Go Fly a THE ART OF KITE AERIAL

by Scott Haefner

Kite (KAP), the practice of taking low-altitude aerial using a suspended from a kite, has a surprisingly long history. Frenchman Arthur Batut is credited as the first person to attach a camera to a kite— in 1888! Nearly 20 years later, George Lawrence flew his 46-pound, panoramic camera below a train of

to document damage from the 1 Gasworks Park in Seattle, a retired natural gas plant. Shot at ƒ/2.8, /400 second, –.7 EV, 28 mm, Great 1906 San Francisco earthquake. auto white balance (lots of fair weather, cumulus clouds in the sky). 1 [Also see cover shot] Kids Enjoying International Fountain, Seattle Washington. Shot at ƒ/2.8, /2000 sec., Due in large part to the invention of the air- –.7 EV, 28mm, manual white balance (sunny). plane, KAP fell from favor for much of the 20th century. However, with the advent of the Internet, it has been resurrected and attach my camera. The Picavet is a cat’s rapid succession. In these conditions, I enjoys a growing base of new practitioners. cradle-like device made up of string choose auto white balance. I shoot in ISO I learned about KAP less than three threaded through tiny pulleys. It is a self- 100 (the lowest setting) almost exclusively, years ago after viewing an impressive leveling system that stabilizes the camera as this yields the best quality images. I web-based gallery by Cris Benton of Uni- by dampening motion and by inhibiting shoot in the highest quality JPEG mode. versity of California, Berkeley. Six months the camera’s ability to twist. I’m considering RAW capture instead, but later, I began flying my Nikon Coolpix I have about 750 feet of 250-pound test I’m reluctant because the files are signifi- 5000 below a Sutton Flowform kite and line on a halo spool, but I rarely use all of cantly larger and I frequently shoot more creating my own images. In addition to it; I tend to fly my camera only 20–100 feet than 100 images per session. flying two Flowform kites—one 16 square above the ground. I always shoot with my To command the camera, I use a four- feet and another 30 square feet—I also use lens zoomed out to its widest setting, 28 channel FM radio controller designed for a a Japanese kite called a Rokkaku, and a mm (35 mm equivalent). Shooting with a model airplane. I can pan, and rotate Dopero, a kite designed especially for KAP wide-angle view at relatively low altitudes the camera, plus snap the electron- by Ralf Beutnagel, a German KAPer. Each enables me to capture the most unique ically, all with my feet grounded on the kite targets a specific wind range. With my perspective. Earth. I stripped the paint off the lens bar- present lineup of kites, I can lift my 2.2- Camera settings rel of my camera, creating a large silver pound camera rig in winds ranging from area on an otherwise black body and rig so about 4–25 mph. I shoot in -priority mode and stop that I can see which direction the camera is Equipment down the aperture as much as possible pointing. Although some KAPers use a while still maintaining relatively fast shut- video downlink to assist in composition, I Early on, I had to make a choice between ter speeds. In stable winds, I can obtain prefer relying on my “minds eye” to imag- film and digital for my kitecam. At the sharp pictures with shutter speeds as slow ine what the camera sees when I compose 1 time, I had not taken the digital plunge as /200 second, but I prefer to stay in the the image. This has proven quite reliable, 1 1 because I prefer the , resolution, and range of /750– /1000 second or faster. Because and I am getting better with practice. dynamic range that print film offers. How- I typically shoot late in the day to capture That’s all there is to it! If you want to ever, digital have distinct advan- the richer lighting and longer shadows, I learn more about KAP, check out my web tages, including the ability to review often need to open up the aperture to site, which includes a large gallery, photos 2004 images in the field and the potential to ƒ/2.8–ƒ/4. I treat digital like slide film, of my equipment and links to the some of I shoot hundreds of images without need- underexposing every shot by 2/3 stop to the best online resources. ing to retrieve the camera to replace film. avoid clipped highlights. It’s relatively Y/AUGUST The most important factor, however, is easy to recover shadow details in underex- Scott Haefner is a photographer and web JUL that I shoot un-composed photos, which posed images in Adobe Photoshop, but designer living in the San Francisco Bay area. makes digital a more compelling choice. highlight details can be lost forever in He primarily shoots outdoor landscapes and I house my Coolpix 5000 overexposed shots. scenics, using both film and digital cameras. In

echniques in a hand-built rig made of carbon fiber, I set the camera to auto-focus mode and January 2002, he began taking kite-lofted aerial T which hangs from the approxi- use one of the white balance presets photos to gain a new perspective of our world. mately 50–100 feet below the kite. Like (sunny, cloudy, etc.) except on days when His portfolio, including 360º aerial Quicktime

PHOTO most KAPers, I use a Picavet suspension to the sun shifts in and out of the clouds in VR panoramas, is online at scotthaefner.com. | 1