Yesterday I went to Balloons off Broadway 2008 and took loads of photos. Some of them are uploaded to my Balloons off Broadway Flickr set This was the first time I had been out shooting and filled up my (2gb) memory card. There were several factors to blame. The first was that I still had some old data on the card (oops!), I was shooting in RAW and jpg mode and finally I was taking advantage of the continuous shooting mode for the flames to get just the right effect. All of which meant a lot of space was used on the card and I eventually ran out. Thankfully not before the night glow had almost finished – some of the balloons were actually being deflated as I was finishing up.
The event was good but not as good as last year. It had grown drastically which meant a lot more people and as a result the traffic to get to the site was not fun. I was anxious as the balloons were meant to launch at 6.30 – I eventually got into the carpark at 6.25 and hurried to get to the launch only to find no balloons even remotely setup. Eventually 4 balloons were inflated, but only for tethered rides AND we were all moved back out of the way of the balloons so were unable to get any good setup photos. (Some people got away with ignoring the police and staying in the setup arena – next year I joked I’d setup some “official photographer” tshirts and flog them to all the photographers anxious to get in the field to get closeup photos. I know this restriction is due to health and safety, but last year was so much more personal, informal and fun with some great opportunities to get real close to the balloonists as they setup and we were even able to help them pack up!
Due to the high wind, none of the balloons were launched which was a big disappointment to a lot of people, especially as no tannoy announcement was made, however it did mean that I didn’t have to worry about balloon chasing – trying to get OUT of the car park in a rush to follow the balloons would not have been possible.
Eventually about 8.30 the rest of the balloons were inflated – 2.5 hours after the event had started – ready for the night glow. This was fun and at this point I was able to get onto the field and take some close shots. The balloonists loved to light up the flames for photographers. I narrowed down my 246 photos to 26 for Flickr.
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