Ballooning

Shakey · March 2, 2005

I was doing my daily drive through the park in search of old wiley coyote (now I that I have some long glass he is nowhere to be seen:dunno ) when I saw this. I put the long glass away and stuck on a stubby and then my kit lens for some wider views.
50mm f1.8 and the 18-55 kit.

And with a long colorless cold winter almost behind us here in the great white north I decided it was time for a color infusion.

With a clear blue Alberta sky as a backdrop I was liking the colors.

The gentlemen setting the balloon up did not mind me taking pictures of them.

Before you know it he was on his way.

A nice day to go Ballooning . And a chance for me to break away from the bleakness of early march.

Cheers
Tim

4labs · March 2, 2005

The colors are really beautiful!. I am so sick of our winter, send those balloons our way. Thnxs for sharing these are great!

Angelo · March 2, 2005

Very cool. I especially like #1 - the scale difference between man and balloon is fun.

John Mueller · March 2, 2005

That last one is fantastic

Wish it was all in frame though.

gus · March 2, 2005

Great colour & angles

1st one is brillient.

CMaster · March 2, 2005

Oh my, that first one is excellent! I like the composition on that one

TristanP · March 2, 2005

Love the colors, especially the first one.

Dee · March 2, 2005

Fantastic!

Shakey wrote:

Sure beats feeding pigeons!

It's so great that you have the man in there for scale, and certainly this is a very unique photo! Good job!

Tim Kirkwood · March 2, 2005

Very cool!

What I find the most interesting is the last shot. I have never seen a ballon with a chair instead of a basket. I can only imagine the rush you would get from this setup.

Very fun ballon also. I worked in the National HotAir Ballon championships here in Middletown Ohio for several years and saw some neat ballons. The crew that I was apart of was for the U.S. Navy. We had a great time helping get the thing in the air following them on the ground and then packing it up then DINNER! At the end of the week long events we got paid with a free ride! It was alot of family fun.

Thanks for bringing back some fun family memories!

Tim

Shakey · March 3, 2005

MHJS wrote:

That last one is fantastic
Wish it was all in frame though.

Stupid me ... in my haste to post these I screwed up and processed the wrong picture I have a full frame one with the pilot looking down at me. Doh!
Thanks for the nice comment.:D

Tim

Shakey · March 3, 2005

Gus ,4labs ,Angelo thanks for looking and commenting when I saw this I knew in my minds eye it would be a cool one. Thankfully it came out similar to what I envisioned.
CmMster TristanP and Dee many thanks ,your comments are very much appreciated.

Tim

Shakey · March 3, 2005

Tim Kirkwood wrote:

Very cool!

What I find the most interesting is the last shot. I have never seen a ballon with a chair instead of a basket. I can only imagine the rush you would get from this setup.

Very fun ballon also. I worked in the National HotAir Ballon championships here in Middletown Ohio for several years and saw some neat ballons. The crew that I was apart of was for the U.S. Navy. We had a great time helping get the thing in the air following them on the ground and then packing it up then DINNER! At the end of the week long events we got paid with a free ride! It was alot of family fun.

Thanks for bringing back some fun family memories!

Tim

Hey I am glad you enjoyed them. The pilot was an old hand at balloon flight but this harness seat was his inagural flight. The balloon is not as big as basket balloons and carries only one tank good for 45 min-1hr flight.
It sure looked like one heck of a Adren Rush.

Tim

Red Bull · March 3, 2005

I love the color in those first photos. The first one really shows how big the balloon is. I've always wanted to go for a balloon ride, but I've never seen one with a seat either!