Consider It a Site for Viewing Soar Points

Afew decades ago, before people became highly specialized in their recreational endeavors, there used to exist a good number of hobby shops--stores that catered to a wide variety of pastimes. In these often disorganized emporiums, you could find coin collection albums, model rocket parts, butterfly nets, science kits, whittling knives, crochet patterns, weather stations and whatnot.

These days, the word “hobby” isn’t heard much anymore. Instead, people pursue very specific “interests,” and they get their supplies from mail-order services and specialty shops. It’s rare to find a generalist store where you can wonder through myriad possibilities, perchance to stumble upon one that sparks your imagination.

The Internet might not be as quaint as those old-time shops, but its World Wide Web does offer the opportunity to surf your way through an incredible array of hobbies, including many you probably didn’t know existed.

Here’s one that was new to me: kite aerial photography, known as KAP.

“Kite aerial photography appeals to that part of me, perhaps of all of us, that would slip our earthly bonds and see the world from new heights,” wrote Berkeley resident Charles Benton as part of his KAP site. “An aerial view offers a fresh perspective of familiar landscapes, and in doing so, challenges our spatial sensibilities, our grasp of relationships.”

KAP is for the true, hands-on, do-it-yourselfer. It’s no mean trick to attach a camera to a kite in such a way that it remains stable enough to take pictures while suspended hundreds of feet above the operator. There are no ready-made KAP kits to purchase. One has to rely on one’s ingenuity and the advice of others.

That’s where the Web comes into the picture. The author of almost every home page concerning KAP mentions the fact that he or she might have never gotten into hobby if not for the encouragement and help from fellow travelers met online. Many of these sites include discussions of the best kinds of kites and remote control transmitters (to trigger the shutters), plus detailed descriptions of camera riggings.

Benton’s site, at https://www.ced.berkeley.edu/(~)cris/kap/kaptoc.html, also includes some fascinating history. The first KAPer was probably M.A. Batut, who took photographs over Labruguiere, France in the 1880s. Batut, whose work predates radio remote control, triggered his shutter by the use of slow burning fuse.

Several decades later, San Franciscan George Lawrence took amazing overhead shots of his city after the devastating 1906 earthquake.

Of course, the Web is a natural place for KAP fans worldwide to show off their photographs. Most of the shots are interesting only because of the way they were produced. But a few are truly beautiful. Kouhei Endo’s image of grain fields during harvest time in Japan is made up of startling blocks of color, and Wolfgang Bieck’s overhead view of a “stubble-field” in Germany could be an abstract study in yellow and brown lines.

Few of us have the time or skills needed to take up KAP, but viewing the fruits of these hobbyists who have is certainly a pleasant way to pass a bit of our leisure time.

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