hot air balloon ride - what to take?

SpeshulEd

There's a high possibility that I may be going on a hot air balloon ride this upcoming weekend. I've never done such a thing so I don't really know what to expect.

Any suggestions on what lenses to take with me or special filters or anything?

pathfinder

Take something wide for set up shots on the ground - I use a 24mm on a full frame, or a 16mm on a 20D. Shoot inside the inflating balloon for great color.

In the air, think 70-200 or 100-400 as the distances can vary quite a bit. A 17-40 is good inside the basket for pictures of the riders as well, if you have two bodies.

I did not use filters.

You could use a polarizer, but on my rides early in the morning light, the light level really did not encourage polarizer usage.

Be aware that landing a balloon is NOT like landing a plane - the basket may. (is likely), to tip over, and may be dragged along the ground a ways - SO put your gear away before landing is imminent. A good P&S might be useful here as you are less concerned about damage to inexpensive gear. Just a thought -

My first ride we were dragged 50 yards in a sideways basket before we got the balloon hauled down. Discuss this with you pilot - and watch for evidence of winds along the ground. Hang on tight and stay with the basket.:):


You'll have a blast - it is a great way to see the world and a great platform to shoot from. Have a nice glass of champagne on landing too!!

Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing!!

SpeshulEd

haha, landing sounds like its going to be fun. thanks for the tips.

It sounds like I'll be all set with my current setup then. I think we're going to do the sunset ride on Thursday night if everything goes as planned. We were going to try for sunrise but the misses doesn't want to get up that early and it may rain on Friday.

pathfinder

Be sure and post your shots her eon dgrin in landscapes or travel threads. I look forward to seeing them, and hearing your experiences. I would love to go ballooning again.

May I ask what the costs are for your trip? Or is this a friends gift? My experience is that they run anywhere from $300 to $500 a basket full. Is this about right??

SpeshulEd

Oh yeah, I will definitely post the pictures. I have a whole weekend in Chicago planned so hopefully there'll be some good photos out of the lot.

Well, we just found out that the Thursday night trip is all full, so now we're gonna shoot for Friday morning. I was secretly hoping for sunrise anyway. Now I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't rain.

Tickets are $200 a piece. Pricey for sure, but the memories and the photos will definitely be worth it. Plus by the end of the trip, I will have hoped to overcome my fear of heights. :uhoh

cmason

A good camera strap

troglodite

Hiya - just did some aerials from a Cessna last weekend. I bought a tamron 18-200 (i know not the best lens) but it worked great for the occasion - In full sunlight I shout at ISO 200 at usually one to two stops from full open with decent results.

I suspect it will be a tad windy, though nothing like hanging out of a plane window, so dress warm and keep the shutter speed up.

For me, at 2000', 200mm was perfect, almost too much for some of the properties that I shot - so if you have a zoom in that range you'll do good. I'd also bring something wide anglish for fun.

Hope that helps!

o! I shot some cows from 2000' (with the camera ) and they were a tad too small - so if you want to zoom on things around that size, a 200mm will be not enough.

Seefutlung

Been on several ... only two flights were even remotely exciting. Yoplait was using balloon advertising in SoCal. These guy launched from parks and/or schools and landed in same ... none of which granted permission ... so both launching and landing was a bit of a scramble unpacking and packing prior to the arrival of the authorities (once airborne the balloon would radio the chase vehicle a route that would avoid any approaching police cars). We flew just above the high power wires for maximum exposure. What was odd, was at that height we could communicate easily with people on the ground in almost a normal voice (we flew over Disneyland just to make sure everyone was having a good time). When we landed, even on a tight schedule ... the champagne was flowing "... cheated death again".

Second exciting flight was an experimental "hot airship", shaped like a blimp. First flight we were about 50' up, the Captain was busy with something when I noticed that the guy wires were ripping through their designated guy wire area (a reinforced slit in the fabric). I casually queried the Captain if this was normal ... he looked ... turn a little white ... started throwing levers in a big hurry, the next thing I remember we were bouncing off the ground ... no champagne for that flight ... but we had a beer at the local pub. (something about propriety ... okay to cry in beer but not champagne ... a ballooner's thing I guess.)

As to your question ... don't know what you shoot or what lenses you have but if it was moi ... I'd take my 10-22, 70-200 and 24-70 (in that order).

Everybody is different, but I never found hot air ballooning all that exciting (I flew the Goodyear Blimp once ... it was okay, but not terribly exciting either).

Gary

SpeshulEd

troglodite wrote:

For me, at 2000', 200mm was perfect

2000 feet!!!!! :wow :jawdrop :eek1

well, at that height most of my pictures might be of me, sitting on the basket floor, crying for my mommy. Yikes!

Sounds like I'll be bringing the 17-40L and the 70-200L for sure. I'll probably just bring my whole bag and then I'll have the 24-70 packed just incase plus the 50 f/1.8 for those sitting/crying/lowlight basket shots.

cmason wrote:

A good camera strap

got me an optech pro, so I should be all good on that account.

dragon300zx

SpeshulEd wrote:

I will have hoped to overcome my fear of heights. :uhoh

Well let me be the first to suggest a bright yellow safety harness. Not only is it fashionable, but it will allow you to get those great shots that will only occur when you are hangin on the outside of the basket .

I think I'd rather deal with 12 models and 3 make-up artists .

Good luck and let's see some shots.

cmason

troglodite wrote:

I suspect it will be a tad windy, though nothing like hanging out of a plane window, so dress warm and keep the shutter speed up.

By the way, on balloons, because you are flowing with the wind itself, it deosn't usually 'feel' windy. That is part of the reason you can talk to those on the ground so easily: no wind noise.

SpeshulEd

dragon300zx wrote:

Well let me be the first to suggest a bright yellow safety harness. Not only is it fashionable, but it will allow you to get those great shots that will only occur when you are hangin on the outside of the basket .

Perhaps I should invest in a parachute....just in case.

Forehead

You didn't say exactly WHERE you'd be ballooning but, if you do it in Sedona AZ (near where I live, and they've been aloft a lot lately), you'd better take...LOTS of MEMORY!

Because you'd be shooting LOTS of pictures and probably should shoot them in RAW.

And you might want to take along a 70-200mm. You never know, you just might see some otters in Oak Creek.

Yes.

OTTERS!

Cute little brown ones.

I've seen them myself...along the banks of Oak Creek by the Arroyo Roble Resort just about as you're getting out of town north on 89-A.

Forehead

Or maybe a Bungie cord! :eek1

SpeshulEd wrote:

Perhaps I should invest in a parachute....just in case.

SpeshulEd

Forehead wrote:

You didn't say exactly WHERE you'd be ballooning

Oops, it'll be around the Chicago area. I don't know if we fly over Chicago or not, the place where we meet to get in the balloon is about an hour north of the city. I also believe its a 3 hour trip.

I'm getting real excited, now I just hope the weather is good so we can actually go.

Forehead

Hopefully you'll have favorable winds. Otherwise, you'll end up over the far-less-impressive Kenosha WI or worse--halfway across Lake Michigan (save some of that propane for heating your bod' as that water be right chilly!)

...and yeah, right: fly a balloon OVER Chicago, with all that O'Hare air traffic--not to mention the very real possibility of plowing your gondola right into the top of the Sears Tower.

But hey: livin' on the edge, right???

SpeshulEd wrote:

Oops, it'll be around the Chicago area. I don't know if we fly over Chicago or not, the place where we meet to get in the balloon is about an hour north of the city. I also believe its a 3 hour trip.

I'm getting real excited, now I just hope the weather is good so we can actually go.

dragon300zx

SpeshulEd wrote:

Perhaps I should invest in a parachute....just in case.

With a parachute you land .

With a saftey harness you hang clapclapclap.

ziggy53

This time of the year, here in the Midwest, there is a good chance that early morning will have a lot of haze and possibly fog. Once you get in the air, you will probably rise above it quickly.

A UV/Haze filter might yield slightly better results, but mostly, you might just plan on some extra post-processing work.

Good shooting,

ziggy53

troglodite

cmason wrote:

By the way, on balloons, because you are flowing with the wind itself, it deosn't usually 'feel' windy. That is part of the reason you can talk to those on the ground so easily: no wind noise.

I've never been on a balloon ride (yet:):) but I would think because of the large mass of the balloon itself the wind would still be moving at a greater speed than the balloon. My mistake if this is wrong :uhoh