boydsnest.org hash
nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing
  BoydsNest.org  •  
Kite Aerial Photography and an Eldil's-Eye-View
   
  My friend Kelly was one of the first to see my kite aerial photography (KAP) experiments — and her early appreciation encouraged me to continue sending my digital camera into harm's way. In March 2005, she wrote these thoughtful words which bring some theology and literary insight to bear on what makes KAP so captivating.

One of my favorite KAP photos of yours didn't make the first draft of your gallery [it has since been included], but I remember it vividly: the one taken from near Old Mill Point beach looking towards Poplar Bend, with Whitefish Point off in the background, towards sunset. That one most of all has the feel of a last glimpse down at home, from mid-Rapture (though they all have a bit of that sense).

I think the blurriness and the angled view add to that effect — which in my mind adds a lot to the photos. They also convey the sense that Earth is just a spinning globe rather than "solid ground." Maybe this is like an eldil's-eye-view? I'm thinking of a passage from Perelandra where Ransom suddenly realizes that it isn't the eldil that's tipped at an angle — it's the whole world that's skewed, and the appearance of the eldil actually gives him the true reference point for up and down.

I love how in the first shot the camper in the corner is in perfect focus and the rest of camp "revolves" around him. Maybe that is how an eldil would see it!

With her connection of these images both to the Christian doctrine of the Rapture and to C. S. Lewis's space trilogy, Kelly aptly draws our attention to the strangely compatible, simultaneous feelings of homeward longing and of adventurous wildness in these photos.

      Poplar Bend at InterVarsity's Cedar Campus, near dusk on Aug 19, 2002.  
    Poplar Bend  

 

BoydsNest.org is produced by the Octothorp Press, Chicago.
© 2005-2006 by the Boyd family and the Octothorp Press. All rights reserved.
design rev. 2005.03.19