Balloon Glow

Since getting serious about photography, I have wanted to shoot a balloon glow. Saturday, there were no gigs, no high winds, no rain, and no other reasons to keep me away. A delay because of winds did keep the balloons from launching on time, so there was limited time with a dusk sky. And I discovered that the limitations of the Nikon D200 in lowlight are significant at ISO 400, something I already knew, but seemed to forget.

I was also suprised by the large number of people with nice cameras and really expensive glass. There were pro-grade lenses left and right. I've searched the Internet to find shots from others, but have had little luck. Of course, not all great images are shot with great gear, and certainly not all photographers with great gear shoot great images. I regularly prove that constant.

The setup for Macon's balloon glow isn't great. The balloons are set up in a bottom, most of them inside a track at Macon State College. Capturing the setting sun and dusk sky is made difficult because of the surrounding hills, buildings, interstate, and significant light pollution.

Now that I've had a taste of shooting a balloon glow, I want more. I can't wait to find an opportunity to shoot a bigger event with more balloons and perhaps a better setting. For now, I have a few noisy shots (see the entire set) to remind me of the lessons learned and the desire to shoot them again.