Salt ponds can be blue, green, orange, yellow or even deep magenta depending on their level of salinity (and the microorganisms attracted to that specific level of salinity) . Photographer Cris Benton has photographed many of San Francisco’s South Bay salt ponds in stunning detail. Via InPerspective
Cris Benton captures San Francisco’s South Bay salt ponds and marshes in various states of restoration using kite aerial photography. Excerpted below is our interview with the author, along with a selection of his photography of Cargill’s South Bay operations:
Can you describe a little bit about the methods involved in kite aerial photography (KAP)?
Cris Benton: The idea is to lift a camera from somewhere around head height to altitudes of up to 400 ft above the ground. You launch the kite and fly it up to steady air.
After the kite reaches steady air you fly it for about 10 minutes to satisfy yourself that the wind is reliable and the kite is performing well. And then, while the kite flies above, you attach a little string and pulley suspension to the kite line. To the pulley system, you attach the camera, which is held in a small robotic cradle.
Using radio control the cradle can point the camera in any compass direction, tilt it from the horizon to straight down, and with the flip of a switch change from portrait to landscape format. The radio control also fires the camera when you want to take the photograph.
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Every Tuesday is Art Tuesday here at Adafruit! Today we celebrate artists and makers from around the world who are designing innovative and creative works using technology, science, electronics and more. You can start your own career as an artist today with Adafruit’s conductive paints, art-related electronics kits, LEDs, wearables, 3D printers and more! Make your most imaginative designs come to life with our helpful tutorials from the Adafruit Learning System. And don’t forget to check in every Art Tuesday for more artistic inspiration here on the Adafruit Blog!
