Balloons! Fiesta! Fireworks! And even more ballooning sights.

Winds were up too much for Balloon Glow events on the evening of Saturday, Oct. 3rd , but that didn't stop some fireworks from adding to the festivities. These shots, basically in sequential order too, include sunset, moonrise over the Sandia Mts., fireworks, a light-rope-(like from Christmas-time), -on-a-pole. Sunrise over the Sandia's the next morning, with mountain and cloud shadows being cast over the Albuquerque area from the sunrise, then moonset photos, with balloon shots taken from on the upper balcony of the Balloon Museum, which was also an awesome vantage point and foreground setting for the balloons and mountains. Balloons are awesome, but having good foregrounds or backgrounds to frame up the balloon pictures is important too. (Look for another of my "framed" balloon shots on www.weather.com/photos, in the "travel" catagory).

Contact Sheet 2-Balloons, and "Zebra's", etc.

Here's mostly Balloon Fiesta pictures, with the first bit of direct sunshine starting to light up the field and balloons, and one of the "Zebra's", who are in charge of keeping some order to all the balloons taking off. There is one shot of the traditional area architecture for one of the nice homes of the ABQ area, (possibly the Unser home, of racing fame, but I'm not positive).

Sunlight makes a ton of difference in defining the shapes and shiny textures, in addition to the bright colors of all the balloons and surroundings.

"Contact Sheets", due to quantity of pics taken on trip...

Since I shot over 900 pictures, (digital), and 2 rolls of film, plus some video on my recent trip to Albuquerque, NM, for the Balloon Fiesta, I've uploaded only "contact sheets" to start with. (night-time glowing "Intel" balloon in the air is first set of shots).

I'll put up some higher rez photos as I can.

Two of the photos of one of the balloons (in mid air), show a black and color striped balloon that looks a bit collapsed while in the air... That's because it crashed into a vendor's tent on the edge of the field, followed by one person falling out and the balloon rapidly ascending. The pilot must vent air to avoid crashing into any balloons above it, (which, if there would be one there, the pilot can't see it from in the gondola), and then the balloon falls rapidly.... This one fell from about 300 feet, and fortunately the pilot was only slightly injured, and the ejected passenger suffered only a dislocated hip, in this mishap.

Everything else went well, other than some events getting cancelled... (Note some of the photos of flags standing straight out in the winds. Not conducive to balloon flying!

Albuquerque is awesome! The Balloon Fiesta is awesome! The Sandia's are awesome!

(As Arnold says, "I'll be back"!).