On day two of the 41st Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta the photo gods smiled…we had mild temperatures, a light breeze, beautiful clouds and great light! A perfect day for a balloon flight and with over 500 balloonists registered this year, that meant lot’s of color in the sky. When we arrived at the Fiesta grounds I could see some interesting clouds in the lightening sky. Good clouds can really add character to an otherwise plain blue sky. So, with clouds in mind I spent the morning composing balloons within the cloudy skies, beginning before the sun had come over the horizon with the Dawn Patrol…
Nikon D4, AF-S 28-300mm 3.5-5.6 VR
The Dawn Patrol was made up of six balloons that take to the skies each morning before the sun rise, their propane flames lighting the balloons against the pre-dawn skies…
Nikon D4, AF-S 28-300mm 3.5-5.6 VR
The Dawn Patrol lifting off is the signal for the rest of the balloons on the field to begin inflating in readiness for their turn to take to the skies…
Nikon D4, AF-S 28-300mm 3.5-5.6 VR
The shutters were a clicking away all morning as we turned this way and that, looking up and down, left and right compositions were constantly changing. All the while, I concentrated on clouds and the placement of balloons in the clouds…
Nikon D4, AF-S 28-300mm 3.5-5.6 VR
Nikon D4, AF-S 28-300mm 3.5-5.6 VR
I worked the balloons front lit showing off their bold, vivid colors against the skies…
Nikon D4, AF-S 28-300mm 3.5-5.6 VR
Turning my lens directly overhead I captured balloons drifting by…
Nikon D4, AF-S 28-300mm 3.5-5.6 VR
Nikon D4, AF-S 28-300mm 3.5-5.6 VR
And when an interesting shape caught my eye, I would turn towards the sun and capture backlit balloons with the sun glowing through the translucent fabric…
Nikon D4, AF-S 28-300mm 3.5-5.6 VR
or silhouetted against the dramatic clouds…
Nikon D4, AF-S 28-300mm 3.5-5.6 VR
Balloons and clouds filled the skies as far as the eye could see…
Nikon D4, AF-S 28-300mm 3.5-5.6 VR
Not only was it great fun, working with the creative juices flowing while photographing the balloons, I knew that I would get even more creative later in the digital darkroom and sure, enough, I found several images that leant themselves to an extra creative touch from B&W with a little color brushed back in…
Nikon D4, AF-S 28-300mm 3.5-5.6 VR
To converting the image completely to B&W using the repeating patterns in both the clouds and the balloon as graphic elements…
Nikon D4, AF-S 28-300mm 3.5-5.6 VR
I found that a mix of B&W and color worked really well in many instances and worked a couple more images in this manner adding an old-time look and border…
Nikon D4, AF-S 28-300mm 3.5-5.6 VR
I even went all out and did a B&W/Color HDR…
Nikon D4, AF-S 28-300mm 3.5-5.6 VR
Both my camera and my NIK plug-ins got a workout that first morning of photographing the Balloon Fiesta. I can hardly wait to see what the rest of the week will bring…fireworks anyone? Stay tuned.
