About
“About” is a terrible word. The expectation from the standpoint of a reader is that the author will jot down enough tidbits about themselves that someone could casually come up with a mental picture that isn’t completely inaccurate. The expectation from the standpoint of the author is that anything short of the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth would be incomplete and misleading. “Tell me about yourself.” “Gulp!”
Maybe this is why I’ve had such a hard time putting together a resume at those times in my life when I’ve jumped the rails and set off on yet another career change. How can a person describe themselves in a page, or two, or even five, and give the reader the foggiest notion of who they are?
In the past I’ve been a picture framer, a library clerk, a newspaper editor, a software developer, a systems administrator, and now an instrumentation specialist. All of which either sounds like bragging (reader) or sounds like I never did have the right things to say to the high school career counselor (author). Either way, it’s accurate.
I’ve only had a handful of hobbies that have stood the test of time. One is an overwhelming need to tinker. It’s taken me in some odd directions, including setting up a machine shop in my garage at home. Another is a love of doing photography. This has also taken me in some odd directions, including building my own 4×5 view camera, and designing and building a 4×5 aerial camera. My most recent involvement has been doing aerial photography using kites to lift the cameras. Strange though this may sound, it’s actually a very versatile, very reliable way to raise a camera above tripod height and gain a new vantage point from which to view the world.
The posts I make here will be a mix of these with others thrown in for good measure. If you already find yourself yawning, I’m afraid I’ve committed the sin of boring one of my fellow creatures. If not, read on. I hope you find something of interest.
– Tom
MiddleMarc said
I’d very much like to discuss the use of the Chinese 808 key fob camera on kites. My goal is a very portable package for simple KAP. I want to use a small kike (like a delta you can buy in any store). Will a picavet mount help? Is the camera too light for this?
Tom Benedict said
In case you’re still interested in this, a fellow KAPer, Wicherd, developed a very simple suspension for a GoPro Hero camera: http://arch.ced.berkeley.edu/kap/discuss/comments.php?DiscussionID=3263&page=1#Item_0 His prices are pretty reasonable, or the idea can be adapted by your own suspension. In any case a GoPro is light enough to be lifted by a small plastic delta kite, and provides much MUCH better image quality than one of the 808 key fob cameras.
Tom Benedict said
I honestly can’t say. The best way to find out is to go ahead and try it.
A Picavet suspension does rely on camera weight in order to work. The two times I flew mine it was either on a pendulum suspension, or it was attached to a Picavet suspension along with another camera.
I seriously like the idea of the very portable KAP package. The small deltas you mentioned will easily lift one of these cameras in a decent wind. It would be neat to have something the size of an Altoids tin or smaller that would carry all the KAP gear. It’d be one seriously portable setup!
Best of luck. I think you’re working on a neat project.