Beside many other uses of a kite aerial photography is one of it. In 1888 a Frechman took the first aerial photograph with the help of a kite. He used a wooden box connected to the kite. A burning line triggered the camera. He had to restart the kite for each picture. Nowadays you get the kite aloft first for about 50 m then you fix the camera and let more line go. Using 100 m of it the camera will be 30 – 45 m high. With a transmitter from your model plane or car you can pan, tilt and trigger the rig and the camera. Also you can choose between horizontal and vertical pictures. Using pulleys you can get up to nearly 100m – or more – with the rig. As most cameras are motorised they have to get down not before 36 shots were done.

I started 8 years ago in 1991. I needed a simple aluminium frame and the permission of my wife to get her small Olympus with a self trigger into the air. After 10 seconds I had my first KAP from 20 meters. Today I’m near to video control my camera.

Where is KAP used today and what are the advantages?< /p>

• First there are economical reasons: opposite to planes or helicopters there is no air pollution.
• Then there are the costs: a simple self triggering camera will do. Even a radio controlled camera causes costs you can agree or neglect. And different to hot air or gas balloons there are nearly no following costs.

Besides using KAP on kite festivals or holidays I’ve used it for settlements, pics of the rebuilt medieval village Balje and for the documentation of archaeological digging of a 3000 years old house in Harsefeld.

Even scientific research uses KAP technique more and more. They made infrared pictures of a test acre in Africa with a 400 – 500 m high camera to control the growing of plants using computerized analysis. So KAP helps to use fertilizer in the right way and save people’s food. This low cost and environment friendly technique abandoned the gas balloon aerial picture technique in Niger for 90 % some years ago.

Kite aerial pictures and computerized analysis help to get topological maps or digital high models. Besides these examples KAP technique is an admitted scientific method for research of architecture, geology, biology, botanic or oceanography in Japan.