serious kite aerial photographers are using radio controlled rigs that allow them to remotely fire the camera and adjust the pitch, roll, and yaw of the camera mount. Such mounts are far more sophisticated than the design I use. My camera mount rotates the camera at a rate of one revolution per minute. I have adjusted the mount so the camera looks down slightly. My goal is to have the horizon line in the top 1/3 or 1/4 of the film frame.

To trigger the camera, I use a device called the Pocket Wizard. It is a commercially built triggering system consisting of a small radio transmitter and receiver. I place the receiver in a soft case attached to the camera mount. A wire goes from the receiver to the camera's shutter release socket. I keep the transmitter with me on the ground. The unit is rated as having a 800 foot range. Once the camera is aloft, I walk the kite into different positions and fire the shutter using the transmitter. I have a small B&W microvideo camera mounted along side my film camera. A video image of the aerial view is transmitted to a pocket TV I carry. I obtained the microvideo system from Supercircuits.

I use a 360 degree rotating camera mount to take panoramic pictures. Here are two of my attempts at panoramic photography from a kite. These images were made by blending two or more frames together in Adobe Photoshop. I used a 28mm lens on the camera. The summer image was made with two frames. The second frame was captured about 10 seconds after the first as the camera slowly rotated. The winter image is a composite of three frames.

Other Kite Aerial Photographs

Oops, Crash, Splash!

People naturally think of kites as crashing to the ground, and consequently feel that to lift a camera to great heights with a kite is taking quite a chance. I have flown my kites many times without incident. However, both of my kites have been caught in tall trees, and have landed in ponds. They both still fly just fine. Thankfully, I have never lost a camera. I thought readers of this page might be interested in a few of my crash stories.

On a particularly sunny April afternoon in 1997, I rushed home from work ready to do some kite aerial photography. It was sunny, windy, and about 40 degrees. I wanted to photograph some wooded wetlands west of our subdivision. I hiked into the area, launched my kite, and let out the line and camera. A cloud passed over the area just when I wanted to take a picture so I thought I would wait a minute or so for it to pass so the sun would come back out. While waiting, I looked up to see my kite turn to the right and then dive straight into a mature hardwood forest. I ran following the string toward the kite and saw my camera dangling up near the top of a tree. The tree was about 25 feet tall and had a girth of about 5 inches at the base. There was no way I could climb it. Fortunately, the kite line attached to the mount was 250 lb. test and I was able to pull on the line and pull the camera down to me. A few hundred feet away I found my kite high in the canopy of a hardwood forest. I walked home and got a long aluminum pole to which I attached a bent coat hanger hook. I then went back to climb up into the canopy of the forest. I retrieved the kite after about 3 hours of effort, and after I decided to sacrifice the bridle and tail lines. I replaced the bridle and its metal O-ring. The O-ring is the attachment point between the bridle and kite line. I found a replacement O-ring from an old key chain. Soon I was kite flying again. This incident made me realize that I needed more drag for the kite. I made a 30 foot fuzzy tail and now the kite flys in a very stable manner.

A few weeks later, on a nice sunny Sunday afternoon I decided to do some kite aerial photography from my backyard. The winds were steady and the kite was providing great pull, perfect for lifting a camera. I like to let out about 200 feet of line before attaching the camera. While preparing to attach the camera, all of a sudden, the kite line went limp and dropped to the ground. I looked up to see my kite flatten like a bed sheet and drift gently to the surface of a nearby pond. The kite was no longer attached to the line so I couldn't pull it out. I would have to go into the pond. I put on some old running shoes I was about to retire, and worked my way through some cattails to the water's edge. This pond wasn't deep but it was covered with duckweed and the bottom was soft, black, muck. I brought my aluminum extension pole with me and walked about 20 feet into the pond. I was then able to pull the kite over to me with the pole. I then carried everything home. I sprayed the kite and my shoes off with our garden hose. My blue jeans and shoes smelled really bad. The kite was fine. The cause of the line failure was my replacement O-ring. The pull was so great, it was streched open. I no longer use an O-ring, I have made a loop from the kite line bridal that I use as my attachment point. I have not had a failure since.

I owe special thanks to my flight crew (my wife and children) for helping me launch my kite and assist with taking pictures. They're always ready at a moments notice when I get a crazy idea to go somewhere and take pictures.