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Double Header crosses the Avon Viaduct - Summer is here!
Bo'ness & Kinneil Heritage Railway, Central Scotland
May 6th 2018, 14:32 local 13:32 U
© 2018 James Gentles, All Rights Reserved.
After much planning in Winter, I was given permission to fly the panoramic camera over the Viaduct when the Summer came and the Heritage Railway started its seasonal service from Bo'ness.
With access limited by the river, railway and Motorway/freeway it was about a 1 mile walk just to get to the kite and camera launch site. The signalman kept me updated so I was ready to capture the image as the train crossed the Viaduct. Today the carriages are pulled, unusually, by two steam engines on its way to Manuel Halt, where the Heritage line is connected to the Mainline just west of Linlithgow.
4 GoPro HERO3+ cameras, with a wooden camera cradle/rig to hold the cameras in exactly the correct position is triggered by 4
custom designed camera
syncronisers. Suspended below a Dan Leigh Cruiser kite with 8ft/2.5m span.
This technique produces two hemispheres, and a different workflow in PTGui from the classic ground pano technique. This results in extra effort BUT impossible angles!
See the rig, how Kite Aerial Photography is achieved, and the workflow.