Grand Isle, Louisiana
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Image acquisition by Adam Griffith of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Western Carolina University.
Flights by Lighthawk http://www.lighthawk.org/
Working with PSDS and Lighthawk, Shannon Dosemegan and I set out for DIY aerial image mapping from the New Orleans Lakefront Airport.
We shot images with multiple cameras and logged GPS tracks.
These images were taken from a Cessna 206 with the door removed. I used a Nikon D90 and was simply holding the camera. There was a wind deflector allowing me to get over the objective a bit more making for ideal conditions.

The pilot was unable to see the objective so I used hand signals to other passengers who then advised the pilot to go left or right as gently as possible while keeping the plane level.

Visible in these maps are the step to get into the plane and the rear right tire.
Thanks to Lighthawk for making the flight possible.

-Adam Griffith
Huge thanks to Lighthawk for the air support.
The imagery was great to work with, sharp images with sufficient overlap for most of the flight line over Grand Isle.
The shooting was freehand, thus dynamic distortion corrections among the input image set, but it was not a big problem in this map with the altitude and available base data.
There was significant albedo from the mid-day glare on the water and the sand. The brightness was reduced heavily to bring out more information and as a tradeoff some graying occurred.
-Stewart
Related maps
- Grand Isle State Park, Louisiana (May 19, 2010)
- Isle Grand Terre, Louisiana (May 27, 2010)
- Grand Isle State Park, Louisiana (June 3, 2010)
- Grand Isle State Beach, Louisiana (February 25, 2011)
- Grand Isle State Beach, Louisiana (February 25, 2011)
- Isle Grande Terre State Park, Louisiana (February 25, 2011)
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