Eye in the sky over Fife beach to snap sculptures

An Unmanned Airborne Vehicle – a UAV, or a drone, as they are probably better known – will patrol the skies over Elie Beach this Sunday, deploying the kind of technology used by the military in Afghanistan but, thankfully, armed not with bombs but cameras.

RAF pilot turned photographer Nigel King will launch his flying wing over the Fife coast to snap detailed aerial photos of a giant sand design planned as part of the East Neuk Festival.

The festival, which launched yesterday and runs until 3 July, takes its theme from the musical life of Beethoven, with highlights including performances by pianist Christian Zacharias in Crail Church today and again at the weekend.

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Elias String Quartet are also on the programme, which takes in venues from St Monan’s Church to St Andrew’s Younger Hall.

In Crail High Street, a team from sand sculpture creators Sandinyoureye will be shaping 20 tons of sand into a giant bust of Beethoven, due for completion by Friday. On Sunday, Sandinyoureye’s Andy Moss will lead a team of volunteers – anyone can show up – in creating a giant sand design on Elie Beach themed on dancers.

King has worked with Sandinyoureye before, using the bird’s eye view to turn giant beach scrawlings into dramatic photographic artworks.

His Manta flying wing is made mostly of foam, weighs just two kilos, and has its engine at the back to keep damage to a minimum in the unlikely event of an aerial disaster.

It snaps an image every three seconds from a high-end digital camera on his command and routinely comes back with about 1000 photographs.

King operates two UAV’s – which must be licensed by the Central Aviation Authority – carrying out detailed mapping for university researchers or councils monitoring coastal erosion, as well as artworks. One carries the same autopilot technology used by lethal Predator drones to fly a programmed route, but the model in the air on Sunday is a simpler version he flies manually.

“It has a wingspan of about 70 inches (about 180cm), with no nose and no tail,” he says. “This thing has to take a lot of hard landings with no undercarriage. I use a bungee to get it airborne. I will be taking images from whatever angles are available, on a series of about six flights pick out the best images.”

His images of “sand drawings” in the past have produced dramatic results.

Remote conductor

Masterpiece London, a ritzy new brand of art, antiques and objets fair, drawing 150 dealers from the top of their trade, opens in the grounds of the Royal Chelsea Hospital today.

Highlights run from luxury cars, jewellery, furnishings and portraiture, to a musical spectacle performed by The Manning Camerata this weekend.

Billed as the first-ever “chamber soundscape”, it features three string quartets and one larger string group of international musicians playing at different points around the Fair, conducted remotely via a revolutionary video link by renowned artistic director Peter Manning.