Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta
It is difficult to describe to describe an event so huge that it needs a space equivalent to 54 football fields or 365 acres to host it.
The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta promotes itself as the largest gathering of hot air balloons in the world. Considering that each balloon is the size of a small building and that they launch 700 balloons simultaneously from the site, this claim is not difficult to believe.
Albuquerque receives about 100,000 visitors during the first week of October when this event is held. It is a wonderful, celebratory time here with cold mornings and spectacular days and balloons landing all over the city and the surrounding areas. A particular favorite is to arrive early when it is still dark and grab a coffee and a breakfast burrito from the hundreds of stands at the park. All visitors are allowed to stroll amongst the balloons as they are inflated and launched. You can listen to the roar of the giant propane burners as they heat the air inside the balloon while you watch the 30 foot flames light up the balloons like giant light bulbs in the pre-dawn darkness. Then, just before the sunrise from behind the 10,000 foot Sandia Mountains in the east, as the sky begins to grow lighter, they begin to launch in waves of 5, then 10, the 20, 40, until you have 700 balloons sailing around you and scattering with the wind.
I had never heard of the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta until I moved here. I am a richer person for having experienced this truly one-of-a-kind event in person.
As a photographer the challenge is to show the grandeur and scale of each balloon and of the entire gathering of balloons as well. I tried to do that in this photograph which was shot just before sunrise at the event called, appropriately enough, “mass ascension”.
It is difficult to describe to describe an event so huge that it needs a space equivalent to 54 football fields or 365 acres to host it.
The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta promotes itself as the largest gathering of hot air balloons in the world. Considering that each balloon is the size of a small building and that they launch 700 balloons simultaneously from the site, this claim is not difficult to believe.
Albuquerque receives about 100,000 visitors during the first week of October when this event is held. It is a wonderful, celebratory time here with cold mornings and spectacular days and balloons landing all over the city and the surrounding areas. A particular favorite is to arrive early when it is still dark and grab a coffee and a breakfast burrito from the hundreds of stands at the park. All visitors are allowed to stroll amongst the balloons as they are inflated and launched. You can listen to the roar of the giant propane burners as they heat the air inside the balloon while you watch the 30 foot flames light up the balloons like giant light bulbs in the pre-dawn darkness. Then, just before the sunrise from behind the 10,000 foot Sandia Mountains in the east, as the sky begins to grow lighter, they begin to launch in waves of 5, then 10, the 20, 40, until you have 700 balloons sailing around you and scattering with the wind.
I had never heard of the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta until I moved here. I am a richer person for having experienced this truly one-of-a-kind event in person.
As a photographer the challenge is to show the grandeur and scale of each balloon and of the entire gathering of balloons as well. I tried to do that in this photograph which was shot just before sunrise at the event called, appropriately enough, “mass ascension”.
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