Balloon Trail, originally uploaded by ifringe.

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta had bright blue, sunny, picture perfect skies. Yet, the balloon pilots were not bothered by a few clouds here and there and they led the parade of balloons into the sky.

At first, I was really disappointed to see the clouds, but then realized that a cloudy sky made for an interesting sky. The trail of balloons leading into the sky caught my eye, and found its way to film. Er, the camera sensor, since it is a digital camera. But, not so long ago it would have been film, so for the sake of nostalgia, let’s just keep it that way. Anyway, the trail of balloons heading to the clouds caught my eye, and quickly onto film.

Of course, I went back again another day to recapture the moment. Driving back to Balloon Fiesta Park I saw the cloudy skies (they follow me, you know) but I was fine with that. Life was good and I was determined to find a great shot in there. Naturally, it was windy that day (the final day, as it turns out) and wind WILL stop a balloon. Dang. Time to figure out how to photograph the wind, I guess.

Balloons Everywhere, originally uploaded by ifringe. Click the picture to head over to Flickr for more sizes

During the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, hundreds upon hundreds (literally!) of hot air balloons take to the sky. Albuquerque, as it all turns out, has this nifty air pattern called “The Box” which lets balloons more or less (these are balloon, after all) fly in a specific pattern that would resemble a box. Sort of. I guess. Who knows…it’s hard to see air currents, at least for me. Maybe your super powers are different and you can.

Anyway.

First thing in the morning (and the really icky thing about ballooning is that it takes place first thing in the morning, well before the sun even bothers to think about hitting the snooze button) all of the balloons take off in the mass ascent. This particular morning somewhere around 550 balloons all took off more or less at once. Actually, it takes over an hour to get them all up in the air, and there is some organization to the chaos, which is a pity because pure chaos would make for far more interesting pictures.

And so we come to this particular shot. Taken during the mass ascent, this is what it looks like, at least a little bit. Balloons are everywhere in the sky…just everywhere. You can’t turn around but for seeing a balloon, and that is just an amazing spectacle.

Taken at Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta Park.