Notes on Kite Aerial Photography: Photo Gallery
Ground-level and aerial views of the
Fontevraud Cloitre (Canon S100
Digital Elph and Canon 24-mm, July 2000)
The Abbey (also spelled Abbaye) at Fontevraud is one of the
largest and best preserved medieval abbeys of France. Founded in the 12th
century by Robert d'Arbrissel it became home to a community of monks,
nobles, nuns, lepers, vagabonds and repentant prostitutes. To his great credit
d'Arbrissel established a system that entrusted the running of the abbey to an abbess, usually from a noble
family, who reported only to the Pope and to the King. Fontevraud thus became a favorite sanctuary for the female aristocracy,
including Eleanor of Aquitaine, whose painted stone coffin lies in the center of
the Abbey Church.
Workshop participants view a fine site model of the Abbey and another rather high aerial of the real thing (Canon S100 Digital Elph and Canon 24-mm, July 2000)
Fontevraud is located down the Vienne River from
Chinon, past the confluence of the river with the Loire and about halfway to
Saumur. The town is located a few kilometers to the south of the river on gently rolling farmland. I made a scouting trip to the Abbey during an
orientation tour for the seminar team. It certainly looked like KAP would be
possible there but the confines of the walled site suggested at least a moderate
breeze. So I waited for favorable wind conditions, and waited some more. My
indicator of how the higher level winds were blowing was to watch the plume of
condensate rising from the nearby nuclear plant. All too often it simply rose
straight up for a 1,000 meters or so. It was not until our last day in
Chinon that the windsign turned favorable.
Thanks to the absence of overhead wires this lane provided
my access to Frontevraud's
small square. It leads from a parking lot (roughly below the camera's position)
to the small parish Church of St. Michel. The right image shows a ground-level
view of the 17th century church's covered terrace (Canon
24-mm and Canon S100 Digital Elph, July 2000)
In
fact, we were leaving Chinon and heading for Mt. St. Michel when the condensate plume
of the nuclear
plant began to tease me with the possibility of usable wind. I polled
the family's willingness for a detour to Fontevraud and they happily agreed. In
15 minutes we had gained Fontevraud and I was able to quickly get the Rokkaku
flying from the parking lot near the edge of town. My plan was to walk the
kite into town with the camera aloft. Outside
of the Abbey proper the town of Frontevraud also has a beautiful little parish church dedicated to Saint Michel. It is surrounded
by delightful, human-scale porches made of wood framing and old stone. The
walk led past this small church.
The small central square of Fontevraud. The building on the right is the main
Abbey gate. (Canon
24-mm, July 2000)
So, with the camera aloft I proceeded to walk from the car park to the small central square. This went quite smoothly -- just a little bending and turning to clear the occasional overhead obstacle. I often liken this to walking a dog. You have something at the end of a leash over which you have a modicum of control. At the square, my path to the Abbey was blocked by its large gate. It had been my plan to retreat to the car park and retrieve the camera and kite there after finishing a roll of film. However, a lull in the wind caused me to inhaul quite a bit of kite line and given that the breeze did not return I continued the process until the KAP gear landed in the square itself. In only a minute or two everything was down safely.
Aerial
views of Fontevraud's central square. I think of these images as having a
"high degree of difficulty" rating since they required some careful
staging. (Canon
24-mm, July 2000)
[ 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: Sunday, August 19, 2001
URL: http://arch.ced.berkeley.edu/kap/gallery/gal181.html
