Wooded Village

[Redrobes]

Ah I got the wrong end of the stick there. I like pen style too just that my particular houses were not all that great. My main quest tho is to try to get a photo real looking terrain like a satellite image on a medieval / fantasy terrain.

and yes, both trees and houses are the worst of the images to get. You can rip google and copyright stuff but I would like known PD stuff like views from a hot air balloon or maybe even bonsai trees etc. My best has been leaning over cliffs and tall buildings. Not the best sources so far.

Houses too are hard to come by. I know I should get off my butt and make some proper ones in 3D but I am taking all my time doing the terrain stuff at present. It would be a major boost to have some nice libre 3D houses for doing old cities.

If anyone knows of photo sources that can fill in either of these things then I am all ears.

[GlennZilla]

I don't have a source as much as a method.

I keep reading about Kite Photography. People strap large kites to a suspended (CHEAP) camera and set up a remote control or timer to take the photos. You can get photos pointed directly down for a perfect top down view of any area you can get a kite over, powerlines and trees compose the major threats.

I've also read about using a digital camera and a GPS tagger on weather balloons, but I don't think I need photos quite that high.

Make magazine has articles on both methods if you want to look them up for more info.

[Redrobes]

Oh yeah baby ! I have heard about this when reading on Debevecs web site (http://www.debevec.org/Campanile/) - go there, thats one COOOL site - where the guy took some shots for the campanile movie.

I have thought about it but I haven't flown a kite since a time just after I got to grips with this crawling / walking thing. I always thought it might be a fun way to trash a few digicams. But they are getting a lot cheaper recently where a 2+ MPix is about £20 ($40 or so) - prob less if you could keep getting second hand ones. The remote shutter would be no problem. Its the kite I worry about.

[GlennZilla]

Well most of them use the really big kites and give them a test flight or two with a matching weight that isn't a fragile camera. Most of the rigs I see are cheap disposable camera with a radio controlled remote or a timer.

I think the hard part would be getting a village to allow a stranger to fly a kite bearing electronics over thier rooftops.

Maybe I'm just still miffed at Boston for 1-31-07.

[Redrobes]

I'd do it for just trees I think. Thatched cottages are uncommon enough that it would be a great feat to get several via a kite. Trees though should be a little easier ! Your right that there is probably a law against it somehow. I suspect that there would be a law against breathing next to a wood. The UK seems to be slightly less fidgety than Boston I will agree but it has that same oppressive attitude to anything remotely unusual. Y'know there is a kite festival each year in the park not so far from here. They have some monster kites - power winch stuff 'n all - so maybe ill go there this year and have a chat to a few guys. I have been asking about people who fly balloons but I hadn't thought of contacting people who might have cameras mounted on kites. There must be some legit way to get a stack of tree photos. Dirty big rocket is what I need !

[pyrandon]

...Dirty big rocket is what I need !

Or a bottle of Wonka's Fizzy Lifting Drink!

[su_liam]

@Redrobes: Yeah, if they object to your big kite, whip out your 30-foot long LOX/gasoline rocket. That'll shut the whiners up.

@Pyrandon: If I'm going to risk my life actually flying up there, I'll take me a nice DSLR with big fat telephoto lens. OH YEAH!

If only I had $10,000.00 or so to spare...