As promised, here’s the full collection of my hot air balloon photos, in order of how this little adventure unfolded. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed taking them. One of the great things about taking photographs in a hot air balloon is that you can take quite a few photos and still have time to enjoy the ride. You’re not traveling at 500 miles per hour, but instead at around 7 miles per hour.
The morning was a little foggy, but our pilot seemed confident after letting off a couple of test balloons.
Fans initially filled the balloon up.
Then, they turn on the propane burners, which ultimately make the balloon start to rise up.
This turns the basket over, and then it’s time to jump in!
In the basket, watching the pilot heat the balloon air with the propane tanks.
And then, you suddenly start to….float.
It was amazing to be at such heights without a loud, rumbling engine controlling your altitude and speed.
The fog offered some great opportunities to get photos with our own balloon’s shadow in them.
The top/inside of the balloon.
One of the balloons that went up with us in the distance.
We saw a lot of other balloons below us. This one was floating over an orange grove.
You can float over virtually anything, and sometimes you can get so close that even the cows notice you.
We flew over several games of golf, and bet a couple of guys $100 if they could get the ball in our basket, but luckily they didn’t take us up on it.
As I posted yesterday, this is our balloon floating over a pond. One of my favorites.
One of the balloons we went up with found a place to land. Sidenote: it took us quite a while to land our balloon because the wind kept blowing us near power lines, trees or houses, so that made things a little more interesting.
Once the balloon lands and deflates, you need to jam it into this huge bag. They call this “balloon bonding.” As a note to those who are wondering and for me to remember via this post, our balloon held 425,000 cubic feet.
I hope ballooning becomes of a habit of ours, because this was truly a great experience.
It really did look neat. I am sure it was very peaceful and beautiful up there. I would like to say I would try it, but I think I need to conquer my fear of flying first. And it all starts Jan. 27th. Get ready AirTran….Yikes!
Hey Anonymous! If you are who I think you are, then you’re right…first conquer an airplane, then who knows what you’ll be doing!! You’ll probably become a worldwide traveler ;) Can’t wait for Jan. 27th!