Both of them earth science teachers at a state university in Kansas, James and Susan Aber are a husband-wife team that uses kite aerial photography for diverse educational, scientific, commercial, and esthetic purposes throughout the U.S. and in several countries of northern Europe. Devoted KAPers since 1996, the two have been using only high-resolution digital cameras since 2005. Their kites are large Rokkakus and Flow Forms.

A professional photographer and Web designer living in the San Francisco Bay area, Scott Haefner began taking kite-lofted aerial photographs “to gain a new perspective of our world,” as he phrases it. He shoots primarily landscapes and scenics, using both film and digital cameras. He is widely published in books, magazines, and newspapers. With support from the Drachen Foundation, Haefner in spring 2006 on the 100th anniversary of the San Francisco earthquake approximated the famous George Lawrence Ruins of San Francisco panoramic photograph from an offshore boat.

A professor of architecture at Berkeley by vocation and kite aerial photographer by avocation, Charles Crisp (Cris) Benton maintains one of the most popular KAP Websites going. He uses it to his significant advantage.

No telling how many people have been inspired by “Cris” Benton’s killer Web site to take up kite aerial photography, but it must be quite a few. A professor of architecture at the University of California at Berkeley, the energetic Benton says he’s notorious for being fickle with his interests “but KAP has stuck.” Benton adds, “With KAP, you can see details of the landscape you just can’t get when you’re standing on the ground.” His photographs leave him yearning to discover uses and connections between parts of the landscape.

Wilson, of Madison, Wisconsin, likes KAP “because I can produce never-before-seen views of familiar subjects. The combination of kite and camera permits me to take my camera to places where only birds and bugs go.” He has had 85 magazine covers and more than 1,500 of his images published in magazines, newspapers, calendars, brochures, and on post cards. His recent book Hanging by a Thread: A Kite’s View of Wisconsin has brought him critical applause and numerous speaking engagements.

1858. Gaspard Felix Tournachon (a.k.a. Nadar) takes the first aerial photograph ever, from a balloon 262 feet in the air, over the Bievre Valley, near Paris. The shot is of such poor quality it cannot be reproduced. “A simple positive upon glass, made with detestable materials,” is Nadar’s characterization. But aerial photography is born. 1860. The first genuinely beautiful and sharply focused aerial photograph is taken by James Black from a balloon 1,200 feet above Boston.

Brooks Leffler, of Pacific Grove, California, is a former television producer who has been, in his own word, “messing” with kites for a quarter of a century. He started taking pictures from a kite line in 1989 when he wanted to use a photo of a kite from above in a magazine advertisement. Dropping out of broadcasting in l982, he ran a kite shop in the Washington area before eventually moving to California. Leffler served as executive director of the American Kitefliers Association and for years edited the definitive Kite Aerial Photography Journal, a quarterly.

A full time KAP professional, adventuresome “Nico” Chorier uses Montepellier, France, as home base but wanders the world plying his trade. He has been a particular success with his strangely wonderful closeup views of the landmark Taj Mahal, in Agra, India. They brought him a measure of fame and even some fortune. (His first attempt on the Taj got him arrested, on his second go round he was backed by the local government tourist agency.) Chorier has photographed whales in Baja, Mexico, festivals in Bali, an agricultural project in Brazil, archeological sites in France.

A high school physics teacher in Seattle, Eric Muhs has a resume that says “Fixer of anything.” The legend is both testimony to his confidence in himself and his unusually wide range of skills. Highly verbal, Muhs is one of those inspiring teachers that make a difference in the lives of students. His kite aerial photography has ranged from Hawaii where he documented Polynesian rock art to Baja, Mexico where he studied whales.

A longtime expatriate American, Bauman manages a geophysical services group for a firm in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. His group does near surface work and focuses on exploring for water and studying contamination sites. It involves itself as well in archeology, engineering, and the search for resources. Originally from Boston, Bauman has degrees from Princeton and the University of Waterloo in Ontario. In recent years he has frequently used kite aerial photography in archeological work and in the study of industrial areas with stressed vegetation.