Aerial over Coney Island

This was a very short kite session. I was hoping to get more of the carnival at Coney Island but I only had time to put it up in the air once. But the wind was perfect!

The boardwalk is an interesting place, to say the least. Carnivals attract an odd people. If you want to go people watching this may be the best place in the world for it. But just remember, once you see things, you cannot un-see them.


Of all the beaches I've been to I really liked this beach. The sand was nice and it wasn't crowded yet, even this late in the day.



Out of the 30 or so photos, these were the best. I would have liked to set a better angle for the camera before I sent it up. Ah, whatever. It was just nice to get a kite up and take some photos. It's been way too long. I have another kite session to show, when I get around to posting it.

Finally some photos from the sky!

It's taken a long time but I finally got some photos from my new kite. We went to Sanibel Island, Florida for a wedding.

So I took some photos during the wedding. They turned out spectacular! Well at least this one did.

New kite!

First flight for my new kite! I made this kite specifically for lifting a camera for aerial photos, but I didn't actually lift my camera with it because it was way to windy for this huge kite. But I did get out my smaller kite to lift my camera, a Sutton Flowform.


Photo by my wife, using a Canon 30D.

There were only these two photos that turned out. All the rest were blurry. The wind was really strong.


The heart stopping moment of the day
I put the camera on and it was happily clicking away. The wind was stronger as the kite got higher. I thought, "wow I wish the wind was this good every time I flew this kite before. Suddenly without warning the kite started to dive for the ground, with camera attached. Just so you know this kite is supposed to be really stable. Anyway, I glanced from camera, to kite, and back, watching in horror as the camera dipped into the kite and string eating bushes. Just as the string caught a tree the kite zipped upward again, but my racing mind thought this will not last. I will have to surrender this setup to the monstrous thicket. But the wind became my friend again and the kite powered upward and the string broke free of the tree.

A few moments later it happened again! Anyway I got the kite and camera back and we'll be trying again this weekend.



We were pretty much the only people there.

Don't underestimate self portraits

I briefly mentioned self-portraits previously.


Every self-portrait tells a story. When you do something awesome, take a self-portrait, when you do something lame take a self-portrait. The above photo is a perfect example. I flew home really late one night. My wife picked me up and when we got home to the door we realized she had locked us out. It was a rental and it was really late. We couldn't get keys from the landlord until the next day and we didn't want to pay a locksmith for a 2AM call. We were hungry and went to the grocery store for food. She was decidedly upset about it all. I laugh at the moment, she still cringes a bit inside.

We ended up sleeping at my sister-in-law's apartment, and were able to get the door open the next day.


Self portraits are a photo journal. For one family reunion my family went skiing. For most of the day we stuck together and had great fun. This photo was taken when we brothers decided we wanted to take a few runs down the "most difficult" chutes. I think it was the steepest stuff I've ever skied. We don't get to ski together often.


Share your personality. Hands down the most fun thing to do with my camera is kite aerial photography (or kap). I absolutely love it.

Express yourself. Just as writing is a free form of expression so is photography. A self-portrait is much like a personal diary. It is an expression of something internal. Self-portraits can be personal and special and they can be fun and playful. Please, please I ask you to take a look at these amazing self portraits by dcapfoto on flickr. You will not be disappointed.

And remember you don't have to take an amazing photo for your self-portrait to be amazing it all depends on your "self".

Three things I love about my point-and-shoot camera

Yes DSLR cameras have their place but not always in my bag. But I do always carry my little point-and-shoot. Here are three reasons I love my point-and-shoot camera.




1 Fits anywhere
Not just in a pocket either. One day I was trying to rewire the stereo receiver. I didn't want to pull it out and disconnect all the wires, just reconnect a couple. It was a tight squeeze and after a few tries of searching with my hand for the right connections I became frustrated. Then in a moment of genius I put my camera behind the receiver and took a photo. Then I could see exactly where I was trying to connect the wires. I made the right connections easily, thanks to my little camera.



2 Self-portraits
Never underestimate the power of a good self portrait. Point-and-shoot cameras enable easy self portraits. A self portrait is like a writing in your diary but you are taking a photo not writing. Too many people are self conscious about self portraits. But if you write a blog or write in a journal, you write about good days and bad. The same goes for self portraits take self portraits on good days and bad. The story behind this photo is here.



3 Kite photography
This is actually the real reason I bought my point-and-shoot. I wanted to take photos from a kite. Kite photography is most easily achieved with a big kite and a small camera. It is so fun to reel the kite back in wondering what photos are on it, [sigh] just like the days of film. I love the different perspective from the sky. I've since become addicted to having my camera with me always.

There are many reasons why I like my camera but these are at the top.