Photos - South Beach Kiting Session At Sunset

[ricki]

I had wanted to shoot South Beach in Miami, FL, USA at sunset while kiting for sometime. Things worked out one afternoon last week with wind, opportunity and gear all in the place with fairly clear conditions boding for a good sunset. I drove down and rigged up at 29th Street. It was about three miles south to Government Cut and the end of South Beach where I wanted to do most of the shooting. I had a GoPro HD attached to the kite and my helmet. I had ordered the new HD2 but it wasn't to arrive for another week. The new HD2 has many new features key among which is improved low light imaging. This can really help out as things darken during sunset.



I played around with HDR for the first time with some of these shots. It puts images in a different light.


Winds were about 15 to 18 mph out of the northeast or side onshore. I was on a new 14 m 2012 Cabrinha Crossbow. The kite was well suited to doing a run downwind and potentially riding backupwind to the start.



The start



Looking back north as I tool down the coast


I hit the beach around 6 pm and so ran south fast three miles south downwind to catch the sunset colors before the sun sank below the horizon.



I won the GoPro "Photo of the Day" with this image on Facebook. More at: http://on.fb.me/uztQsK










I had been interviewed by a reporter with USA Today early that day about GoPro by odd coincidence. We talked about my experiences with the GoPro in kiting, diving, skiing, travel and more over the last couple of years. It really is an action lifestyle camera! The article appears along with some info on the new GoPro HD2 at:
http://fksa.org/showthread.php?t=10969



Looking west over Fisher, Dodge Islands and Government Cut



I would change from still to video mode periodically. With all the water noise it is best to take the helmet off the verify it is shooting in the mode you want. So here's a rare self portrait burned out by backlighting.









You can make out the northern jetty of the inlet. The Chalks flight went down not too far from here.



The colors intensify as the sun drops lower



A recent shot from further up the coast



ditto and with waves








Eventually, the light dropped to low to get reasonable images for the HD. I imagine the HD2 would grab useable images substantially further into the sunset. It really was a brilliant one, the photos don't do it justice!

I ran north a ways, then beached, landed and wrapped things up. I then headed back northward around 30 blocks at a fast walk to get my car and book two counties north back home. It was a nice session, hope to do it again with the new camera soon.


You can find out more about the 2012 line up of Cabrinha kite gear at:



More about great GoPro cameras and accessories to capture the action at:


Good winds and keep shooting!


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