There is no doubt that the hot air balloon photography is a lot of fun!!!

This post will help guide and provide some very helpful tips for photography.

Friday, July 27th members of the Lehigh Valley Photography Facebook page will be meeting for the Press event. The morning session is a soft launch for the organizers and the pilots. Not all of the balloons will launch. Some will inflate and then deflate. A great opportunity for some great images. 

Let me walk you through the balloon inflation process:

When the pilot and crew arrive, they remove the balloon from the basket (a.k.a Gondola)  and extend it in preparation for inflation. All of the lines are check to make sure they are not tangled and properly attached to the basket. The crew does a preflight inspection.

A large gas powered  fan is used to begin the cold inflation. Two people hold the mouth of the balloon while it is partially inflated.

This is where the fun starts!!!!!! The burners are  attached to the basket and  it uses heated propane to inflate the balloon (a.ka. envelope )

The pilot ( Keith)  gets into the basket and controls the flow of heated propane into the balloon. at this point the fan has been turned off. Of course the two people or crew members   holding the balloon move out of the way. (FAA regulation mandates one person is assigned to the kill switch of the fan) The final step of the preflight checks are done by the crew before the passengers board.

The pilot is maintaining control of the burners and the ground crew maintain control of the balloon if necessary.

The passenger get in and the balloon goes up!!!!

I like using a wide angle lens or a fish eye. It is also nice to have a medium telephoto to fill the frame. Shoot the details-shoot tight-shoot wide.Shoot from a low angle. Go as wide as you can!!!!