Be Your Own Google Earth

Of all the projects I saw on display this weekend, the one I'm most anxious to try myself is kite aerial photography. Cris Benton, one of the masters of the field, was on hand to show off his numerous kite rigs. Before taking up kites, Cris was a photographer first and a radio-controlled-airplane enthusiast second. His two hobbies came together quite nicely, inspiring him to fit his cameras with some RC controllers and take them aloft on kites. His current workhorse is a thing of beauty:

A Canon digital point-and-shoot is nestled in an ultralight wood-and-aluminum frame. The whole thing is fitted with servos allowing Cris to control the angle of the camera from the ground and squeeze the shutter when the moment is right via radio control.

The process goes like this: Cris first gets his kite flying smoothly in the air. Once satisfied with the conditions, he ties on his rig's lines to the main kite string and sends it farther up; an ingenious system of four pulleys keeps the rig (and the camera) parallel to the ground using the rig's own weight. The output can be truly stunning:

Salt ponds in Fremont, California, from Cris's Flickr stream. Check it out for more amazing shots.

Cris's current shooter is pretty tricked out, but you can make a much simpler version out of a disposable camera and some Popsicle sticks (you can see part of the instructions here on the Make site). —John Mahoney

Comments

[lol]

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha that is the worth idea ever!!!!!!!! you are sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo dumb.

[not lol]

Never call someone dumb and fail to spell check your two sentences. How did you mistakenly type "worth" when you meant "worst"?

Also, this idea is an incredible one. You could do it with helium filled balloons even.

[Renegade]

Cool idea, I'll have to give this one a whirl with my old camera!

[Edward]

Cool idea. i tried also on rc blimps, planes, and helicopters.
you finish doing a lot of work with this simple idea I even did comercial work several times.

Sorry english is not my mother language
Tks
PD sorry for the dumb

[Daniel]

This is a wonderful idea. Very inovative. You may find similar products being used by the U.S. millitary for spy tactics, and also in the late 90's, Trent Reznor from "Nine Ince Nails" used a similar flying device to film one of his videos "Closer".

[The Chamberlain]

This is a great idea that offers comparable image quality available with pricey high tech systems. The best part of it is that it's developed at the kitchen table, and put together in the garage. Excellent!