Fun and Games with the Spare Parts Bin

If it were just a matter of duct-taping your camera to a kite's cross spar, pushing a button or two, and nonchalantly picking up an envelope of artfully composed and perfectly exposed poster sized prints from your local 1-hour minilab, then everybody would do this. Or rather, nobody I'd care to know would. If just anyone could, why bother?

In Kite Aerial Photography, the process is usually far more interesting than the product. It's a kind of performance art. And so KAP practitioners show as much pride in their rigs as in the finished product. Imagine any other photographer saying "Yeah, it's an OK print, but let me show a you a picture of my tripod!"

Let me go on at great length about my "tripod."

My current rig consists of three main subassemblies:

The suspension (A) is formed from 3 18" lengths of .220" carbon fiber spar in an "H" configuration. The spars are joined using 3/8" barbed hose tees. Barbed tees are manufactured so that the quality control applies to the outside diameter. The internal diameter can vary from tee to tee and even from one end of a tee to the other. It's only important that the internal diameter be less than that of the spar so it may be drilled or reamed to accept the spar (in this case using a 7/32" bit.)

The tips of the "H" are capped with approx. 1.5" lengths of automotive fuel hose such that half of the hose extends beyond the end of the spar. The fuel hose is bonded to the spar with a cyanoacrylate adhesive. Fishing swivels are threaded through small (1/16") holes drilled through the free end of the hose. The fuel hose provides a convenient means of attaching the swivels to the carbon spars and their fairly stiff "give" helps dampen sudden jerks and high frequency vibrations before they reach the camera. About 40' of 80lb Spectra is threaded through the swivels and two hangers in a Rendsburg variation of the Picavet suspension. (See Casalboni for a better description and diagrams of the two suspensions.)

I have found that the Rendsburg provides the rig greater torsional stability than the Picavet, though it does not adjust fore and aft as easily. I rationalize that it is better that the camera be on target and slightly off level than to be perfectly level and pointing in the wrong direction. I can fiddle with alignment issues in the darkroom or in a Photoshop type application.

A 3/8" bolt is attached orthogonally to the center of the "H" and attaches the suspension to the Hoop (B) with a wing nut and pair of neoprene backed washers.

The hoop is Aluminum, 33" in length, about 2" in width, .040" thick. The dimensions are somewhat arbitrary as it was cut from an Aluminum hurricane shutter. Why cut down an Aluminum hurricane shutter? Cost. A length of Aluminum bar stock, 8' x 2" x 1/16" cost $18.65 at my local big box Home Depot type store and seemed too heavy. A cut sheet of Aluminum 10"x24"x.025" was about the same and seemed too thin. A 33" x 24" storm panel cost about 7 bucks and was about the right thickness/rigidity. As I do not work for the Department of Defense, it was an easy choice.

The Hoop is attached with two more sets of bolts and wing nuts and neoprene washers to a Marvin the Martian pencil box (C) picked up for $1 at the "Back-to-School" sale at the local mega chain drugstore type place. They also had a "Scooby-Doo" pencil box but it included the execrable "Scrappy-Doo" sidekick and I wanted no part of that. The Marvin Box is filled with open cell foam razor cut to accommodate a Samsung Evoca camera. In addition to protecting the camera in case of mishap (see "Bad Day at Battery Buchanan" ) the foam also provides some added vibration protection.

The box has been cut away on the bottom half (NOT the half with Marvin's portrait) to expose the camera's lens and relevant autofocus and autoexposure lamps and sensors. The Marvin Box has a simple but sturdy hinge on side and a simple but less than sturdy latch on the other. Since it's packed near full to bursting with foam and camera and since at any given time it may be dangling several hundred feet above the deck, the Marvin Box is further secured with two 12" rubber bands.