Kite Photography
Here are some pictures I took by flying a camera-carrying kite over Boston:
More at xkcd.com/kite.
I’m getting a larger kite and hope to make some higher flights. I can’t really plan when I’ll be out there since it depends on the weather, but if you’re nearby (I’m flying them from the MIT athletic field), free during afternoons, and like this kind of project, drop me an email (rmunroe@gmail.com) with “hooray kites!” as the subject and I’ll let the interested people know when I’ll be flying next.
June 27th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
would you like to get a better camera before you go flying again? i’d be glad to help out.
June 27th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
That’s really neat, and I’m suprised it worked so well. You hear about these things but, well, at least for me, don’t ever see them happen. Maybe I’ll try something like this sometime.
:-)
June 27th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
eitje: That would be cool, though there’s a nonzero chance that it will crash and explode, so I’ve been sticking to fairly cheap cameras. It’s also kind of a pain to solder to the shutter button contacts. But if you have one you want to fly and you can get wires connected, I’d be happy to send it up!
June 27th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Crash and explode? I’d hope you’re not using gasoline-powered cameras :D
Cool photo though, must be a good sized kite to carry even a camera up that high. Care to post a picture of that kite? Would be interesting to see just what kind of span it needs to stay aloft with the weight of the camera.
June 27th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Hmm, you may be able to use something like the
“Zap Shot RF” (google it, if you like). Probably would want to beef up the transmitter, though.
If you’re looking for other scenery, I’d suggest the North Shore beaches– there’s almost always a good breeze and it’s very pretty.
June 27th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
That is really cool. What a great view!
June 27th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Nathan: It’s actually not a huge kite — about 6′ from wingtip to wingtip, which doesn’t look particularly big. That’s enough to lift a half-kg camera in a good breeze just fine. But my main problem has become the several pounds of line I’m using, so I’ll be stepping up to a 12′ kite soon.
June 27th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
What an absolutely amazing idea. I’m a photographer and I’m kind of embarrassed I haven’t thought of this myself.
Totally going shopping this weekend for kite flying gear. :)
June 27th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
… That prank is the most hilarious thing ever. I need to do that. Ahahaha.
Also, amazing pictures. Good luck on the next try… and post your pictures!
June 27th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
Purely awesome.
Reminds me I need to get that old CVS “disposable” digital camcorder attached to a USB port.
June 27th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Is the kite-flying at all related to xkcd #240? (I know I’m going out on a limb, but the GPS coordinates are really close)
June 27th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
You totally should get kite taken pictures taken of the meet up that’s going to happen because of xkcd #240. That would be cool to see.
June 27th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
For those of you in NJ, here’s my Kite Aerial Photography rig.
http://www.rj3labs.com/projects/kap/
A warning to those who fly kites: people are captivated by watching kites and don’t watch where they’re going.
Randall, what kite are you using?
June 27th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
The GPS coordinates aren’t *that* close - about five miles. You’d have to take public transportation to get from one place to the other, I wouldn’t want to walk that far. MIT’s a ways from Davis Square…
June 27th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
SUPER cool… so so so awesome!!! :)
June 27th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
Now I have no reason not to move to Boston. There are people flying fotokytes!
June 27th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
Any chance of some pictures and diagrams of the button-pushing-timer device, too?
June 27th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
Some cameras have time lapse (also called an intervalometer) built into the camera itself. You’d be able to use the camera without any soldering or electrical fiddling at all.
It’s usually a feature on higher end cameras, but there’s firmware hacking to enable it on some low end, cheap, Canon Powershot models. Bonus because some Powershots are lightweight (half the weight of the camera you’re using), run on AAs, and use SD cards
PS - FAA regulates flights over 500 feet
June 27th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Now you only need to attach a cat with a camera to the kite and full hilarity can ensue.
June 27th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
Those are beautiful and geeky.
“beautiky” if you will.
I love them
June 27th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
I want to see what comic results from this experiment… ;)
June 27th, 2007 at 10:57 pm
Wow, that’s an interesting aerial shot of the Stata Center! (It doesn’t look quite as horrifying from that angle…)
June 28th, 2007 at 3:44 am
awww nice! A friend and I were going to do the same thing in savannah from the beach! That is awesome though well done!
June 28th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
wow, I’m really impressed by these. and the kite prank. that’s brilliant.
So, since anything even remotely resembling technical jargon makes no sense to me, /how/ did you set this up? I’d love to try it. espechially if it can be done with less then 20$.
and please keep posting these pictures.
June 28th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
So apparently my friend Darrell Cain met you there and told you to move because he and MITSET were going to shoot a maser across the field.
…That’s kind of awesome.
June 28th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Thoughts:
1)You can get a “megadelta” which is 12′ across for about $120. These are seriously good lifters. In a strong breeze, you need 100 lb nylon to hold it. In a light (almost imperceptible) breeze, it will still fly fine, provided you give it a start by running.
2)To get a larger kite down requires some strength. The easiest way is to have 2 people, and hook some sort of metal loop over the string; then just walk apart. Or, stall the kite by letting out 5m of slack, suddenly.
3)Use an R/C servo to avoid modifying the camera.
4)Cheap film cameras (£30) will give much better results than cheap digital cameras, and will give a much shorter exposure.
June 28th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
Just don’t become a ‘professional’ hobo like Timo:
http://koti.welho.com/tnoko/
He’s been doing kite photography for some time
June 28th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
I know several people who work on compact, high-power, color-controllable LED lights. If kites can lift a camera. . . I bet we could build a pretty freakin’ cool UFO.
June 28th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Those pictures are awe inspiring.
And, uh, at the risk of sounding like a fool, would someone explain the “Mussolini made trains run on Thyme” joke?
June 28th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
Justin: Thyme rhymes with Time.
One of the objects in that fourth picture looks just like the space ship from that old Disney movie “Flight of the Navigator” in its high speed mode. Pretty sweet if you ask me. Check it out: http://dave.zfx.com/nav.html
June 28th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
Justin, in case Rogers explanation wasn’t that helpful:
Mussolini made Italy think that he was responsible for making the train system dependable- he “made it run on time”- so that he would appear to have done something productive for the country and they would like him better. I don’t think he really did anything though, i think he just took credit for it.
June 28th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
….so xkcd makes the pun that he made it run on thyme, a spice.
i live for these jokes :]
June 29th, 2007 at 12:23 am
gaa you are probably right outside my dorm window and I’M NOT THERE TO SEE IT!!!
if you keep doing this during the year im pretty sure youll get invited in for study breaks
June 29th, 2007 at 3:54 am
Ahh, sweet Boston. You can almost smell the hatred…
June 29th, 2007 at 8:15 am
Ahhhh
This brought tears to my eyes
how insanely cool
OH - EM - GEE
June 29th, 2007 at 9:46 am
RE: Blake’s LED Kite-UFO
Awesome idea, which I would love to get a laugh out of. Though, this is Boston we’re talking about. Remember the mooninites?
Also, I’d like to second the idea of flying from the north shore beaches. I live on the north shore, and would *LOVE* to see some of these shot from the air - especially Crane Beach in Ipswich, or Singing Beach in Manchester-by-the-Sea.
June 29th, 2007 at 11:32 am
‘Projection’ was sweet.
June 29th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Sorry I can’t join you. The UAI conference was at MIT *last* year. You still have time to move to Vancouver for this year’s though….
June 29th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
My Life and I enjoyed your pictures very much. We now keep a kite in the back of the car for when we’re out and about and there’s a breeze. It’s a good way to break up a long trip. Keep posting the pictures!
The idea of putting LED lights on your kite is interesting. You could get free advertising for xkcd if, say, 12′ of LEDs that spelled out “xkcd” were on the kite.
Or do you not wish to attract attention?
June 30th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
What a great concept, kite photography. Since I really cannot tell what camera you’re using (and I’m surprised that no one has mentioned this, so maybe I’m crazy–although I am a professional photographer), what settings are you using on the camera? If it has settings related to exposure (and perhaps you already did this, so pardon the repetition) you probably want to set it o shutter-priority (or equivalent) and give yourself 1/500th or faster.On a bright day you should be fine. If the camera doesn’t have settings, Richard’s suggestion about a flim camera would be good regarding exposure, but with the number of photos limited to the size of a roll… you wouldn’t be able to get the kite very high before it ran out. I, myself, would probably invest in a digital camera with shutter-priority available. If you can really get a firmware hack for some of the cheaper Canon Powershots, they would be ideal (with the auto picture function). Alright, sorry to be long-winded. If you really want to discuss it, write me. :) And keep up the good work.
July 1st, 2007 at 1:27 am
that is so fantastic!!! what a great idea… if i could spare even $30 i would try it! but i’m wicked po’
haha, again, i’m so glad you’re in boston!
July 1st, 2007 at 1:59 am
I’ve been trying to figure out where to go fly my kite! Thanks for posting the location!
July 1st, 2007 at 5:19 am
So is this going to be some kite club then?
Because you know that the first rule of kite club is that you don’t talk about the kite club, right?
July 1st, 2007 at 7:07 am
This is awesome. Where did you come up with this idea?
July 1st, 2007 at 10:10 am
Excellent kite plan,
Sir.
July 1st, 2007 at 8:29 pm
Don’t make the kite too large, you might shut the whole city down under the fear of Kite Terrorists.
July 2nd, 2007 at 12:14 am
I have to say, it’s pretty awesome that you took a picture of my dorm with your kite. (You can see it in the picture w/ the boathouse).
I wish I were staying at MIT for the summer… =/
P.S. That prank? Absolutely ingenious… I definitely need to try it sometime… XD
July 2nd, 2007 at 12:33 am
eep- that makes me dizzy.
You know what’d be really cool: a picture of your fotokite taking a picture of *another fotokite* taking a picture of your fotokite…
July 2nd, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Completely unrelated to this post, but I’ve just read the latest strip and 8ft is definitely not a record. I’ve managed over 10ft before. I also thought I was the only person in the world who did this…
July 2nd, 2007 at 1:44 pm
Latest comic: YOU ARE SO AWESOME!!
July 2nd, 2007 at 10:39 pm
xkcd: So, I think I’m just missing the directions on how to ship you a better camera. I’ll email you?
July 3rd, 2007 at 2:39 am
Kool pics. I love Taking pictures during flight.
July 3rd, 2007 at 5:13 am
Regarding LED kites: it’s been done and it looks amazingly cool. I saw some animated multicolour kites flying at night over the West Lake in Hangzhou, and it took me a while to even figure out what they were. (My first guess was some kind of tethered advertising mini-blimp arrangement.)
July 4th, 2007 at 12:06 am
Gareth: wow, I do this as well
July 4th, 2007 at 4:03 am
Be careful. It’s difficult to defend from velociraptors in open areas.
July 4th, 2007 at 6:45 am
Oh, wow. This is great. I used to live around Boston but I moved away a few years ago. That stretch of land in the background behind the airport is my home town, Winthrop! Damn, man, this is amazing. Thank you.
July 4th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
Wikipedian Protester: If only.
July 6th, 2007 at 1:51 am
YOU HAVE NO CHANCE TO SURVIVE MAKE YOUR TIME!
July 6th, 2007 at 9:26 am
Somebody set up us the bomb!
July 6th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
i don’t know… 2021 may be too long to wait for an AYB return! when an internet celebrity such as yourself remembers (and immortalizes) his first meme so fondly, it won’t be long before we see the revival!!
XD
what a hoot! love it.
July 6th, 2007 at 5:52 pm
The thing is, I believe you meant: “The AYB retro-return-date (Zero Wing Zero Hour) should be around AD *2101*.”
Just saying.
July 7th, 2007 at 12:03 am
welcome to Boston.
we are glad to have you. hope people are friendly!
I say “we” although I am no longer a Bostonite… be sure to come down and visit Providence sometime! Waterfire is this Saturday.
July 8th, 2007 at 2:19 am
http://timetravelisforsuckers.blogspot.com/
I just used your comic on string theory. It helped me realize certain elements of String Theory, Number Theory, and build Stability Theory. I invite you to read at the above site!
July 8th, 2007 at 2:20 am
great kite action, btw
July 8th, 2007 at 10:12 am
I don’t suppose you have handy the information of what camera you’re using? I’m just curious what quality of camera produces shots this good, and what I would expect from various cameras. I work at a Fry’s Electronics, in the section with the cameras, so I’m in a definite position to pick up cheap ones easily. I just wanted a heads up on what’s the lowest quality camera would be a good idea for this.
July 8th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
that looks a pretty damn high up photo dude :)
i wouldnt try goin up much higher though tbh..
I know that in the uk you cant fly any kites over 50m in height legally…
great comics btw :D.
July 9th, 2007 at 7:55 am
Here’s your order:
7 Mixed Fruits.
July 9th, 2007 at 9:26 am
Other solution:
1 Mixed Fruit
2 Hot Wings
1 Sampler Plate
No other solutions exist, general solution forthcoming.
July 9th, 2007 at 11:57 am
The last shot on the 17th is a great picture. My dorm actually looks somewhat nice from that distance.
July 10th, 2007 at 12:03 am
Nice! A couple of buildings over, we’ve been getting into the fun habit of sending a couple of cameras (and a position reporter and a radio and an AVR and blah blah nerd nerd nerd blah) up in a weather balloon. We get pictures from higher up (33km last time around), but you get to be a lot more confident you’ll get your camera back!
And yeah, the “under five pounds == unregulated” rule sure is nice. There’s a lot you can do with five pounds of payload…
July 10th, 2007 at 10:52 pm
Seen this?:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/10/flying.lawn.chair.ap/index.html
July 13th, 2007 at 10:49 am
Loved this post. I haven’t flown kites in a long time. Can you use monofilament line instead of the usual string? If you can, would reduce the visibility of the line in your photos. Just a thought. Keep up the great work!
July 13th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
I feel this might spawn something like Google kite in the future :S
July 15th, 2007 at 7:34 am
This is fabulous. Silly question: how do you make a circuit that knows how long 13 seconds is?
July 19th, 2007 at 5:37 am
If you have access to one of the following Canon digital camera that use the Digic II processor:
A610
A620
A630
A640
A710 IS
S2 IS
S3 IS
then you can use the CHDK firmware ( http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK ) to enable unlimited (except by battery life) shooting with variable delays via a number of user created intervalometer scripts. Essentially all you need is the camera itself and a good capacity memory card!
July 24th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
I did something like this a few years ago… but it was a wireless video camera on a sport kite :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4Sndpm7lQk
July 28th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
My family did something similar with a huge 7′ tall home-made kite. The kite wasn’t especially well-made and the wind could’ve been better, but we got some great chaotic action scenes where we tied a camera to the tail and put it in video mode. Does your camera have a video setting? It would be sweet if you made a video and posted it on the site.
August 7th, 2007 at 11:54 am
I’ve just bought a kite and cheap digital camera £16. I gaffer taped the shutter button down, which causes it to take pictures repeatedly with out the need of extra circuitry and bodges. Most of my pictures were either of clouds or the contrast was really crap. Finishing with some close up pictures of the grass. I only got one flight then the batteries went. Next time I’ll try to tape the camera on at a different angle. My girlfriend seems to think I’m mad and that I’ll just break the camera, this is possibly true but it’ll be fun whilst it lasts.
August 8th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Now I’m compelled to try this… only I don’t want to risk losing my $200 digital camera D:
August 13th, 2007 at 10:27 am
Now all you need is some kite pornography. You’ll be the Larry Flynt of kites. Or the Randall Munroe of porn. I don’t know which. Crap.
August 31st, 2007 at 1:28 am
a710 is
I saw this domain for sale, according to the appraisals, its worth over $5000.00 usd. It has just the perfect amount of keywords.
September 24th, 2007 at 5:11 am
Someone stole the idea:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/07/south_asia_india0_a_kite0s_eye_view/html/1.stm
September 29th, 2007 at 11:14 am
Nice. But don’t let the Boston brown-shirts catch you doing that. I’m sure that’s an “improvised electrical device” you’re flying there, and an Infernal Machine to boot!
October 9th, 2007 at 8:17 pm
The first site where I saw this done:
http://www.jibble.org/kitecam/
Didn’t end well for Paul’s camera sadly.
October 27th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
I remembered your kite photography when i saw this video of some guys sending a video camera up over the city of Berlin attached to red helium balloons. just thought you might enjoy it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wajklGw21g
October 30th, 2007 at 8:23 am
I LIKE DIS PIC OF BOSTON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 18th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
awesome you should add this to wikihow if you haven’t already
January 25th, 2008 at 9:05 am
This reminds me my old estes rocket that had a camera and some film rigged to it, didn’t get very good pictures.. but it was still a rocket camera!