Blockhouse Island, Brockville, Ontario - KAP 2011-17
October 31, 2011
During this session my Levi Light tasted the St. Lawrence River.
I was in Brockville, Ontario for a few hours of KAP at Blockhouse Island. There was virtually zero wind when I arrived, so after deciding on my best launch location should the wind pick up, I went for a walk to check out nearby Hardy Park. When I came back the wind seemed sufficient for autokap so I launched my Levi Light. I stood for about 5 minutes with the kite at about 200' to see if the wind was going to be stable and continual. It seemed strong enough to hang the rig but I was concerned the kite was angling to the left pointing to about 11:00 o'clock. It seemed stable otherwise but I thought it best to bring it down to check it. As I was bringing it down with still about 100' of line out it suddenly arched from angling left to a right hand turn and straight down into a vertical dive. Normally there would be ample time to recover by letting line out but no luck with that. Straight down it went into the river and I would guess it continued to fly to about 30' depth under water. People arriving then would have thought I was fishing for sturgeon considering the amount of pull on the line from a large kite flying underwater in one of the largest rivers in the world. Fortunately no camera was involved in the swimming exercise.
I eventually retrieved the kite and checked it out and it seemed fine. So it is a mystery to me and all I can think is obnoxious wind. However, I immediately put my FLED on and it flew fine with autokap and after a 1/2 hour I switched to my remote rig. In the end I obtained a few decent shots.
These images were taken from a camera suspended below a kite line, a method known as kite aerial photography or KAP for short. Several of the images have the kite line visible and in some cases the photographer (me) as well.
Thanks to Ted for the encouragement to go to Blockhouse Island with him and for his assistance during the session.
Read MoreDuring this session my Levi Light tasted the St. Lawrence River.
I was in Brockville, Ontario for a few hours of KAP at Blockhouse Island. There was virtually zero wind when I arrived, so after deciding on my best launch location should the wind pick up, I went for a walk to check out nearby Hardy Park. When I came back the wind seemed sufficient for autokap so I launched my Levi Light. I stood for about 5 minutes with the kite at about 200' to see if the wind was going to be stable and continual. It seemed strong enough to hang the rig but I was concerned the kite was angling to the left pointing to about 11:00 o'clock. It seemed stable otherwise but I thought it best to bring it down to check it. As I was bringing it down with still about 100' of line out it suddenly arched from angling left to a right hand turn and straight down into a vertical dive. Normally there would be ample time to recover by letting line out but no luck with that. Straight down it went into the river and I would guess it continued to fly to about 30' depth under water. People arriving then would have thought I was fishing for sturgeon considering the amount of pull on the line from a large kite flying underwater in one of the largest rivers in the world. Fortunately no camera was involved in the swimming exercise.
I eventually retrieved the kite and checked it out and it seemed fine. So it is a mystery to me and all I can think is obnoxious wind. However, I immediately put my FLED on and it flew fine with autokap and after a 1/2 hour I switched to my remote rig. In the end I obtained a few decent shots.
These images were taken from a camera suspended below a kite line, a method known as kite aerial photography or KAP for short. Several of the images have the kite line visible and in some cases the photographer (me) as well.
Thanks to Ted for the encouragement to go to Blockhouse Island with him and for his assistance during the session.
