This page describes the radio control transmitter that I re-packaged, to make it smaller and more portable, and more suitable for kite aerial photography (KAP).

Kite aerial photography (KAP) is a form of aerial photography, where a camera is suspended from a kite line to allow aerial photos to be taken, with the camera either being triggered by an intervalometer, or controlled and triggered via radio control. My KAP camera rig uses a 6-channel radio control transmitter and receiver to control the camera, allowing me to rotate and tilt the camera while it is airborne. Depending on which camera I use, I can also remotely trigger the camera shutter.

Read my Introduction to Kite Aerial Photography guest post on DIYP for more information on the how and why of KAP, and have a look through some of my KAP photos.



As I have taken my KAP gear on a couple of domestic and international business trips, I wanted to make it more portable. The transmitter is quite bulky, and the protruding joysticks don't make it easy to pack. Some of the re-packaged KAP transmitters posted on the KAP forums provided inspiration and ideas, including:

• 2.4 GHz transmitter goes to the chop shop
• Dave's Chopped Spektrum
• Customized Turborix
• custom Arduino KAP transmitter (more details in this forum thread)
• forum thread with various completed results

My primary aim for re-packaging the transmitter was to make it smaller and lighter, and thus more portable. A secondary aim was to make it easier to operate one-handed.

To achieve this, I decided to:

• use 8 x AAA batteries instead of 8 x AA batteries
• custom-build a smaller case
• use a removable antenna
• remove un-used circuitry and controls

In late November last year, I was privileged to be able to photograph the wedding of one of my nephews - the first of my nephews and nieces to be married.
My oldest daughter, aged 13, was my second shooter for the day, and captured the photo below showing an emotional father of the bride. This shot would not have been possible without a second shooter, as I was at the front of the church, shooting the processional entering the church.
Instead of a stately recessional at the end of the service, the bridal couple had decided to run out of church, with the rest of the bridal party following. It caught me by surprise, but I still managed to capture a photo of their exit.
We had a lot of fun throughout the day, and I really enjoyed sharing the day with Brady and Bernice, photographing their special day. A selection of photos from their wedding day are included below.