George Lawrence and his amazing Lawrence Captive Airship

February 16, 2008 2:00 PM

Motto: "The Hitherto Impossible in Photography is Our Specialty." Meet George Lawrence. Saying that "he took pioneering aerial photographs using kites" doesn't quite do Lawrence Captive Airship justice. Dubbed the Lawrence Captive Airship it utilized a string of seven kites to lift the specially designed cameras to heights of 2,000 ft. Cameras weighing as much as 49 pounds and capable of producing negatives from 10 x 24 inches to a staggering 30 x 87 inches in size. The largest negatives yet taken from any airborne vehicle.

He holds a significant place in the History of Remote Sensing, Aerial Photography. See multiple galleries of his aerial photography (scroll down) including his historic shots of (1906) earthquake striken San Francisco.

posted by spock (4 comments total)

Do yourself a favor and zoom in (and around) this huge image of SF. He also took photos from the ground. (Previously unpublished?) AOL Homepage site (probably won't last long): 1, 2
posted by spock at 2:11 PM on February 16, 2008

100 years later, two attempts to recreate Lawrence's SF shot. The first used a kite, but different (modern) cameras, the other tried to reproduce Lawrence's camera but suspended it from a helicopter.
posted by spock at 2:24 PM on February 16, 2008

This is really cool. Thanks
posted by tmcw at 2:32 PM on February 16, 2008

I could swear this is a double, but I can't find the other one. It is Awesome none less.
posted by Megafly at 2:41 PM on February 16, 2008