Got them post-adventure blues. Spent two weeks on the road in search of the American Dream, and now that I'm stationary again it's proving to be a bit galling. Still working on my final report on our search but I thought I'd edit a few from the last stop on our adventure, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.
It's the largest balloon shindig in the world, and also the earliest fiesta I've ever attended. It lasts a little over a week and falls on the first full week in October but we only managed to catch one day of it. Depending on the day there's either a morning session, an evening session, or both.
There was only a morning session the day we went so 0400 wakeup it was. The parking lot opens at 0430 and by 0600 they're inflating the gas bags.
It's still pitch black when you get there, hard even to see the balloons until they light up the burners. I was shooting with a 50mm that goes down to f/1.8 and that wasn't hardly enough, until the sun started coming up it was hard to get a shot that wasn't blurry.
Y'all probably can't hear these photos properly but there's a very distinct whoosh/roar that comes with those flames. In the dark it's hard to see much of anything but the flames but as the sun peaks up from behind the mountains you start to get a sense of the scale of the fiesta.
With the light you discover that there's balloons and people everywhere. Never was able to confirm how many lifted off the day we were there but there's over 600 at the fiesta this year.
The fiesta has its own park and it was covered in row upon row of hot air balloons in various states of inflation. Takes surprisingly little time from them to go from flat to airborne.
We were lucky enough to be there on one of the days they did a 'mass ascension' where hundreds of balloons take off in the span of two hours.
Assuming nothing goes wrong. This guy huffed and puffed but never could get airborne, eventually just spilled the air from it and packed it up.
Wasn't much of that though, everywhere you turned there was balloon after balloon lifting off.
The whole time we were there the light and temperature were constantly changing. Had to dress in layers because it was barely 50F and getting colder when we arrived but once the sun popped up the air and light both warmed up rather rapidly.
Everybody takes off together but then they drift hither, tither, and yon. From everything I heard the locals seem to take a balloon landing in their backyard in stride.
It's hard to give you a good sense of the scale, but there were balloons in every direction you turned. I'd brought a wide angle with me but didn't want to stop shooting long enough to change lenses.
This should give you some idea though. It was kind of wild, everybody took off and then the balloons started landing again and packing up and everyone just sort of cleared out. Place was half deserted by 1000. Ended up taking way too many photos so you'll probably be seeing more in the future but that's enough for now.
Master Yoda would like to remind you, "The hot air will be with you, always."
