May 12, 2001
It's the middle of May and I hope that most of you have had a chance to get your cameras in the air this spring. While you are out taking pictures keep in mind next years Japan Kite Aerial Photography Association (JKPA) annual photo contest. This is a great incentive to get out and try those challenging aerial shots that you have been putting off. Hopefully JKPA will sponsor this competition next year and the number of entries will grow even larger.
This years competition has 24 photographs submitted for judging. JKPA is asking all those interested to go to the contest web site and view all the entries. Then go to the SELECT FORM and enter the number and name of the photograph that you think is the best. You are only allowed to vote once and the submission with the latest date is the one that will count. Online voting will run from May 10 through May 31.
This is the first letter I have written since the redesign of the KAPER web site. It was a much bigger undertaking than I first imagined. I originally tried to design the site so a reader could enter at any page that he chose. This created more problems than it solved. All readers are now required to enter the KAPER site through the Back page. If you have any old bookmarks to pages other than the Back page, then you will see a screen that says you are being redirected to the Back page in 5 seconds. Those of you that are computer savvy should easily find ways around this if it is troublesome.
There are a set of three pages recently added to the BASICS section called "Cradle Design Resources". They are written with the beginner in mind. One page deals with the four basic cradle designs. Another page deals with the process of building a balanced cradle. The last page is a set of charts that gives a side-by-side comparison of all the camera cradles found on the Internet. The types and quality of the information available at each site is also given. This should help the beginner sort through the scattered resources.
In closing I would like to mention the cooperation and assistance that Peter Bults has extended. Peter and I have exchanged much feedback about each others sites. Peter has also been gracious enough to provide a direct link from his site www.kiteaerialphotography.net
for those interested in contributing KAP information to the growing online resources. Peter also provided the KAPER site with a shorter URL:
www.kaper.kiteaerialphotography.net
This URL links to the fortunecity address, so both will work, but I have been using the shorter more intuitive address in my correspondence.
(The previous letters "From The Editor" can be found by clicking on Past Articles in the Table of Contents.)
