Tessa and I were invited to the 2005 edition of the Oostende Kite Festival. I was asked to bring panoramic prints of kite festivals to show in the Kite Expo. The panoramas were met with great enthusiasm, and I ended up winning a medal! Apparently, the city of Oostende was/is interested in purchasing some prints for their new city hall... Picture me very proud, and very tired in the train on the way back.

The Oostende Kite festival was great. The first day there was way too much wind, but the second day was brilliant. Tessa's new kite 'Garu' (Pucca's boyfriend) made it's maiden flight. Pictures to follow.

Unfortunately, my S2 is still broken. I have been doubting whether or not to buy an S3 to help me through this decent-camera-less times, but decided not to (the latest prognosis on my camera is that I'll have it back 'early next week', after 5 weeks...). So I couldn't use my S2 to make panoramas of the Oostende festival.

Fortunately I bought a film SLR camera last year to suspend from a kite some time, so I bought some Fuji Reala film rolls and used those. Let me tell you that it is quite odd not to have a display on the back of the camera to check the images as you make them. I had the images developed this week. I had already decided I was going to scan the negatives instead of prints, but wanted to see some prints of the pictures anyway. Turns out that a double print was a cheaper option than single prints, or even a contact sheet. Unfortunately the automated printing process totally screwed up making prints (all the photos of one roll were cut offcenter and totally overexposed), I think I can use the negatives and get some nice panoramas.