Kite filming

During new year I went to Ameland, a island part of the Waddeneilanden in the north of the Netherlands. There I visited a museum about the nature of the island and there was an exposition about kite photography from the nature, made by a man called De Vlas starting thirty years ago. link (Dutch)

Setup

I bought a cheap second hand GoPro 3 because I had no idea if this would even work. Printed a chest holder and attached the GoPro with holder to the kite. Someone suggested adding a remote, and then I found out that there is an app where you can start/stop recording, but most importantly - watch live & check footage without needing a computer.

I've checked the individual components at home, checking the kite, make sure the GoPro works, adding a larger SD card, charging batteries and having some extra rope and holders on hand.

Photos

This year I went to Schiermonikoog in May for the holidays. It's one of the five islands in the north in the Netherlands between the North Sea and the Waddenzee. It has one side with very nice beach and a dedicated place for sport activities like flying a kite.

Here are some shots

Broken kite

While filming for the second time, I heard a small explosion like sound while hitting the ground. I was a bit distracted because my daughter was also flying a kite and I tried to get hers up again. I checked and there was a hole in one of the compartments. I checked the rest carefully and noticed some other minor damages and that the stitch came loose where I tied the camera holder along.

I talked to the local Kite shop and he gave me some fixing tape. I'll make that repair someday and even maybe buy a bigger kite.

New ideas

Couple of thoughts:

1. A sport kite with multiple lines is not a very stable for photos
2. Standard kites have no good way of attaching things on it
3. I probably want to build a box kite some day, those were popular in the Americas a while back and seem like a fun project.
4. Having a bigger power kite is a lot of fun.