Krystal FX Collector's Edition by R-SKY. Owned and flown by Kent Kingston. Man, this photo looks sweet. Normally, I rotate the photo to make the ocean horizontal, however, this was the upper edge of the photo.
Temperatures were in the high 40s, winds were strong initially at noon, say 18-20 mph. As the afternoon progressed, the wind dropped to about 5 mph. Easily, the best wind we've had in 3 years of doing this here.
I did a quick composite of 3 photos for this look. You can see the double pier supports in the middle part of the picture where the blends were done rather quickly. I did try to match the sky colors pretty well.
This is a composite of a cloud photo I had and one of the Superman kite photos taken in my backyard. The background has not been blurred.
This is a composite of a photo taken from the Stratosphere about 900 feet up, and a photo of the kite taken in my backyard. The background has had a gradient blur added to make the shot a bit more believable.
This one was rendered more accurately and reflects the dryness of the actual lakebed area. I like both photos for different reasons, although this is my favorite photo of the whole day. In all honesty, my main goal in coming to NABX this year was to meet Kieron and photograph his foils. I am happy to have made my goal.
Steve Hall With A Pyro At Sunset (Chico, CA)
Uly With His Beautiful 7 stack of Custom Rev 1.5s in very low wind. The pattern on each kite is merely rotated one position clockwise each kite.
Mamba At Sunset. Although this looks very calm, the winds were around 15 mph and first time flier Ross was leaning back hard. The bridle broke moments after this photo and Ross landed on his butt. The kite came out fine. Thanks Ken McNeill for making such a beautiful and excellent flying kite.
Masquerade by Wayne Knott of Dreamweaver Kites. Flown and owned at the time by Jim Byrne. The wave had just receded leaving the beach with this mirror like quality.
The Buena Vista "Sonic" designed by Peter Werba. This almost 9 foot kite has an extremely high aspect ratio. It will easily yoyo even though it came out long before the use of weights in the keel was used to enhance pitch tricks.
Prism E3 at Silverbowl Park, CA. Photo taken with our little Canon Elph near sunset.
Reprise On Ian's Leash, Silverbowl Park, CA. This is the only Reprise from Ken McNeill of Blue Moon Kites. Originally, it was going to be the replacement for the Ichiban.
The First Quad-Car by Donna Houchins. Huntington Beach, CA
40 Crossed Lines (Mid Vent Rev in Kite Connection Colors)
T2 SUL by Peter Taylor of Airdynamics Kites In England
HQ NEO 11 sqm Relaunchable Foil (Available Light & Some Photoshop touchup) I was trying night shots with my relatively new Nikon D5000 to see what it could do in low light conditions. This was the best shot.
Ichiban (foreground) & Reprise with taper tail at New Silverbowl Park, NV.
From left to right: Rev II, Rev 1.5, Rev 1 (This is often called a progressive stack). Beautiful to fly or just watch. Of course, sunset and backlighting help. Silverbowl Park, NV.
Purple Fade Paradox by Spirit Of Air Kites (From the Brian Todd Collection)
TrickTail UL Flown With Black Tribute Tail. I had just learned a great kite flier Brian Todd had died.
Inner Space by Tim Benson of Benson Kites (Owned & Flown by OzoneJim)
Apollo by Premier Kites (Designed by Michael Tiedtke) It's 9.25 feet across and 4 feet tall. It has a swallowtail, battens, spars to shape the sail and lots of little parts you can lose. You also have to take it down all the way to get it back into its half size bag. And it's a lot of fun when the wind picks up.
Vented Silver Fox by Flying Wing (Designed by Bell Chiu)
Custom NSR (North Shore Radical) by Top Of The Line Kites (Excellent Low Frequency Buzz off the trailing edges)
Prism Vapor flown by Dan Whitney at Shoreline Park, CA. This is probably the first kite photo I took that generated a lot of positive feedback about kites as art.
Phoenix by HQ Kites. Flown by Jim Byrne at Kite Party 2, Huntington Beach, CA. Jim has been in more of my favorite shots than anyone else. Must be that smile.
Dave with this beautiful delta and tri-tails.
During the Super Bowl in 2005, my son Britt and I went to Shoreline Park, CA to fly kites. He doesn't fly often, but is very coordinated and loves tricks. Here he is with my fragile Vapor having fun.
Nirvana Flown by John Gillespie, Baylands Park, CA (This came out much better than I had hoped)
Alex Herzog posing his Shawn Tinkham made Vendetta at Kite Party 6, Huntington Beach, CA.
Matt McGee with a Fractal Quantum Pro. Background kites moved into position from original photo.
Cara with a borrowed kite at Berkeley Kite Festival.
My favorite NABX photo. I was riding shotgun in a tandem land sailer around 25 mph when we overtook Gary on his buggy. For a static looking shot, this had more dynamics going on than any other I've taken at NABX.
Cecil With His Elixir
Taken at the 2001 AKA Nationals with my Nikon 900s.
Centurion by Peter Betancourt at Shoreline Kite Park.
Shannon Presents A Prism Fractal Quantum Pro, Kite Party 4, Huntington Beach, CA.
Tucker helps launch the New Tech blimp kite.
Joe with his wing at Lake Ivanpah.
Kent is in the photo to show scale with this Elliot Big Lift.
A truly amazing gathering of kite folk.
Berkeley Kite Festival
Peter Betancourt Vanishing Point SUL.
Ian holds onto the world's only Blue Moon Reprise at New Silverbowl Park, Las Vegas.
My favorite Red/White/Blue photo. Note the small kite in the far sky background.
That's a 19 foot wingspan delta.
Lake Ivanpah brings out some odd wind sailing methods.
If your fish is upside down, it's usually dead.
133 kite train if I recall correctly.
Randy Tom had just designed some Star Wars kites.
Allen Carter's PBSK (Peter Betancourt Sport Kites) Vented Bad Boy
Custom Widow Maker by Sky Burner Kites. There were only 6 of these sold and 7 in total made.
4 photos superimposed to show a kite sale to raise money for a good cause.
One of a kind quad-line made from 2 diamond kites which were made from 2 sport kites cut in half.
Isaac flies his custom, all-mylar Prophecy at Huntington Beach, CA.
Berkeley Kite Festival banner display.
Bambi flies our Spirit Of Air Paradox. Photo taken with my 1 MP Nikon 900s.
Seduction UL by New Tech kites with a Pyro in the background.
Masquerade by Wayne Knott. Model: Jim Byrne at Huntington Beach, CA.
Machine at Lake Mead Flown by Ari. I'm standing in the water, 80 feet from shore, hoping the camera won't get wet.
Waiting for just the right wind/humidity/temperature conditions to go really, really fast.
Lake Ivanpah land sailer. This mostly wooden vehicle has got to be truly old school. How can you even keep your head inclined at that angle?
Fractal Quantum Pro by Prism Kites.
Truly beautiful patriotic foil and matching tail.
Vented Quantum Pro
Vented Soul designed by Bell Chiu for Flying Wing
Trident designed and built by Mark Clements who is really Jest Of Eve Kites. This particular unique color scheme has been dubiously nicknamed the "mustard and ketchup" model and the Neon Yellow eyes are the relish.
Ed Shenk built this Smithsonian Award Winning Double Dondai.
8 foot Moxie built by Peter Betancourt. This large sweet flier is framed as a UL. Note the matching white leading edges.
The legend, Ray Bethell at Berkeley Kite Festival with his 3 Kestrels.
Inner Space designed and built by Tim Benson who is Benson Kites, although Andy Wardley does the bridles.
Dragon SLK 1 second after launch and 5 seconds before destroying itself in a crash at Berkeley Marina, CA.
When large SLKs come down people run out of the way. They were laughing only because they don't know what would have happened had they been hit.
George flies his 61/49 designed and built by Ken McNeill who is Blue Moon Kites.
2008 Model Jinx by Focus Kites.
Mark Reed, president of Prism Kites flies his self-designed E3 at Huntington Beach, CA.
The Berkeley Kite Wranglers make the Berkeley Kite Festival a joy with their huge display of extra large SLKs.
The 10 foot wingspan Centurion by Peter Betancourt. Flown at the Shoreline Kite Park in California.
My daughter with our Berkeley Special Edition Illusion 2000 (I2K). Shoreline Kite Park, California.
STX 2.1 designed by Jean-Paul Conne. This custom standard (paneled as the European UL) was sewn by JPC himself and sent as a gift to the California fliers. The blue legs are from a Pyro flying above. The slight clouds were added by me in Photoshop.
The Define at New Silverbowl Park, Las Vegas, NV.
Lake Ivanpah dry bed used quite often by wind sail buggiers. These 3 are using an NPW (NASA Power Wing)
Richard walks by a row of 6 RWB banners at the NABX event on Lake Ivanpah.
The Machine designed and built by Ron Graziano.
Monochrome custom Gemini by Tim Benson.
Custom Genkhi owned and built by Steve K. Brown.
Stacked Team Hawaiian sport kites at Huntington Beach, CA.
Paraglider practicing his launches at Shoreline Kite Park in California.
Wayne Knott designed and built these 2 Ronins as related brothers. Flown at Crissy Field near the Golden Gate Bridge.
That Is An Ugly Eel Inflatable Off To The Left (San Francisco, CA)
One of only 2 Vented Katanas. I was flying the kite. My daughter Shea took the photo.
Allen Carter's PBSK Stilleto
RWB Mamba designed and built by Ken McNeill of Blue Moon Kites.
Two photos combined. The original photo is the Ghost Pyro and the pink T2 flying in front. The AirFX with tail was added at a later date.
Wayne Knott designed and built this beautiful DreamWeaver kite with applique.
John Barresi doing some dog-stake flying with the Rev 1. Huntington Beach, CA.
Spirit stack flown and set up by Dennis Fishback. Kite designed by Steve LaPorte. This is the licensed version. Note the Red White and Blue leader lines.
"Moonie" Mamba in front of the one-of-a-kind Afterburner. The moon in the upper left was in the original photo, but wasn't wearing sunglasses and nose until a Photoshop visit.
Wayne Knott Masquerade in front of a Blue Pyro.
Pyro by Frank Schwiemann Considered by many the most beautiful SLK (Single Line Kite). It is 11 feet across and over 30 feet long. The key to it's grace is the material. The tails ripple and flow unlike any other large kite.
On a whim, I have reworked the lower photo to reduce the aliasing introduced when first working with the photo. Now, I'm not sure which version I like better.
2004 GWTW Calendar
2005 GWTW final 17 calendar possibilities.
2006 GWTW calendar
2007 GWTW calendar
2008 GWTW calendar
2009 GWTW calendar
2010 GWTW Calendar Miniatures
2011 GWTW Calendar. DOWNLOAD ORIGINAL and please check for any errors, spelling or otherwise. The original will allow you to look at each month as a half size (1100x850) very large thumbnail. Just open the original in any photo viewing program and examine at original size. Thanks.
2012 GWTW/Chico Kites Calendar: Please download the full-size version to examine all pictures at a much larger size. Calendars may be ordered at the following link: http://www.cafepress.com/chilesej All profits go to GWTW/Chico Kites to help keep the Forum running.
2013 GWTW Calendar. Please download the full-size (4800x3796 pixels) .jpg to review the photos at a good size. Please look for spelling or other errors. Thanks. The sunspot in January was on the submitted photo, so I left it in. UPDATE: (The sunspot on January will not be in the calendar.) WARNING. AUGUST HAS BEEN CHANGED TO THE SKATE BY PAUL DE BAKKER. CAFEPRESS STOPPED PRINTING CALENDARS IF THEY CONTAINED THE SUPERMAN KITE.
Our kites as of March 2013.
