Week 5

Quicknotes.
Like usual, After going through all the morning's photos, I found the best ones to be the ones that depicted interesting patterns, shapes and textures. There were allot of rich colors but I chose to go with a black and white theme, its more documentary and I think it complimented the solemn undertone of the event. Like artists, most of the pilots took the event very seriously. They didn't mind people taking photos, but they were very focused on their craft. It was beautiful, and rewarding when they finally took to the sky.

1. A man and his balloon. After the initial set up of the main attractions (the yellow Questacon ballon was popular), I went over to a group that were just unpacking their green balloon from the trailor. I stayed with them most of the time. They were friendly, but attentive to their work. Here, the older member of the group of about 5 (plus one joy-rider who was very nervous to go above 100 meters) was spreading out the interior of the balloon, making sure it wouldn't get caught. He was incredibly careful with the material, but very at home. He had obviously been working with balloons for a while.

2. The image with the 'danger' sign was interesting to me because all the pilots of the balloons attach their aircraft to their cars, so they don't float away unexpectedly I suppose.  But these things can lift an awful lot into the air, so I wondered to myself if a fully inflated balloon could take a car with it? These 'flying machines' along with their pilots are designed to be in the air, the tether was kind of symbolic in a cheesy sort of way.

3. Filling the balloon with heated air. The bursts of flame were impressive. What I found more impressive though, was the way nothing caught fire, despite the seemingly hazardous material. Is it all fire proofed? The cords you can see that attach the balloon itself to the basket glowed red and smoked a little after each burst. The ballooners behind me (out of view) melted a hole in the side of their aircraft. They took off regardless. Very carefree folk, ballooneers.

4. More fire. Blue flame is hotter than red. This is damn hot. You can just see the source of the flame right down the bottom of the photo. Without some kind of evidence like that, the scale of the flame would be hard to gauge.

5. Nice patterns. Probably my favorite image. As the two balloons from the separate groups bulged bigger and bigger from the heat, they started pushing together, boing, boing, boing. The narrator for the event said it was like the two balloons were kissing...I thought that was a bit much. I converted this image to duotone to bring out the different tones a little more effectively.

6. Flames within the layers of the balloon. The aircraft sort of envelopes the flaming column. This was shot shortly before take off, the material is taut with the hot air rising inside.