Rick's Kite Aerial Photography Gallery

This gallery page was instantiated January 16, 2002. Last update, 5/29/09.
Click on the underlined links or small pictures below.

Rick's Kite Bio Some big-kite safety advice Things I learned shooting my first few rolls

Sutton 16 Flowform Kite

Here I am on the sand at Ontario Beach Park in Charlotte, NY, on the south shore of Lake Ontario. The airplane wing shape of the flowform is visible. When the wind is strong, you want to be sure you're wearing gloves when you fly a big kite. They have an annual kite fly event here every May.

Kite and Picavet Cross (without camera)

The picavet and camera are hung from the kite string about 50-100 feet down from the kite itself. The kite moves around too much to have the camera directly attached to it. The picavet rig is just one really long piece of string (about 30 feet!) strung in a particular pattern. Whether the kite (and string) goes up or down due to changes in the wind, the rig will adjust itself to keep the cross (and the camera) level. I was amazed when I first saw it work. The holes in the kite are for flow-through ventilation of the 4 cells of the Sutton Flowform.

The very first kite aerial photo I ever shot

Lake Ontario was only about a 5 minute drive from where I worked, and I could always count on a good onshore breeze no matter what it was like elsewhere. One lunch hour, I got the kite up and tied it off to a log on the beach. I "walked down" the kite string (grabbing onto it and walking downwind- pulling the kite lower), attached the picavet and set the camera's internal self timer, then let the string go. The wind pulled the kite higher up, and 10 seconds later the shutter tripped and took this photo.
Ok, I'll fess up- this photo is really the second one... the first was just sand- I triggered the timer and let go of the camera just as the wind subsided, and the camera rig suspended there 3 feet off the ground until the timer went off.

Oklahoma Beach, Seabreeze, NY sandbar

This winter shot is looking East. On the left side is near-shore ice of Lake Ontario, on the right side is frozen Irondquoit Bay. The significant triangular beach in front of the foreground houses is the result of the installation of a pair of Army Corps of Engineers stone jetties that create a channel protecting the mouth of the bay. The prevailing westerly winds have given these few property owners a brand new sandy beach. Notice that the houses further out aren't so lucky, and in fact have had boulder-sized stones dumped on the windward side of their property to prevent the waves from cutting the sandbar in two. (This has happened in the past!)

Irondequoit Bay Outlet Jetty

This is one of the stone jetties that protects the mouth of the bay. There's a nice sidewalk paved atop the boulder-sized rocks, and a cable handrail on one side- you can see the shadows from the posts. You can see the remnants of winter ice and sand buildup on the rocks. In the middle of winter, this sidewalk and all the rocks are completely covered over with ice from the waves' spray.

Frozen Bay Outlet- Spring is Coming

Looking out onto Lake Ontario, both jetties are seen here, with a small white and red lighthouse at the end of the left one. Between the jetties is the channel that leads back behind me into Irondequoit Bay. The ice is starting to break up due to the approach of Spring and the increased water flow through the channel.

Frozen Bay Outlet- Ice Ridges

Same day, another view of the ice in the outlet channel. The sun is highlighting the raised edges of each floating ice chunk towards the bottom of the picture. The raised edges are from the ice chunks pushing against each other due to the outflowing current.

Ice Fishermen on the Bay

Ice fishing is a popular winter activity on the shallow NE corner of Irondequoit Bay. Perch, sunfish, northern pike, and trout all are regularly caught. The holes aren't nearly as big as they appear in this photo- they're only 6-8" in diameter. The water from drilling and skimming the hole melts the snow around it, thus the ice appears dark. I'm sure these guys were wondering what the heck I was doing with a kite out on the ice.

Motorcycles on the Ice

The fishermen share the frozen shallows with motorcyclists, snowmobilers, and ATV drivers. They drive hundreds of screws into their tires to make studs for traction on the ice. The cyclists stay near the road (closer access to their trailers), the ice fishermen stay on the other side- it's better fishing over there anyway. If there's too much snow on the ice, they actually go out with snowblowers and plows mounted on the front of ATVs to carve their oval. The fish continue to bite despite the loud noises on the ice.

Ice FisherKids

The kids really enjoy coming out with me to get some fresh air and catch a bunch of fish. The best kite shots are always when you have a partner (or two!) to tell you when the camera's directly overhead. J,K

Sunken Canal Boats #1

Lock 32 on the NY State Barge Canal is right off Clover Street, SE of Rochester, NY. The Barge Canal is an enlargement of the original Erie Canal. There is a bike path and picnic area at the lock, and it's quite a pleasant spot to pass a couple hours on a sunny afternoon, munching lunch and watching boats go through the lock. Just upstream from the lock is a small "wide water" area where I occasionally fish in the summer- the water is fairly shallow, perhaps 5-10 feet deep in this area. Each winter, the State shuts the gates upstream at Lake Erie, and thus empties the canal to prevent damage to the locks and canal walls from freezing water.
One Spring, I happened to stop by to see what the empty canal looked like and discovered that there are more than fifteen turn-of-the-(20th)-century wooden canal boats STILL THERE- sunken. These canal boats played a big part in allowing towns to grow and flourish across NY State, carrying all sorts of essential supplies like coal, grain, or lumber. These old boats are normally under water and thus (for the most part) out of sight, but with the canal drained, I could walk around in the old skeletal hulls. The canal boats used to pull off and anchor in this turning basin area just ahead of the lock to wait, let other boats pass, or rest the mules (which pulled the boats). When steam train and truck power provided transportation alternatives superior to the canal, I can imagine that these flat bottomed boats were just pulled off to the side and left there to rot. These KAP images were taken in March, 1999 and show some of the interesting remains. This was not the greatest spot for kite flying because there are some out-of-sight land features (surrounding hills and a huge warehouse) that usually upset the steady wind required keep the kite aloft. I tried 3 different days before I hit one with a good enough breeze to get these shots. The boats all exhibit different construction techniques. Note that the boat in the center has an unusual rounded bow (all the rest are rectangular). These watercraft are really big- the rounded-bow one here tapes out to 23 feet wide and 108 feet long! The wood beams askew near the bow are 10"x11" square, pinned two side by side. The boat to the right of it is 35 feet wide, and 95 feet long.

Sunken Canal Boats #2

Over the last century a lot of silt has accumulated- and in the second shot, you can see the tan colored cattails (dead for the winter) which have started to impinge into the hulls of a few boats. The boat with the rusty spool has fore-aft beams that are 8 feet apart, and it's more than 110 feet long. Note that these hull walls are not collapsed, but rather still upright and quite boat-shaped. Only the pine decks have disappeared- I think the beams are oak, thus have survived. When built, the boats were sized to fit the locks that they were to go through- as the canal was enlarged, the boats became bigger. Much to my amazement, I recently ran across web sites documenting an archeological study of similar boats in Illinois here and also here.

Barge Canal, Full

Lock 32 is way back in the top center of this image, with the canal on the right. The bike trail is a relatively modern addition, cutting off the widewaters on the left from the canal itself. Water flows into the widewaters area under the small bridge. Ducking off to the right, just ahead of the lock, the water goes over a spillway that provides water for a man-made kayak white-water training area- they have gates set up and everything.

Barge Canal, Empty

Lock 32 again, this time in late April, just before the canal fills up for the season. I was incredibly lucky to get this shot- the picavet lines had tangled into a terrible rats nest, and the camera couldn't be leveled or aimed. In fact, the vertical orientation is not on purpose- that's the way the rig was dangling! I fired the shutter once in frustration before pulling the whole thing down for the day. I couldn't get it untangled even at home; I had to cut it apart and restring it. The white area around the shore is caused by zebra mussel shells (an invading species in the Great Lakes). In the darker areas the water is too deep for the mussels to thrive.

Cobbs Hill Park

This is Lake Riley, at Cobbs Hill Park in Rochester, NY. I'm down there at the end of the string. You can see the Rochester, NY downtown skyline peeking into the upper right of the image. The armory is the red stone building back on the left. On the right is route 490, which runs in the old NYS Barge Canal bed (you can see the road runs below ground level here). Lake Riley is all that remains of what used to be a huge "wide waters" area for NYS Barge Canal boats. Everything you see in this image was under water at the turn of the century- a lot of what you see here now is fill dirt. Here is a link to a photo as the area originally looked circa 1918 (may be slow to load).

The Amazing Maize Maze

This is a 3.8 acre cornfield maze at Long Acre Farms, in Macedon, NY on 9/10/98. Only one of 6 such mazes in the country at the time. The entire field is planted normally, and then the plants are removed very early in the season as specified by the maze pattern (they DON'T hack it out of a fully grown cornfield). I believe this is the first year this farm created a maze like this. It's grown into quite an annual attraction- they've built a picnic and play area, and created a goat feeding contraption that you'd have to see to believe. This is an enlarged reprint of the photo below. The maze is actually a picture (upside down here) of a steel wheeled farm tractor and the number "150" at the bottom to commemorate the farming roots and 150th anniversary of the county.

The Amazing Maize Montage

This 2 photo montage shows the huge scale of this thing. Note the FULL SIZED BARN in the lower right side of the image. From where I was standing when working the kite, I was working blind- I couldn't see the cornfield AT ALL - there was a stand of trees blocking my view, and my spotter couldn't get out that far.

Sun Face Corn Maze

Looking straight down at a small portion of the Long Acre Farms' year 2000 maze, photo taken October 11th. When you go through the maze, they give one person a long pole with a flag on top, so the spotters (in a crow's nest in the middle of the maze) can see you and give directions if you get hopelessly lost. Each year the maze is a different design.

North Ponds Park

North Ponds Park in Webster, NY has 3 man-made ponds, dug in the 1970s. This photo is of the "swimming pond"- in the distance you can see the sandy beach. This is one of my favorite KAP images due to the color and lighting. It's September 21st and Fall is approaching, giving nice long shadows.

North Ponds Park- Sun Glint

Here's a plan (top) view of the same swimming pond, on March 30th. The sun glint off the waves is noticeable. The water is indeed blue- the town treats it with copper sulfate to retard summer growth of algae and water weeds. These trees are just getting their leaves, and the brownish grass hasn't started growing yet from winter dormancy. The brown rim of beach is not normally there- they still have the water drawn down a bit from the winter (they draw it down so it has room for the snowmelt from the surrounding watershed). The two lower square objects are roofs over picnic tables, and the upper square is a cement pad, again for a picnic table (the tables are put in storage for the winter).

North Ponds- Supply & Swimming Ponds

You can see the paved walking trail that goes around the ponds here. The front pond is the shallow "swimming pond" as seen in the other pictures. The smaller pond behind it is extremely deep. I believe it is used as a source of extra water for the swimming pond- they appear to be connected, with a valve controlling the water flow. The squiggle on the left is the antenna wire from the receiver. I've since wrapped it around a dowel so that it won't dangle in any more pictures.

Land, Water, & Ice

The "fishing pond" at North Ponds Park has a small island in it, seen at the bottom left of this picture. In this Springtime shot, the pond is partially thawed. The ice has created strange patterns during its meltdown, ranging from weird crater shapes to swirled wisps of translucent ice.

Peach Orchard

This is a Springtime view of fruit trees, or rather their shadows- the leafless trees blend in with the dirt and cannot be seen. The grass and weeds have been killed under the trees by spraying herbicide. I've oriented the picture so the shadows are upright rather than the trees.

Hothouse Tomatoes

Next to the peach orchard are a few greenhouses that grow hothouse tomatoes in the early spring. You can see their neat rows inside in this view. Taking this shot gave me great angst- I was terrified of crashing the camera into all that glass. I snapped a couple quick pictures and got out of there fast.

In the Pool

My in-laws live outside Tampa, Florida. Lots of houses down there have a totally screened-in patio called a lanai. One day with light but steady wind, I nursed the kite up over their lanai- with the kids in the pool, shouting to me when I got over them. Here's the result, right out of the camera... the kids did a SUPER job of directing me. This is my favorite kite picture. It's very hard to judge distance out when flying a kite, and a downwind spotter helps composition immensely. The grid pattern is the aluminum frame holding the screening.
The day before this, I was flying the kite (no camera rig) in a vacant lot next door to test the wind. The wind suddenly died, and my kite went down on the back side of the roof of a huge house across the street. The roof was full of all kinds of pipes from bathroom, heater, and fireplace vents, and I could no longer see the kite- the string was laying limp across the roof and over the peak. I was thinking "how the heck am I going to explain THIS to the residents", when I hauled back on the string. Miraculously, the kite re-inflated and rose up off the backside of the roof and became airborne, saving me much embarrassment. That's the closest call I've ever had!

Seabreeze Park Entrance

Seabreeze Park is a wonderful family-owned amusement park near the south shore of Lake Ontario, northeast of Rochester, NY. Over the past 20 years they've added numerous new modern attractions such as a waterslide park and a fast steel rollercoaster. I took these pictures on 5/12/99. It was a bit early for the park to be open to the public, but there was plenty of employee activity gettings things ready for the season. This view shows the "over the falls" log flume ride at the bottom, with Culver Rd. above the parking lot, and the main admission gates near the center. To the right is the long building that houses the arcade games.

Seabreeze Park Roller Coaster

You can see the yellow steel of the "Quantum Loop" roller coaster on the right, with a peek of the waters of Lake Ontario up in the corner. On the left is the new red-roofed octagon shaped carousel building. A few years ago, the original Philadelphia Toboggan Company carousel, Wurlitzer band organ, and building burned to the ground when some roofing work went awry. The park owners located another PTC antique wooden carousel- but just frame and parts, and rebuilt it like new, including creating a full set of new hand-carved and painted wooden horses. It looks absolutely beautiful, and the new band organ sounds great; if you're nearby, stop in and see it- the Seabreeze Web Site has directions.

Waterslide Heads

The two "snake heads"- cream and blue- are the launching area for the Seabreeze Park waterslides, with the white "Lazy River" water attraction under them. You carry your tube float up several flights of stairs, then get a nice ride down in the water tubes. The white slide is open on top, and the blue one is a fully closed tube. There is no water in the system in these pix because it'll be a while yet before its warm enough for anybody to go swimming.

Raging Rivers Waterslide Complex

This is a 5 image montage which shows the core of the water park at Seabreeze. The pink ocatagons are umbrellas for shade over tables. The round pink object is a water mushroom- water pours out the hole in the top and runs down the sides to soak floaters in the Lazy River.

Steinmetz Park

Here's my family and my sister's family playing at Steinmetz Park in Schenectady, NY. The grass-free area is from the city's recent job of cleaning up the park's junk vegetation that had overrun the place for the past couple of decades. The effort was long overdue, and it looks really great now. I had to wait until just the right conditions (strong wind, very steady, and from just the right direction) to fly the kite here because there are power lines just out of sight all along the right side of the scene. I was very careful letting out kite line so that even if it did go down, it wouldn't be far enough out to hit the lines. I'm down there at the end of the kite string again; I love pictures like this!

Rochester Vietnam Veterans Memorial

This shot was taken the day after Memorial Day; the wreath was there when I arrived. This is just how it came out of the camera, and was just as I'd hoped it would look- another of my favorites. The original image is so crisp you can read the inscription on the ground. It was the most difficult shot I've yet taken due to the location. I went to the site at least 5 times trying to get the kite and camera up, but was foiled in all previous attempts- the park is surrounded by hills and tall buildings that interfere with the wind. In addition, radio frequency interference is very heavy during the week, making the servo trip the shutter repeatedly. On one attempt, it went nuts and I lost almost a whole roll of film before I could haul the rig back in to unplug the receiver. I finally got some clear air after 5pm, when most workers (with their RF generating devices) cleared out of the surrounding buildings. In addition to the technical difficulty of flying, I was worried about flying a kite at this spot because it is a memorial, plus I was within a few miles of the Rochester International Airport. I spent some time beforehand reading the FAA regulations to make sure what I was doing was legal (it was).

School Bus Loop

The nearby school has a large field in front of it, just right for flying kites or launching model rockets. This is the school entrance and bus loop adjacent to the field.

Jungle Gym

The schoolyard play area. Another excellent job done by my camera spotters!

Soccer Goal

One day on the way home from work, I noticed a whole field full of kids playing soccer. They were wearing bright red shirts, the grass was very green, the wind was strong, and the sun was bright but low, casting wonderful shadows. I thought I'd take some kite pictures of the scene. Being alone, I had no downwind spotter, so I just guessed that I had the camera out far enough, walking the kite around here and there, taking pictures. I shot a WHOLE ROLL, and this is the only frame that had ANYTHING in it- the rest were all of empty grass!

Chesnut Park

Chesnut Park is on Lake Tarpon, the largest freshwater lake in Pinellas County, NW of Tampa, Florida. There are some nature trails through the woods, and at the end of one of them is this treetop-level observation deck. The wind was quite steady, and I took a series of 6 pictures of myself as I let out the kite line, 100' between each shot.

Honeymoon Island

NW of Tampa in the Gulf of Mexico lies Honeymoon Island State Recreation Area. Honeymoon Island used to be connected to the island off in the distance on the right (all one island). In 1921, a hurricane cut Honeymoon Is. in two, splitting off what is now Caladesi Island. Both are state recreation areas now, and they are fine places to spend the day- beautiful sand & sun. There is interesting fossil coral to be found on one end of Honeymoon, with a lot of interesting tidal wildlife living amongst the rocks. [2008 update: maybe no more fossils? The limestone rubble was recently removed as part of an effort to restore the island to its natural state.] Caladesi is accessible only by boat. I didn't know the pond beyond the parking lot existed until I got this picture back!

Paratrooper Ride

I happened to be on Honeymoon Island on a day when they were setting up for a festival in the corner of the parking lot. I got this nice shot of the Paratrooper on the first try.

Ft. DeSoto

Shaped like the letter "M", Fort DeSoto guards the mouth of Tampa Bay. There's a paved sidewalk on the top of the fort's walls. The four round black things in the image are mortars that have huge 12" rifled barrels. I remember reading somewhere that these are the largest rifled barrels ever made. On the cement pads below each pair you can just barely make out the outlines of two pair of additional 12" mortars (8 total on site), but they've long ago been removed and sent to a fort on the US west coast.

Picnic Pavilion & Palms

Fort DeSoto is now part of a large county park, and this is a stylish picnic shelter with some tall palm trees. In the center is a palm surrounded by a shorter bush. The shade is quite welcome on a hot day here!

Stunt Rotor Kite

While not a KAP photo, I wanted to include this remarkable rotor kite. One day while up at the lake trying to take some KAP images, I ran into this guy that had a unique (and much-repaired) rotor kite. If you look closely, you can see the thing has a carefully made symmetric airplane wing shape (in cross-section), and is made out of sheet plastic foam. It is a convex airplane wing shape on both top and bottom sides (mirroring each other). He had it rigged as a stunt kite- flying it with TWO lines for steering control. He had bent a steel rod into a large "H" shaped line winder so the kite could be controlled with one hand, and the two lines could simultaneously be wound in or let out. It gave the impression of a flying venetian blind slat, and was extremely quick and responsive; very cool!