Angle of Attack! What you lookin at?

So yesterday I went on about video cam equipment for your ballooning adventure.

Today I will go on ad nauseum about something else. Angles of Attack.... hmmm...

Ookay.. easier.. what are you lookin at? What are you trying to capture?

Are you sure where your camera is pointed?
Really?
Normally when I set up a camera on a balloon I will try and split the screen. Half the frame, who is in the balloon basket and half of what is outside of the basket.

So.. if you were to look at my set up you would see the clamp and flexi arm pretty much standing straight out from the burner frame on the opposite side of the red line and the camera ( GoPro ) upside down. It works great. Angle...about 35 degrees down and facing directly at the left front upright cover.... or a little more left.

This will give you that perfect half and half view if you are set at 170 degrees on the Go Pro or Contour if your contour allows 170 degrees. If the balloon has no turning vents and even if it does it will still rotate left or right as the winds act upon the envelope. Which means your view will move around. If you have vents you can adjust your balloon to "fly" the camera always watching the way your going. This will waste a major amount of fuel. Been there done that.

There are other places to set your camera but I will go into that maybe tomorrow. Since I am talking about this position Ill stick with it for now. From this place even with a short arm you will get all the action in the basket as well as the land, trees, and balloons going by. The left and lower shot show what I mean. I took this ( clipped ) from the video camera. Slightly off center left. I picked up my passenger ( her first flight ) in the camera and the action outside the basket as we flew along.

This shot also is set good but the camera arm slipped a bit and its now resting about 25 degrees down. I can see the back shot Contour camera and the clamp bottom and the fuel line. I want more of the basket you see in the shot above.

Now this shot from the video feed is great because I still have my passenger ( his many hundred flight but first over the Route 66 Bridge across the Rio Grande ) in camera view as well as the outside. It rocked by the way. We were trying to land and kept getting brushed off by the upper winds so came down to catch a right hook which by the way took us right over the Rio Grande at this point. This a sweet shot.

Its much more fun editing good video then editing around bad. Since I love editing it can be a love / hate situation....

So I check and check again. Fiddle and tweak and adjust until the balloon gets off the ground. If you look at me when the balloon takes of you will see me frowning.

Ill go into other places that are as good or almost as good as this place for your camera.

http://invisibleblack.zenfolio.com/p715442282/h323cbb05#h46775118

Remember I edit for a fee if your interested. Way cheaper than any standard video editing company. Massively cheaper than most. I love ballooning so I love editing balloon videos. I have even reedited videos for people.

HighperactiveVideos@gmail.com

Go out and get some footage!!

Links to bookmark...

http://www.kissesoffire.com/articles.html
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/
http://www.cribcandy.com/