Kite Pictures

Ten Top Shots, from Heart-Warming to Eye-Popping!

These kite pictures begin with a homey image of my small son flying an even smaller diamond kite. There's simple joy and wonder right there! Then follows a series of single-liner pictures ranging from in-flight closeups to mass formations taken at a large kite festival.

There's a real eye-popper at the end of the Single Liners section. Just when I thought the position of the sun was going to be a problem. ;-)

With only ten pictures of kites in this sample of kite photography, this page shouldn't be too much slower to load than other pages on this site. View all this on a PC or laptop, if you can, for best results when clicking/tapping through to the hi-res versions of the photos.

That's right, for all these pics, click to enlarge.

Enjoy!


Kite Pictures Featuring Kids

3-year-old Aren with an equally tiny home-made diamond kite.

Here's our son Aren when he was barely old enough to walk. But he could grasp a small plastic winder! The kite is flying low since the little fella had briefly trotted toward it as it flew. Downwind! At least that situation made it easier to frame up the picture.


Spider-man and a delta being towed - popular kids' kites.

This photo belongs to the popular "kids towing kites" genre. :-)  The image was taken at a public event in the South Parklands of Adelaide, our home city in South Australia. Tall trees were everywhere, blocking the breeze, so a little towing was necessary from time to time. The kids had fun.


Other Single-Liners

A colorful and stylized bird kite. Always a head-turner.

This colorful swallow-tailed bird kite was snapped at the local kite festival one year. With not a cloud in the sky, the sunshine was at full strength. It was ideal weather for photographing colorful kites.


Eye-catching kids' delta kite.

Here's a closeup of a fairly big kids' delta in flight. These kites are typically made from fiberglass spars and ripstop-nylon material for the sail. Deltas are very efficient in light winds, holding a steep flying angle.


Semi-flying inflatables. Non-marine creatures for a change!

Here are a couple of mid-sized inflatables—with a bit of humor designed in, I suspect! The largest of these are far too expensive for most individual kite fliers, but the same designs in smaller sizes are more affordable. Sea creatures are particularly popular subjects, since they tend to move realistically in the air. See if you can spot a few of these in the background.


AIKF - big Rays blot out the sun.

This would be the epitome of large show kites, pre-pandemic. It was at the AIKF 2019. Two different types of rays, a cuttlefish, and a large flat parafoil are hoisting line laundry. The sun is hiding behind the manta ray, backlighting the ripstop nylon of all the kites wonderfully. See the glowing colors!

Wind-Speed Handy Reference

Light Air
1-5 kph
1-3 mph
1-3 knts
Beaufort 1

Light breeze
6–11 kph
4–7 mph
4–6 knts
Beaufort 2


Gentle ...
12–19 kph
8–12 mph
7–10 knts
Beaufort 3


Moderate ...
20–28 kph
13–18 mph
11–16 knts
Beaufort 4


Fresh ...
29–38 kph
19–24 mph
17–21 knts
Beaufort 5


Strong ...
39–49 kph
25–31 mph
22–27 knts
Beaufort 6


High Wind
50-61 kph
32-38 mph
28-33 knts
Beaufort 7


Gale
62-74 kph
39-46 mph
34-40 knts
Beaufort 8


More Kite Images from the AIKF

AIKF? That's the Adelaide International Kite Festival, held annually (except during pandemics!) in South Australia. Here is a selection of images from several years in no particular order:

AIKF - kite arch of small diamonds.
AIKF - the sky stuffed full of kites.
AIKF - kite trains by Robert Brasington.
AIKF - marine line laundry!

 

And Many More

I happen to have quite a substantial account over at Pinterest. There are more high-quality kite pics than you could poke a stick at! Feel free to browse around and perhaps pin a few.


 

See over there on the right... Were you expecting to find a usable version of that little picture somewhere? This was an old page and—guess what—I didn't have the rights to that image and several others! Hence they have all been replaced with roughly equivalent original images from our archives.



I hope you enjoyed those kite photos, which really cover just the tiniest portion of the wonderful world of modern kiting.

(And just for something different, why not check out some amazing photography where the kite picture doesn't necessarily feature a kite or kites in closeup!)


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