Go For Launch: A Picture Package (Balloon Fiesta 2011)

This series of images is a continuation of the story I began telling a couple of weeks ago. You can access that blog post here. In that series I attempted to tell the story of the lead-in to the balloon launch at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. I’ve lived here in Albuquerque for 16 years and have visited the Fiesta often and I had thought I would try to depict the wee hours of the morning (the end of the night, really) and not just replicate what 250,000 cameras do daily at this yearly, nine day festival. I hope it worked.

This picture package, this short story, is an attempt at telling the story of what happens once the night ends and the launch begins. I hope to give a feel for what it is like on the field for it is really indescribable.

With a “Go For Launch” clearance from the Dawn Patrol, the Balloon Fiesta Morning began in earnest. Launch coordinators dressed in varying zebra-striped patterns made sure launches were safe and I switched from my black and white, night photography focus to one that better suits the color and excitement of the Balloon Fiesta Mass Ascension.

The dawn sun began to hint toward a beautiful morning and the energy on the launch field grew more palpable as balloonists and gawkers alike looked eastward in anticipation of the sun’s first warm rays peeking over the Sandia Mountains.

This land of near eternal sun, this Land of Enchantment, has a very simple and very appropriate state symbol; the Zia Sun. I found myself fortunate as the Zia Balloon inflated right near me as it readied for takeoff.

All of a sudden balloons begin to rise en masse. All around balloons are lifting off, flying over, being laid out, inflated. Wave after wave, to rousing cheers, these silent sky carriages lift their cargo skyward.

Drawing the loudest applause, the Creamland Dairy Cow took flight. A thunderous beast, she often inflates but flies only on perfect days. She’s a bit temperamental in wind.

It’s a bit of a wonder that all this can happen due to the simple differences in behavioral properties of hot and cold air.

Before long the sky becomes an ever changing technicolor tapestry. If the viewer is fortunate the winds will play to his favor and create a “box wind”; a low elevation wind moving one direction while a higher elevation wind moves the opposite. This allows skilled balloonists to ride these opposing winds and rotate around the launch field.

The great fun of this event is the accessibility of the balloons. Viewers can walk right up to and talk to balloon crews, peer inside the inflating balloon as it lays on its side, even touch the balloons. Kids especially love this fiesta and spend lots of time gazing skyward.

Despite its early hour, it is a very family friendly time.