Yesterday, I got my KAP gear. I immediately got home and unpacked my Sutton Flow Form 16 and went to the nearest open area to try to get some air time. There was a little wind and I thought if I could the kite some hight I could keep it there. Lesson one was learned. Now I know the air speed where the Form Flow will not fly. Still fun and I had the kite in the air for an impressive two to three minutes all while I was running.

I went home early admitting failure and got started putting my BDKK (Brooxes Deluxe KAP Kit) rig together. This evening, I finished the assembly of the kit. Now all I need is some free time and some wind.

Will not be conducting any kite aerial photography for a while. I still need to learn how to fly a kite. Need some free time and some wind.

Tags: KAP

It is amazing how the internet works. I always go on Flickr and search for the latest photographs of the places I have been before. This time, I searched Dakar, Senegal and came across John Scott-Railton's photostream. I was amazed by what I was seeing. Photos captured using a kite? Yes, it is possible and there is a pretty large KAP community out there doing Kite Aerial Photography. How much I wish I knew about this technique before? I can only imagine the possibilities KAP would have allowed me to capture some interesting photos of places that may have never been photographed over head before.

For the past two days, I have been researching how to get started. If all works out well, I should be a part of this community within the next month.

Fun stuff and I have yet to even start.

Tags: KAP

I have been in Belgrade, Serbia for the past two weeks. Some observations:

• It is a very beautiful time of the year here. Very green here in Serbia during this season. It would be great if the rain would simmer down though.
• Have to be careful on the roads here when on the bike. I had a meeting with a car bumper.
• Bike rides are going to be great here until winter. Not used to the hills, so I should be in better shape after some climbs.
• People are nice.

Now if I can get out of this hotel and get my apartment all will be well.

Tags: Serbia, Photographs

Grocery shopping in Dakar, Senegal can be fairly expensive and the products one finds are limited. Today, I went to a grocery store called King Cash and left with many items Casino does not carry. King Cash is the equivalent of a Sam’s Club in Dakar. You even have to purchase many of the items in bulk. An example, is cereal or cake mix you have to buy three boxes. The amounts, one must purchase, changes per item.

Prices and selection make this a store a necessity to visit by any expatriate living and working in Dakar. Prices are a welcome change from what occupy Casino’s shelves. Just a small example of the price difference, is in Casino a box of breakfast cereal would set you back at least 3500 to 4000 CFA. I can get three boxes of the same kind or equivalent at King Cash for anywhere from 4000 to 5000 CFA. The selection is improved upon Casino due to them carrying items from MagicTimes and many items from Leader Price.

Go visit the place and I am sure you will find something to grace your cupboard.

To find the place in Dakar, I saved King Cash in Google Maps. As you can see in the map King Cash is located on Rte de Rufisque and is right across for the huge white holding tanks. Cannot miss it, but I guess you can, because I have been in and out of Dakar for the last seven years and today was my first visit. Their telephone number is 33 832 92 85. Contrary to their name, King Cash does accept Visa cards.

Tags: Senegal

A bit of a rant about the Flickr uploader that comes along with Aperture 3. I regret the day I tried this feature without testing it first. Unfortunately, one of my best photos was deleted. This photograph had six comments and two “favs”, but are now gone. Not very great statistics for many of the awesome users on Flickr, but to a super amateur like me this is a big deal.

I currently have Aperture 3.03 and back in February uploaded two sets with a few photos. Thought it was fairly cool, but did not like it better than the paid plug in FlickrExport 3 for Aperture. Today, I was cleaning up my Aperture library and chose to delete the Flickr albums Aperture creates when one uses the built in uploader. I control click and it gives me a pop up that the photos will be deleted, but remain in my library. No problem that is what I want. I later go to Flickr and notice that those photos are gone and deleted forever from Flickr. Don’t you think there should have been a pop up for the average Joe that would state that this will delete the photos off of Flickr too?

A Google search of “Aperture 3 flickr uploader sucks” gives much evidence. I wish I would have read this blog post from BALROB titled, “Do not use the Flickr uploader in Aperture 3.01”. He has a great write up of how destructive this feature is during syncs with the Flickr API.

So, if you have used this feature I suggest you go to the App’s Your Using page and revoke the permissions of Aperture. Especially, if you want to do as I did and delete the Flickr albums in your library.

If your work flow is to upload to Flickr and never touch your photos again, such as renaming, adding tags, or changing the description then go ahead and take a chance. I would not though, if I were you. This feature is way too dangerous.

Apple sort it out!!!

Tags: Aperture, Flickr