Notes on Kite Aerial Photography: Photo Gallery

In the Queue
A Roster of KAP Sessions Shot but not Posted

A plan view of the Real Goods forecourt with its arbor and fountain. (Canon 24-mm, July 1998)

In the early stages of this web site there existed a fine, symbiotic relationship between my KAP activities and the site. The KAP images provided some core content for the developing WWW site and the site's need for fresh material served as motivation to get out and shoot. It was good. For several years the gallery page content of the site provided a reasonably comprehensive accounting of my aerial forays. 

In recent years, and particularly since I became a department chair in 1999, I have had less time for the WWW site. The gallery pages in particular have lagged behind my shooting. Where once the WWW pages were a great help to me in providing order to my photographic archives now I fret about increasing chaos in the corpus photographic.

My delinquency came into sharp focus this summer when a publisher inquired about the use of images I had taken at the Real Goods Solar Living Center in Hopland, California in 1998. It was something of a miracle that they had tracked the shot down because it was still in my queue for gallery page creation! So, I have decided to assemble this page as a reverse chronological, visual roster of shoots in the queue for gallery pages.

I am still trying to figure out what this page wants to be and how to format it. Regarding content it can evolve into a shooting log, a roster of otherwise unrepresented images, or literally a queue for gallery pages under develpment. I know the page has become unwieldy in size and will figure out how to break it down into manageable chunks after I figure out what it is. In the meantime I am posting two images for sessions of fewer than 200 total and four images if greater than 200. 

MLK Park, Berkeley, California, July 2002

For a few months now I've been thinking that I should take a shot at Berkeley's downtown civic park when a strong west wind showed up. This turned out to be a very challenging flying site and I entertained the local street denizens to no end during the half-hour it took to get the kite up to relatively clean air. This was one of those sessions where 95% of the brain cycles were devoted to flying the kite (as opposed to composing photographs.)

Pt. Reyes National Seashore, California, July 2002

Claudia and I stole a week away from e-mail and the vagaries of daily life to hike around Pt. Reyes. It was a wonderful, restful trip with some lazy kite flying.. 

San Francisco, California, July 2002

A visit to our remarkable science museum occasioned the chance to take images under a very gray and very gusty sky.

Port of Richmond, California, July 2002

The weekends industrial motif continues with midday shots (relatively rare) of Richmond. First, Shaper lighting for Alan and randy followed by general shots of development erasing (almost) portions of the previous industrial landscape -- key word juxtaposition.

Port of Oakland, California, July 2002

This was my first return to the Port of Oakland in several years and I found a changed landscape -- building complexes have been razed, new roads are in place, and a major new park is about to open.

Jack London Square, Oakland, California, July 2002

It was fun to revisit this urban spot which has changed quite a bit since I photographed it in 1996. The winds were barely capable of lifting the lightweight Rokkaku, there were a surprising abundance of thermals, and the area is full of obstacles -- all contributing to a high sweat to image ratio.  A proof page is available.

Fremont, California, July 2002

A lovely 4th of July outing to a series of salt evaporation ponds just south of the Dumbarton Bridge at its East Bay anchorage. Due to bacteria and algea, these ponds, and others surrounding the edges of the south end of San Francisco Bay, are a spectacular visual environment. I returned the next day to make contact with wildlife reserve officials (good thing too because they have some reasonable and addressable concerns about kiteflying) and to work on gaining broader access.

For those of you wondering what is coming out of the Elph here is a full size jpg of the lower right image at 1600 x 1200 pixels. It may be rescaled by your browser.

Emeryville, California, July 2002

Challenged by the fine light of the previous evening I returned to the Emeryville peninsula on the next day (and coincidentally month) to find a fresh breeze and similarly interesting light. Between arrival at 6:30 and sunset at 8:30 I clicked off 439 exposures -- the capacity of the 256 Mb CF card in my Digital Elph. What a way to end a Monday.

Emeryville, California, June 2002

I chased the wind all the way to the waterfront only to find that normally windy spot virtually becalmed. The Rokkaku could barely get the digital rig aloft so low shots were the order of the day.

San Francisco, June 2002

A quick but fun shoot conducted during a lull between meetings in San Francisco. I was great entertainment for your author and the street denizens.

Tomales Bay, Pt. Reyes, June 2002

A set of quick grab shots taken during a beach celebration of Ed Aren's 60th birthday. These are two boats from Ed's flotilla of small watercraft. Sadly, I lost most of the people shots from this session to a camera rig malfunction.

The Sea Ranch, June 2002

Taken during a two-day exploratory trip to collect images in support of a book under development by colleague Donlyn Lyndon. The trip was something of a qualifying exam with winds varying from dead calm to  34 mph. Righthand image above is from a new Nikon Coolscan ED 4000 -- looks like I need to work on some scanning skills here..

Clark Kerr Campus, Berkeley, June 2002

Shots taken on a Saturday in response to a query by Roland Addad from UCB Conference Services. This site is nestled against the Berkeley ridgeline and rarely gets decent wind. This session yielded some useful shots.

Central Campus, Berkeley, June 2002

I continue to photograph the Campanile in an effort to get just the right framing. Or is it just the fun and excitement of flying next to a 300-foot-tall target? 

Waterfront Peninsula, Albany, June 2002

These shots were taken on an end-of-weekend sunset stroll. The Albany Peninsula is made land representing decades of construction debris dumped during a less enlightened era. It is full of surprises like the previously posted shopping cart sculpture. 

Tang Health Center, Berkeley, June 2002

Photographs staged from the parking lot of the Tang Health Center with some decent athletic field shots and views of the street.

Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley, June 2002

Shots of a familiar and empty plaza. Light was nice and soft but the shutter speeds were a bit low. Good for smaller images.

Sproul Plaza, Berkeley, May 2002

Late afternoon photographs of Sproul Plaza and surrounding areas, some from fairly high. Includes shots from a walk up Bancroft Avenue. 

Wurster Hall, Berkeley, May 2002

Staged from the playing field to the west of Wurster Hall, produced some decent images. 

Campanile and Central Campus, Berkeley, May 2002

I think the color balance is off on these -- waiting for my Photoshop 7 and the grey eyedropper. 

Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, May 2002

This set contains some useful views of the UC Berkeley campus under s diffuse, cloudy sky.. 

Berkeley Waterfront, Berkeley, May 2002

Another day at the waterfront having chased the wind to the shore.. 

Sproul Plaza, Berkeley, May 2002

Sproul Plaza is adjacent to my temporary (three years now) office. These are "after work, walking home shots." 

Berkeley Waterfront, Berkeley, April 2002

Some of these shots, especially those in the boatyard, provided evocative images.. 

Central Campus, Berkeley, April 2002

 images.. 

Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, April 2002

The set includes views of the UC Berkeley campus, its Northside residential neighborhood, downtown Berkeley, and the bay beyond.. 

Hearst Field Annex, Berkeley, April 2002

The more interesting shots were taken from a relatively high vantage point that allowed shooting over Barrows Hall (and its less than photogenic roof). 

La Jolla, California, April 2002

Images from a stroll with Charlie Benton up the waterfront path -- the righthand shot shows sea lions hauled up on the beach This is my first.digital rig set and it was taken under a very cloudy sky.. 

Flea Market, Berkeley, November 1999

This was a bizarre shoot. Apparently several of the 'citizens' decided I was a police agent and started throwing rocks at me. 

Fourth Street, Berkeley, August 1998

Pretty standard fare. The roof of the newly refurbished Spengler's has a fine Star War's texture about it (righthand image). 

Kite Festival, Berkeley, July 1998

Your basic kite festival shots with Berkeley's mottled ground texture serving as less than an asset. 

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All rights reserved. Revised: Sunday, July 28, 2002

URL: http://arch.ced.berkeley.edu/kap/gallery/queue.html