Balloon-n-People
Balloon festivals around the US such as Paris California and Albuquerque New Mexico can be a photographer’s delight. There is so much color and excitement that it is difficult not to come away with a number of excellent images. But don’t show up at noon or you will get the same shot as a hundred other photographers.
This image was taken before dawn. The only light source it uses is the flame from the heat source for the hot air balloon. The silhouette of the people in the foreground gives depth to the composition. You will note the photo-artist has cropped the balloon so that the top portion of it stops at the top of the frame. It would have been to common to show the entire subject. This way we get a nice horizontal format rather than a square layout.
The only objection I have to this work is the operator in the lower right hand corner is not sharp. Perhaps this is due to a slow shutter speed at the time the photograph was taken.
Click on Image 
July 29th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Very nice image, taken at an ideal hour,
with strong emphasis on color.
Perfect!
BTW, do you recall the exposure at the time
of this shot? Did you use aperature
priority, or bulb exposure.?
August 2nd, 2008 at 9:50 am
Shooting balloons at night is not easy. They didn’t lift off so the burn time was very short, you have got to be quick. This was shot at 1/8 of a sec at F4 shot on aperature priority, with an iso of 1600. This was Santa Paula’s first balloon festival and it was very nice.