Hot Air Balloon Photography

Balloon Festivals such as this one in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec are excellent photographic opportunities!

There is a saying in the hot air balloon community that "The first flight is the cheapest!" Although the cost of a flight is higher than most people expect, this is exactly what happened to me.

My brother and his wife, along with my wife and I went for a flight on a beautiful fall evening. We enjoyed it so much that the following spring found us planning to operate a hot air balloon business, taking passengers for flights.

Although I was not the pilot, I attended ground school in order to learn more about the world of ballooning, and the skills required to fly them.

Over the next couple of years, I crewed for more than 150 flights altogether. The scenery and surroundings were so interesting that I just HAD to tie my interest in photography with ballooning.

My wife and I would attend local balloon festivals to photograph these colourful objects. To see photos from many 1999 Canadian events go to my Festivals page. They are very unique in design, size and colour, and because balloons will only fly in ideal weather conditions, the resulting photos are usually very interesting. We will be attending more Canadian festivals in 2000 to photograph.

The nature of hot air ballooning is that you must literally get up before the sun as balloons generally fly around sunrise and sunset. This is due to the fact that winds are at their calmest at these times of the day.

A hot air balloon festival is an ideal opportunity to see and photograph a large number of these colourful aircraft all gathered together. A short zoom lens, around 28 to 80 mm is ideal in these situations to help include the enormity of the balloons.

Another valuable tool is a polarizing filter. It will saturate the colours and create a much deeper blue sky in the background for a dramatic effect. However, as there are two types of polarizing filters available, be sure to get the correct one for your lens.

While there are numerous special effect filters also available, most of them are not conducive to the subject of hot air balloons. If you do find one that works, use it sparingly.

To see if there are any balloon festivals in your area here in Canada go to the Canadian Balloon Association.

Night shots like this require a tripod and longer exposures.

A popular event at most festivals is the "Balloon Glow" or "Balloon Illume". They take place after the sun has set but the balloons remain on the ground. On a very calm evening the balloons will not move very much, creating an excellent photo opportunity. These shots require a tripod and you must be able to set your camera shutter speed to the "bulb" or B setting. The problem (other than movement) is that you never really know when the burners will be ignited to create the illumination effect. At most festivals the organizers try to get the pilots to burn at the same time. When they do this be sure to take advantage of the timing.

If you do not have any festivals near you, call a local ballooning company that offers flights to the public. Explain that you would like to take some photos and they will probably tell you where they normally launch from and when the next scheduled flight is.

Balloon photography is a unique subject in that the direction of the sun for lighting cannot be altered relative to your subject. The pilot is in control of positioning, particularly during the inflation process, because he/she postions the balloon based on the wind direction, not the sun's direction.

Although a fairly common photo of a balloon is of the inside while it is being inflated, it is not always possible to get these shots. Ask the pilot if it is okay to get close and actually lean into the balloon-it will depend on the wind speed and the crew's ability to stabilize th balloon during the inflation process.

If you have the time, you should try to follow the balloon's flight as the crew does. During evening flights this allows for some great silhouettes with fantastic sunsets in the background.

There is not a better subject to photograph than hot air balloons. They are large, colourful, interesting and will only fly in good weather. All of these important elements contribute to outstanding photographs and all of them are very evident in successful balloon photography.

I you would like to see some photos from 1999 Balloon Festivals go to my festivals page.

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