Notes on Kite Aerial Photography: Photo Gallery
A flatcar hanging out on the railroad tracks in the Port
of Oakland. I'm draw to edges of this sort -- parallel rows of truck lane,
rails, rip-rap, and waterline defining the divide between land and bay (47K jpg, Canon
24-mm, March 1998).
Several times
over the last few months I have taken one of the kids and explored the Port of
Oakland. This is a place we drive by almost daily but until recently had never
visited. The port has, as one might expect, an industrial flavor. It is
arranged with purpose and bustles with the movement of shipping containers by truck and
special devices. I took these shots during the week of my Spring Break. This
was a midday solo trip to the port, an exception my general rule of taking
photographs toward the edge of the day.
I launched the Sutton 30 in a small park (extreme left
in image below) near the end of the peninsula containing the port and then walked the kite
down the road (along the railroad tracks) until I was closer to the HYUNDAI shipping yard. During previous trips I have been drawn to the
stacks of containers that line this yard and the suggestions of process represented in the
painted pavement zones.
A northwestward view from the Port of Oakland toward San
Francisco. The water is a low contrast green as happens in our stormy periods.
A rare cumulus cloud is providing a shower over toward Mt. Tamalpais. In the attached jpg
you can see the Bay Bridge and The City. Yerba Buena Island in near dead center of
the image. (28K jpg, Canon 24-mm, March 1998).
As I took these photographs a small front
with rain producing cumulus clouds was approaching from the north. I had to keep a weather
eye out for its approach. Once before I had a kite up when a little squall line
approached and it was very difficult to get the kite down. This time the weather
approached slowly and I was able to finish two rolls before the clouds closed in.
The aerial shots below show one shipyard from heights of 150 to 300 feet. If I
could only gain access to the compounds I could get some really interesting shots
This east-facing, ground-level fisheye image shows the
showers after they passed through my area. The kite was safely down before it
rained. I almost caught the entire double rainbow but moved a little too
slowly. The containers stacked in the background are prominent in the aerial views
below. (48K jpg, Canon 15-mm, March 1998).
Images of the HYUNDAI shipping yard. This is where
trucks and large ships meet for rapid and ritualistic courtship (41K jpg left and 38K
jpg right, Canon 24-mm, March 1998).
Views of the stacked containers (36K jpg left and
38K jpg right, Canon 24-mm, March 1998).
As I was working my way back to my launching spot I passed a small compound belonging to a
tugboat company. Folks there had been standing outside watching my work so I decided
to go inside to see if I could take a few shots. Walking around with the kite in
this manner is like walking the dog: you have to lead around obstacles and it sometimes
has a mind of its own. The tugboat people were friendly and invited me to shoot as
much as I liked. Two of the resulting shots are shown below.
Plan views of the working yard of a tugboat company
(41K jpg left and 36K jpg right, Canon 24-mm, March 1998).
[ Home Page | Background | Equipment | Gallery | Maps | Discussion | Others | Search | What's New ]
Comments to author: crisp@socrates.berkeley.edu . All content,
graphics and
images contained throughout are Copyright (C) 1995 - 2005 by Charles C. Benton
and are protected by United States and International copyright laws.
No text, graphic or image may be used whole or in part, individually,
or as part of a derivative work without express written permission.
All rights reserved. Revised: Monday, August 02, 1999
URL:
http://www.ced.berkeley.edu/~cris/kap/gallery/gal117.html