Kite Photography

Some Typical Images

Kite photography enthusiasts set out to capture interesting or historic scenes from the air. Maybe an unusual landscape with features that can only be seen from the air. Perhaps a famous castle or an interesting modern building complex.

A photograph that really caught my eye was an air-to-air shot of another big flow-form kite at a kite festival. The flying kite takes up most of the frame, with the beach and ant-like crowd far below. This is a reversal of the usual 'people on the sand with kites far away in the sky'!

Looking around at some KAP images on the web, I found that many hobbyists have a fascination with photographing themselves from the kite while it is still very low!

Another quite common class of shot is the architectural view. Nice buildings from unusual angles in other words! Or perhaps spectacular buildings, extremely old buildings, buildings in magnificent settings. And so on. Aerial photography using kites is open to a lot of creativity.

Others are even more creative and try hard to make artistic statements with their best pictures. For example, a collection of brightly colored sailing boat sails on the beach, with the boats themselves largely hidden. Sometimes, fish-eye lenses are used to good effect, and filters can completely alter the tone of the scene. The artistry can be more important than the subject matter, in some cases.

In late 2007, when this page was written, digital cameras are widely used in aerial kite photography. In fact, their use in KAP has pretty much stayed in step with their popularity with the general public. Initially, the cheaper cameras just couldn't take a decent picture compared to a 35mm film camera. As we all know, that is not the case now! A large and growing number of people world-wide are enthusiastically snapping digital pictures.

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Last updated: 12 Sep 2009