Today I returned to Elm’s Beach Park, a beach on the Chesapeake Bay in Southern Maryland. The objective was to get some pictures of this location in the summer, since the last time I went was in the winter, and also get some different angles. The wind was from the southeast, which put the kite directly above the shore a lot of the time, and out over the water at other times.
The reported wind was 9 mph, but sometimes it dropped down lower near the ground, so the conditions definitely called for my Rokker kite. There were also thermals around, and in general the wind was a bit turbulent. The launch was not what would be called a challenge, but I did have to work the line a bit at times to keep the kite flying through the thermals and lulls. After a few minutes, the kite was one or two hundred feet in the air with the rig attached, and it captured this nice picture of the beach.
Once the kite was flying higher, I started walking down the beach to take shots from different perspectives. I ended up crossing a small stream where a pond empties into the bay (visible in the photo at the top of this page) and walking further down. A few hundred feet offshore, dozens of wooden posts stick up out of the water, which are very popular roosting spots for birds, as you might imagine. Ospreys, seagulls, pelicans, and even eagles enjoy resting on these posts. In an effort to get some pictures of these posts with my kite, I waded as far as I could out onto a small, mostly submerged sandbar.
The wind wasn’t ideal for the task, as the kite was flying parallel to the shore rather than out to sea, which would have brought it closer to the posts. Nonetheless, I came back with a pretty nice picture of them, which you can see on the right. I still want to come back again when the wind is in the right direction and with a portrait-orientation camera rig so I don’t have to crop next time. Looks like I’ve got some homework to do!
The pond next to the beach, which you can see in the cover photo at the top of the page, also looks really cool from the air. I like how the dark-colored stuff in the water can be seen washing towards the outlet, which I had crossed earlier.
Once the camera finished taking pictures, I walked the kite back down the beach to where I started from, brought it down low enough to remove the rig, and then landed the kite. It was another successful KAP session, and I also have a good reason to come back again. Here are a couple more pictures. (They both show the submerged sandbar that I stood on for much of the flight.) Thanks for reading!
Southern Maryland Kite Aerial Photography 
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