Low Tech Aerial Photography

You are invited to a Low Tech Aerial Photography experiment this Summer (date and location to be determined).

I was inspired by a recent video by an amateur photographer. Using a helium-filled weather balloon, an iPhone, a digital camera, and other hardware, he was able to take videos pretty close to the Earth's stratosphere. Not having nearly the budget this guy had, I decided to try a low-cost, low-tech approach using kites, a "kite trolly," and an inexpensive digital camera to take aerial pictures and videos of Chicago and surrounding neighborhoods.

I will be designing, building, and flying in tandem, a couple large Hargraves box kites made of Tyvek (a favorite material for large kites). I will also be designing and building a custom "kite trolly" that will carry the camera up the flying line and automatically return to the ground upon hitting a triggering point near the kite.

I ran this idea by a few people at ORD Camp 2011. They got excited about the prospect of trying a few different mechanisms (balloons, gyroscopic stabilizers, types of cameras, etc.).

I will be updating this page as I work on this project, and invite interested parties to update this page with any ideas or pics/vids of prototypes or other examples of low-cost low-tech approaches to this subject.

Tyvek Rokuku Kite by Patrick McCarthy