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It was a beautiful March evening as the sun sank lower in the sky in this spectacular location on Mt. Tamalpais, overlooking Stinson Beach and the Pacific Ocean.

The wind shifted more than 90 degrees while we were here, and became strong enough that it was a struggle to bring down the large kites we needed at first to lift our cameras. Fantastic effort to make it up here, our second location of the day, and to adapt to the changing conditions by Pierre, Heidy, Cris, Scott, Rick and Diane.

Many years ago for a friend's bachelor party we hiked from the east side of Mt. Tamalpais to Stinson Beach starting in the evening. A couple of people had earlier hidden caches of food and drink in a few spots on the mountain. The road seen in this photo closes after sunset, and we actually napped on it for an hour or two in the middle of the night. Crazy youth.....great memories.

Taken by a camera lofted by a kite.

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Tags:   Bolinas Ridge Mt. Tamalpais Marin County spring green KAP kite aerial photography aerial mini-KAPICA 2009

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Aerial view of downtown Berkeley, my home for the past 32 years. The southerly wind made it possible for me to take this photo while flying my kite from the high school playing field. I've annotated the image with some of the city's prominent landmarks.

Taken by a camera lofted by a kite.

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Tags:   Downtown Berkeley Berkeley, California cityscape KAP kite aerial photography aerial

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Sunset view of Union Point Park in Oakland, California. This park, located on the Oakland Estuary, was built on a site contaminated by a succession of industrial businesses.

The Environmental Protection Agency calls these types of sites "brownfields" which they describe as "real property, the expansion, redevelopment or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant."

The park opened in 2005 and is a very pleasant place to spend some time. I previously posted a similar view of the park. Since I was recently photographing some straight down closeups of the lookout hill, I looked through the images from my previous session almost 3 years ago to find a shot that shows the lookout hill in context with its immediated surroundings.

Taken by a camera lofted by a kite.

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Tags:   Union Point Park Oakland Estuary lookout hill aerial brownfield KAP kite aerial photography Oakland California

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Evening view of the Oakland Estuary with the new 9 acre Union Point Park in the right foreground and Coast Guard Island and its dedicated bridge in the background. On the left side of Coast Guard Island, three 378 foot high endurance cutters/gunboats can be seen. The high-rises of downtown Oakland can also be seen in the distance.

I had hoped to fly my kitecam in Berkeley, but the fog (visible in the top right) had already rolled in by the time I left home. So I headed south to the estuary, which, luckily, was still clear, although with much lighter winds. Micro-climates abound in these parts.

Taken by a camera lofted by a kite.

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Tags:   Oakland Estuary Union Point Park Coast Guard Island KAP kite aerial photography aerial Oakland California

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This is a straight down closeup of the lookout hill at Union Point Park in Oakland, California.

The Center for Creative Land Recycling describes the site as follows: "Once a natural tidal wetland, this portion of the Oakland waterfront has since served as home to a number of industrial businesses that left petroleum, pesticides, and industrial solvents in their wake. In 1997 the community initiated a campaign to turn the former industrial site into a park. Success in obtaining the land almost turned to failure when it was discovered that it would take as much as $3 million to remove all the contaminated soil. A new plan to safely encapsulate soils under a large lookout hill within the park saved the project. This lookout hill has become a signature feature of the park that exemplifies the creative use of green remediation."

Taken by a camera lofted by a kite.

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Tags:   Union Point Park lookout hill aerial brownfield KAP kite aerial photography Oakland California

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