cris benton

I have a few aerial images posted on my WWW site but to me the best shot of my two outings there was this ground-level shot. Maybe I just yearn for the occasional foreground object? See http://arch.ced.berkeley.edu/kap/gallery/gal050.html and http://arch.ced.berkeley.edu/kap/gallery/gal096.html for the aerial shots.

Pigeon Pt., and for that matter the entire San Mateo coastline, makesa great place to visit.

This photograph, and the others I have posted on Photo.net, are taken from kite-lofted cameras. A kite, unseen in the image, supports a small, radio-controlled cradle that holds a Canon SLR. I can position the camera by walking around and/or letting out or retrieving kiteline. I aim the camera and fire its shuttler using the radio while I stay at the ground end of the kiteline. The camera can rotate through the compass, tilt from horizon to nadir, and change from portrait to landscape format.

As a matter of (questionable) pride all of the images are presented full frame. I compose my images by watching the camera and imagining what it would see. The whole process entertains me to no end.

Details are available at http://arch.ced.berkeley.edu/kap

Cheers,

Cris

This photograph, and the others I have posted on Photo.net, are taken from kite-lofted cameras. A kite, unseen in the image, supports a small, radio-controlled cradle that holds a Canon SLR. I can position the camera by walking around and/or letting out or retrieving kiteline. I aim the camera and fire its shuttler using the radio while I stay at the ground end of the kiteline. The camera can rotate through the compass, tilt from horizon to nadir, and change from portrait to landscape format.

As a matter of (questionable) pride all of the images are presented full frame. I compose my images by watching the camera and imagining what it would see. The whole process entertains me to no end.

Details are available at http://arch.ced.berkeley.edu/kap

Cheers,

Cris

Guess you are right at that Glyn. I take images on the ground as well but it is the kite lofted aerial shots that I really love to do. Ne'ertheless you have inspired me to add a few ground shots to the mix.

 

Thanks,

 

Cris

Hello all,Thanks for the comments on framing and orientation for the desert bike image. I kept a print around my workshop for a month or so and kept hanging it in different orientations. It was an interesting process because the image seemed to work in every orientation but also lacked something in each orientation.

http://arch.ced.berkeley.edu/kap/working/desert%20bike%20usd%20sm.JPG

 

The image above is flipped 180 degrees. The shadow becomes very legible but is not quite as strong as when it plays a secondary role (area of shadow near the person's head has a weaker penumbral fuzziness). The actual person on the bicycle is 'leaning' toward the bottom of the image and I find this makes the person very hard to read. Take a look at the larger image and you can see these effects more easily -- hard to read in the thumbnail.

http://arch.ced.berkeley.edu/kap/working/desert%20bike%20crop%20sm.JPG

 

Image no. 2 (above) is the cropped version and I think it works just fine. Since I am composing my images away from the camera I have a somewhat quirky (pride driven) habit of presenting the images as full frame rather than cropped. I should get over it. I could note that I am very proud of capturing this image with such a clean composition. In any event the cropped image works dandy but I am not sure it is an improvement over the original (there is a remarkable amount of surface detail in the actual print.)

http://arch.ced.berkeley.edu/kap/working/desert%20bike%20turn%20sm.JPG

Lastly, the sideways rotation (above) works just fine too. Here the 'leaning' of the person is not really a factor. One hobbyist has even produced a version with two bicycles in it

http://www.fortunecity.com/marina/nelson/479/opener1_011202_hunt_benton.jpg

I settled on shadow on the downward side for the originally posted image - quite possibly because that was my relationship with the subject when I took the photograph.Cris

There are a bunch of ways to skin the cat. Some folks send up a camera withan intervalometer and let it click away at a fixed interval. Others use a onetime shutter release (spring timer, ice cube) and can capture aerial images forless than a $20 investment. I belong to the slightly more expensive radiocontrol group. Here I can control the angle and direction of the camera using ahandheld radio. Within the radio-controlled category some folks use a videotransmitter to serve as an electronic viewfinder. I have built one but never useit -- too complicated plus it distracts from flying the kite. This is not to saythat I employ a 'spray and pray' technique. Instead I try to use dead reckoningand imagination to line up the shots. Practice helps.

There is more information on my kiteaerial photography WWW site.

This photograph, and the others I have posted on Photo.net, are taken from kite-lofted cameras. A kite, unseen in the image, supports a small, radio-controlled cradle that holds a Canon SLR. I can position the camera by walking around and/or letting out or retrieving kiteline. I aim the camera and fire its shuttler using the radio while I stay at the ground end of the kiteline. The camera can rotate through the compass, tilt from horizon to nadir, and change from portrait to landscape format.

As a matter of (questionable) pride all of the images are presented full frame. I compose my images by watching the camera and imagining what it would see. The whole process entertains me to no end.

Details are available at http://arch.ced.berkeley.edu/kap

Cheers,

Cris

This is an image taken at Burning Man. Periodically water trucks would travel the settled area of the dry lake bed and spray water (I believe as a dust control measure). As they traveled along at a slow jogging pace the water trucks also represented a fine opportunity for an impromptu shower.

Very clean geometry and a perfect contribution by the (almost orthagonal) shadow.