About

This is the 3rd edition of this website. As the internet has always progressed at rate exceeding normal life and that's fast enough these days, I've changed the base content and removed so much which is done better elsewhere.

Kite aerial photography has actually advanced really well in recent times as the technology which is driving some of the elements that make up KAP, themselves advance. This can be seen in all manner of ways from video downlinks, external and onboard camera stabilisation and fully featured rig control with in some cases telemetry.

Does this produce a better picture? ........ probably not but what the heck it's there and it can help get that certain picture. That said there are many KAPpers out there that will loft a fixed focus camera with a timer and hope to get a photo that they can call interesting and sometimes they do. It's a bit like the old days of taking your roll film to the film processors and having to wait to see what pictures turned out OK!!

 

Site Author

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I started taking casual aerial photographs while learning to fly in the 1970's. I also dabbled in taking near IR images using slide film, the subject being the Silver Mines on Sark. I obtained written permission from the Seigneur of Sark, Dame Sybil Hathaway DBE, to fly below the promulgated height restriction for Sark in order to take the pictures. I have to say they weren't a great success. The closing years of the 70's saw me on the North Sea Oil rigs which provided plenty of photo opportunities.

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In the mid 1990s while working with friends setting up an internet consultancy, I came across what was known as Bubble Panoramas. This lead me to researching the technique and Philippe Hurbain's website. One image stood out and I couldn't figure out how it was taken. Reading further revealed all but it was a project for the future. Sometime afterwards while researching the Falkirk Wheel (industrial archaeology being the link throughout), I came across James Gentles images of the Wheel. Wow, I just had to have a go.

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Short finals, Ninian Central Platform, North Sea, circa 1979, (aerial platform:- Bolkow 105)

© Copyright Peter Neville 2017

PICT00441Heerema Balder & Ninian South Platform, North Sea, circa 1979.(aerial platform:- Bolkow 105)

© Copyright Peter Neville 2017

 

 

Advances in 360 degree...........

Useable 360 degree images and video from dedicated camera setups are now becoming commonplace. At the lower end of the market there is the LG 360 Cam and the Ricoh Theta S. This summer, 2017, will see many more coming to the market. There have been some other good examples from startups such as Bubl and Giroptic but availability seems to have dried up after the first production runs.

Update: Now have a Xiaomi Mijia Sphere 360 camera.

360 Pole Photography

360 degree imaging reqires more thought than taking your average view photograph. Apart from the obvious field of view difference, the image if viewed in the "round" as opposed to being flattened out, has other qualitities that might not at first seem important. The main one I have noticed is at what height was the image taken? To me height is very important when coming to take 360 images. Yes you can put the camera anywhere just like any standard camera and get some bizarre results. However, general views taken at the average photographers height lack something and I've found that using a pole gives a better view. I don't know the reason behind this, perhaps it because we are used to viewing imagery from Google Streeview. The higher than normal view just seems right. You can see the effect on a mini tour I've done of Magpie Lead Mine using LG 360..............here.