Hot Air Balloons

senorjax · January 22, 2013

I was lucky enough to spend a good bit of my birthday floating above the Valley of the Gods in Southern Utah.

1. The sunrise was chilly but scenic as well.

2. The pilot was busy adjusting the top section of the envelope as it was filling and his shadow was very interesting. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a shot of him in a good pose. The colors were fun though.

3. There were roughly 25 balloons in the air and we launched further north than anyone else, so I shot straight into the sun a lot. Challenging, and somewhat frustrating, but I tried to make peace with the unique light and colors.

4. The view to the north was super as well. I just wish there were some balloons in it.

5. We did have an interesting rockpile in our neighborhood. Our pilot floated us over to the top of this spire and then slid down the side of it from the top all the way to ground level, staying within 30' or so of the rock. I have no idea how they can do that without making contact. I was too worried about snagging the fabric on it to have much fun.

6. A similar but wider shot.

senorjax · January 22, 2013

Here are two alternative endings for the more easily amused among you.

1.

2.

black mamba · January 22, 2013

Good stuff here, Jay. You handled the sun issue well.

I used to see some of these balloons swoop down on the river in front of my home. It wasn't unusual to see several of them drag the gondola across the top of the water. During the quiet morning hours, you could hear the passengers squealing about that.

Tom

jasonstone · January 23, 2013

Not sure if this helps but the wind is going in different directions at different altitudes and this is the only way that a balloon pilot can "steer" during a flight. Likewise there are altitudes where there is no air movement. Means they can go straight down without going sideways sometimes - guess this was one of those times

I have a friend who is a commercial hot air balloon pilot and once asked him a very similar question during a competition and that was the answer. Seems logical after that

He often gets the police, ambulance, fire brigade turning up to a landing site as some member of the public has freaked out over where, or how low, they're flying and called the emergency services.

The pilots have some very cool devices that they use to track a helium filled balloon (small one - like from a kids party) at the start of a flight and that gives them a good read out at all altitudes prior to the flight.

Anyway I'll stop now as I not sure if you really wanted this sort of answer but I'm also fascinated by hot air ballooning - and will rememeber my first sunrise flight over the city of Melbourne for a long time

Thanks for sharing the photos. It is really hard to get great shots sometimes when you're in a basket with other people and can't move around to shoot in the direction you'd like but I think #3 is a cracker

Cheers
Jase

senorjax wrote: »

Our pilot floated us over to the top of this spire and then slid down the side of it from the top all the way to ground level, staying within 30' or so of the rock. I have no idea how they can do that without making contact. I was too worried about snagging the fabric on it to have much fun.

senorjax · January 24, 2013

Thanks Jase, I appreciate the illumination on the physics of flying and air movement. From a practical standpoint I have to say that while we were cruising within feet of this wall for 5 minutes or so I wasn't so much concerned with how we were avoiding contact as much as I was about what would happen if we were to catch the fabric on a sharp piece of rock and tear it. The pilot said that if we were to get pushed into the wall his goal would be to keep the balloon's altitude stable so the balloon would compress and then rebound off the wall and not drag up or down along it's surface. Luckily we didn't have to practice that. And the rest of the flight was phenomenal.

DaddyO · January 27, 2013

Nice set of images. I think you did great with the lighting. Must have been outstanding to enjoy the day and flight.

billseye · January 27, 2013

This is nice stuff. I've been tempted to give this a try, but not sure how I'd do with what Mel Brooks called High Anxiety. Maybe concentrating on great shots like these would keep my mind of what was actually happening.

Hot Air Balloons

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