10 Years of Kite Aerial Panoramas

This is the 10th year I have been taking panoramas from my kite. The technique is completely different from ground panoramas, it was poineered by Philippe Hurbain, one of the fathers of digital panoramic photography, in 2000.

He identified that from an elevated position only the lower hemisphere of the image contains data - the upper hemisphere contains only sky, this can be easily added from a stock photograph, so a single fisheye image can be used - taken from the aerial vantage point.

Outside the workshop is my first "rig". The same lens as Philippe used but a 4Mpx camera instead of his Coolpix 900's 2Mpx.

Turning right my second "rig" uses Nikon's larger fisheye lens, and the 8Mpx 8400, giving higher resolution but 3x the weight!

Go right again for the current "rig". Maintaining the concept of only shooting below the horizon, it uses 4 syncronised GoPro HERO 2 cameras to capture the required image - 16x larger than 10 years ago, but back to the original weight!

All of these "rigs" take pictures every few seconds automatically, and only one image (or set of images) is used in the panorama, plus of course a "stock" sky.

Finally, look above your head to see one of the kites used to lift the camera and "rig", a 3m wingspan Dopero!

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Europe / UK-Scotland

Lat: 55° 57' 48.96" N
Long: 4° 16' 43.56" W

Elevation: 60m

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: High. Pinpoints the exact spot.

The camera that took this picture, as opposed to the cameras in the picture, was a Nikon D60. With a little help from a Sigma 10-20mm lens, Nodal Ninja 3 mount, PTGui warping, and PSP finishing.