Kite pictures with a Raspberry Pi Camera

My brother Jim and his family were down here in Florida and we got it into our heads that it would be fun to take some aerial pictures. Now that I'm retired I'm too cheap to buy a GoPro and a multicopter, and besides those copters are just too annoying.

I cooked up a python program on one of my Raspberry Pi single board computers that would snap a picture once a second. The PiCamera has a resolution of about 5 megapixels.

Then my brother and his two kids figured out a way to rig it to a kite that I had bought when I was living in Singapore.

Here is a picture south along the beach near the apogee of the flight. The kite string is visible on the right.

This is Venice, Florida looking east.

Jim's neighborhood, with his house in the middle distance.

A nice view of the Gulf of Mexico and a few July 4th weekend beachgoers.

Jim and my nephew and myself discussing some crucial landing parameters.

Me and the kite nearly reunited.

My niece and nephew wrestling the kite back into its storage bag.