[Leica] Re: Aerial photography

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

At 4:57 PM -0500 3/15/06, lrzeitlin@optonline.net wrote:
>Dave writes:
>
><<A few years back a real estate developer friend of mine has some
>gorgeous mural sized aerial shots of a big development project. I
>assumed they were taken from an airplane. I asked if he'd been on the
>fly over. He said the photographer had used balloons to elevate a camera
>(to quite a height).
>This was all PDP (i.e. "pre digital photography", before WiFi enabled
>cameras and remote LCDs were an option). I looked into it and as I
>recall it was all cutting edge stuff with radio controls, much like
>model airplanes. I'm sure it would be easier -- and even less costly --
>with current technology. >>
>
>----
>
>A subset of dedicated kite flyers have long enjoyed aerial 
>photography with feet firmly planted on the ground. In the Eastman 
>House museum there is a kite photo dating back over 150 years, to 
>very nearly the dawn of photography. Modern kites are very 
>maneuverable and have enormous lifting capacity. Some manufacturers 
>warn against letting children under 80 lbs. fly
>  them otherwise they might be whisked off to Never Never Land.
>
>My neighbor's daughter owns a kite and flag making company in 
>Australia and on a visit here several years ago asked me to design 
>an expendable camera rig to be used for aerial photos. I had a 
>little used but still functional motorized Konica AA 1/2 frame 
>camera in my junk drawer. It was Konica's answer to the Kodak disc 
>camera. The main advantages were a sharp 24 mm lens, auto exposure, 
>and a 72 frame capacity with a 36 exposure roll of film. The camera 
>was fastened to a small bracket and attached to the kite spar. A tug 
>on a kite string took the picture. I never saw it in action but 
>about a year ago she e-mailed me some pictures of scenes around her 
>home town, Perambula, which showed surprising detail. They were 
>taken at an altitude of about 500 feet. She said that she arranged 
>the bracket so that the camera took pictures at a 45 degree angle 
>and painted an arrow on her kite so she could aim the camera at the o
>bject to be photographed.
>
>I wouldn't try it with a Leica.
>
>Larry Z

A long time friend of mine here in Vancouver is apparently one of the 
most senior Japanese kite maker/flier outside of Japan; he goes all 
over N. America to kite making/flying gatherings instructing and 
doing his stuff.

He has made many camera carrying kites, as well as kites from 2cm 
across to ones that could lift a car. And, since his profession is 
production manager for a commercial kitchen equipment manufacturer, 
he has made a number out of stainless steel. Watch where you land 
that!

-- 
    *            Henning J. Wulff
   /|\      Wulff Photography & Design
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