This summer, I attended a hot-air balloon festival. I love the amazing photo ops balloon launches provide! Plus, this balloon launch had a “balloon glow” in the evening in addition to the balloon launch in the morning. (A balloon glow is where the balloons inflate but don’t take flight.)
The festival sponsors held a photo contest, so I thought I’d enter a few pics. Here’s a sampling of what I submitted.
Photo 1
Photo 2
Photo 3
Photo 4
Photo 5
Photo 6
Photo 7
Photo 8
Of course, I couldn’t leave this post without a parable:
The Parable of the Weather at the Balloon Glow
The evening of the balloon glow, I had several tasks on my to-do list to accomplish. The weather had been threatening a storm, which would prevent the balloon glow from being possible. The rest of my party headed over early, and I’d planned to meet up with them if the weather looked promising. As the time for the balloon glow approached, the festival operators had still not given the word of whether it would be safe to fill the balloons. I couldn’t wait longer to make my decision, though. I knew the best light for my photos would be right at dusk, and unless I left immediately I would miss that lighting.
I decided to take the chance, knowing that if the glow didn’t take place I would have spent a lot of time in the car that I could have been working on my to-do list. I arrived about ten minutes later than I would have liked, but I was able to catch most of the lighting I wanted. As it turned out, the balloon glow was a go. My leap of faith to pursue my course not knowing whether it would be in vain or not ended up leading to some nice photo ops and an enjoyable time with the people I attended with.