antidote collective

the kite stuff

Imagine yourself outside, floating above the terrain 100 feet or so, detached, as if in a dream-state. Looking down, you get a rarefied, poetic perspective of what might normally be considered quite commonplace. Capturing this magic in the mundane is, of course, the goal of all artistically minded photographers. Capturing it from this particular vantage point from above is something part-time photographer Scott Haefner and just a few others around the world accomplish on a regular basis.

Haefner and his brethren are members of the growing, resurging school of those using kites to photograph dramatic aerial images — a practice known as kite aerial photography, or KAP. "I use KAP to obtain a new perspective of largely familiar objects that frequently look drastically different when viewed from above," says Palo Alto-based Haefner.

The technique has been around since at least 1887 when French farmer and inventor Arthur Batut attached a camera to a kite and used a slow-burning fuse to trip the shutter. But enter cheap, small, lightweight digital cameras and you have a whole new crew joining the KAP club. A Belgian geographer friend, who was exploring the technique for studying faults in Greece, initiated Haefner; he was immediately pulled by the KAP string and has been active for just over two years. He uses a five-megapixel Nikon Coolpix 5000. "It allows me to take as many photos as I want, simply deleting the bad shots, and I don't have to lower the camera every 24 to 36 shots to change the film. In fact, I can shoot about 175 images on a single 256 MB memory card in high-quality JPEG mode," he explains.

Looking to fly the kite higher, so to speak, Haefner has gone a step further than merely using digital and has incorporated QuickTime VRs into his KAP images. He calls them "bubble panoramas," and he has really opened another dimension, allowing the viewer to explore all 360 degrees of the scenery from this floating bubble. He won a Canon Digital Creators Award in 2003 for a group of them on his Web site. According to the judges, "The piece earned points for its innovative concept and the beauty of the photos."

Each panorama is created using only two images: one looking straight down from the kite; the other, straight up from the ground. Both are shot with a circular fisheye lens with a 180-degree view (a Nikon FC-E8, to be precise). He uses PTMac (a front-end for PanoTools software) and Photoshop CS to stitch the images.

Most kappers are hobbyists who are happy just to get a kite in the air and then their camera and photos back safely. But Haefner brings some artistry to the genre. His day job may be as a Web designer for the U.S. Geological Survey, but he is also a trained photographer with a keenly developed eye. His work has appeared in several publications, ads (including a Clorox Bleach commercial) and specials on the Discovery and History Channels, and has been exhibited at a gallery in Carmel, California. Recognizing the talent he brings to a largely amateur field, Haefner was bestowed "Most Promising New KAPer" at an international KAP conference in November 2002.

Enticed to fly your own kite? Besides the requisite kites and cameras, standard equipment includes a rig to attach the camera to the kite line and some sort of transmitter to control it. Haefner's rig (2.2 pounds, with camera) is hand-built and made of carbon fiber. It includes a picavet suspension (common among kappers), which is a "cat's cradle-like device made up of string threaded through tiny pulleys." It's a self-leveling system that stabilizes the camera. His transmitter is a four-channel FM radio controller designed for model airplanes, which he repackaged to wear on his belt — "thereby freeing both hands for kite flying" — and to create more intuitive controls: a slider to tilt the camera, a toggle switch for panning, a flip switch to change between landscape and portrait modes, and a Digisnap 5000 in conjunction with the Schieppati Switch to snap the shutter. He also uses four different kites, for different wind conditions. (Details are available on his site.)

If this all sounds too complicated, many kappers will help you build your own. But you'll still have to fly the kite.