About This Blog

Let's get one thing out of the way up front. I am not a photographer. Or if I am a photographer, then I'm a photographer on the same level that Milli Vanilli were accomplished musicians.

Sue & Joe

If I'm anything, I'm a geek. For as long as I can remember, any gadget was fair game for being taken apart, rebuilt, modified and otherwise adapted so it could perform some task which it wasn't originally designed to perform. So it makes sense then that when I first heard of kite photography a few years ago, my geek sensibilities started tingling. The moment I first found out about it, I knew I had to do it. So with Sue's blessing, I used our old digital camera and started working on the project.

And because I insist on using only the best, I bought my first kite on ebay for $12 and then I set about building my first camera rig. I used scraps of aluminum and hobby plywood I had laying around the workshop and when it was done, I think it weighed about 1500lbs. Ok maybe it was closer to 3lbs but it may as well have been 1500lbs because as I soon learned, a $12 ebay kite could barely keep itself in the air much less lift a 3lb load. But I kept at it, bought some different kites, bought some prefabbed rig parts and bought some lighter, higher quality cameras and before too long, we were getting pictures.

In fact we were getting some pretty decent pictures. There is something really interesting about the perspective you get from putting the camera in the places that only a kite line can get you. The lines, angles, patterns and colors are often unexpected and really interesting.

One of our first subjects

So now we have a nice cache of kites which allow us to fly in wide range of wind conditions. And we have a camera rig that has served us well so far and has proven itself to be fairly reliable. This gear goes with us almost every time we travel. And any day that includes some free time, good light and decent wind will usually cause me to search out some new location to go get some shots.

And because friends and family like to see the results of our efforts, we thought a blog might be a good idea. Like all things in life, this will be a work in progress. Hopefully we'll update it regularly and hopefully those who look at will end up seeing something they enjoy. And you if you don't like it, go fly a kite.