We made a trip to Walla Walla for the recent hot air balloon festival. There were about 30 or so balloons, and it was great to see all the colours and excitement. I thought this one with the geese was appropriate. The rope hanging down is used to help control the balloon as it is being inflated, and perhaps deflated as well perhaps.
Dave
I like it Dave,
Love the geese motif on the balloon...:D Never been on on of these, have to try this one day, it looks like fun...:eek: I like the tilted perspective...have you tried one of these???:cool:
Thanks for the comments everyone.
No Gus I have never been on one. My 88 year old Mother would love to go. She does not want to just go up and down on a tethered balloon; she wants to go for a ride.
The event is a very colourful and exciting spectacle. All you great photographers would have a ball.
Dave
I live near Battle Creek, Michigan, which for years has had an international balloon festival. So lots of photo opps.
Last year, one of my patients knew that I like photography, and invited me to come along to photograph his balloon during one of the events. It is quite a mad dash driving out through the country looking for a good launching spot. In this event, you had to be at least a certain number of miles from the target on launch, but could choose any take off spot outside of the minimum. So, its early in the morning, and we are knocking on peoples doors to see if we can take off from their back yard! You can image, it takes a pretty big backyard!
We finally found one, but tight, and everyone was concerned. There is a very tight time window, so you can't mess around. He has a very good crew, and they worked hard to get the envelope out, inflated and ready to go. I was taking photos of the whole process.
Just as he was getting ready to lift off, he asked if I wanted to go along! Well, I signed my life away, jumped in with my cameras, and we were off.
The first sensation was that I was going to fall out of the basket! The sides only come up to my mid thigh, so you feel pretty exposed. After getting a good hold on the rigging, and getting over the initial fear of falling out, it was great. We missed the wind by a bit, so didn't hit the target, but I still had lots of photo ops of the other balloons, and the landscape.
After about 35 minutes, it was time to land, so we started searching. You have to find a wide open area, without power lines, trees, buildings, etc. We found a spot that looked OK, so headed down. My pilot calmly suggested that I put my cameras away, and hang on, is he thought this one might be a bit bumpy.
We touched down in a overgrown pasture. The wind was gusty and unpredictable. We hit pretty hard, and immediately the basket canted over at about a 60 angle from vertical. The wet grass was whipping into the basket slapping us. After a couple seconds of this, the pilot said, calmly again, "well, maybe we should try a different spot, as this one doesn't seem to be working out too well!"
We finally got up again, wet and a bit shook up, but OK, and finally landed safely about 15 minutes later.
All in all, a rather exciting, unexpected trip. Hope to do it again soon!
Hot Air Balloon
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