Tag Archives: Michael Layefsky
An unusual New Year’s greeting from the Hall of Science
It’s no secret that Michael Layefsky takes terrific aerial photos of the Berkeley landscape. In 2012, he had two shows in Berkeley – one at the Main Library and one at the Picturish Gallery. Berkeleyside also published a large portfolio of his work shot with a camera flying 150 feet in the air.
Layefsky and the staff at the Lawrence Hall of Science teamed up to make this valentine of a video to usher in the … Continue reading »
For a stunning bird’s eye view, launch a kite (or a balloon)
Michael Layefsky’s passion for aerial photography was born one day in 1997 when he was taking one of his customary walks on the UC Berkeley campus and he came across “this guy flying a humongous kite on the big lawn in front of the library”.
The “guy” turned out to be Cal architecture professor Cris Benton, an early adopter of kite aerial photography, whose stunning work can be viewed on his website and Flickr pool.
“Cris is both very talented and an educator. The internet was in its infancy when he started but he set out to document and provide information on KAP, as its known,” says Layefsky, who quickly became an eager student.
An early attempt by Layefsky to capture images from a camera rigged onto a kite took place in Berkeley’s Cesar Chavez Park. “It was really windy and way too hard to navigate the kite,” he recalls. “My wife nearly had her arm pulled out trying to help me.” … Continue reading »
