Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Something in the Air, part III

Here are some views from up in the air. It was interesting to see the balloons lifting off the ground from above.

Same balloon, it's now in the air and the one next to it is getting inflated.

I like this shot of some of the spectators. Launching balloons in all stages.
I especially like the tiger balloon! Don't they look crowded?
This is coming into the balloon field. The narrow balloons are special racing balloons.The two triangles on the ground are part of a competition. The balloonist must drop a colored baggie of sand into each triangle as close to the other one as possible but not over the lines.This tall pole is part of the key grab race. There is an envelope on top with the key to a brand new car. This is what we were trying for. We were coming in towards the pole right behind another balloon. They grabbed at it and dropped it and then the referees had to put it back on the pole so we didn't even get a shot at it. WE WERE SO CLOSE! It's almost impossible to turn around in a balloon so the next balloon that came by it got it. This is looking back at it after we'd passed it. How many balloons can you see here?Can you count them all??
Even when I was taking a picture of the Railrunner Train I got a photo of a balloon! Look in the bottom right hand corner.

The Balloonists Prayer
May the winds welcome you with softness.
May the sun bless you with its warm hands.
May you fly so high and so well that God
joins you in laughter and sets you gently
back into the loving arms of Mother Earth.


Something in the Air - song: Something in the air, artist: David Bowie, album: "hours..."

7 comments:

Nuzzling Muzzles said...

Great pictures. It is unusual to see photos of someone in a balloon looking down or across at other balloons. Do the balloons ever collide when they are that close together? Do they just bounce off each other gently or can the drivers avoid each other?

Fantastyk Voyager said...

A light bump is called a kiss but yes, I imagine it could be very dangerous with so many balloons together. During the Fiesta there are HUNDREDS of balloons in the air at one time. Who knows what could happen! We had one crazy pilot zoom upwards past us that was quite scary.

The entire time in the air, we were alerting the pilot to what was around us, above and below.

Shirley said...

It looks like you had a really fun balloon ride. Those are some cool pictures, what a lot of balloons!

Jo Castillo said...

This is great to see a different view of the balloons. We were there on Thursday, Friday and Saturday as spectators. We didn't see anyone get a prize while we were there. Great photos. Thanks.

Tammy Vasa said...

Val - how exciting. And you pics were awesome. Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

How exciting. This gives me goose bumps. I would love to visit this event one year. My SIL lives in Rio Rancho. :)

The Wades said...

Fantastyk shots! I have only been up once. It is quite spectacular to see from up above.