Rio Grande Classic / TOP GUN in Albuquerque

Its an interesting competition with some heavy hitters in there to spice things up... put on every year to see who can slide into first without doing major damage to their systems. Its always a huge amount of fun to watch the Pilots work like mad for the littlest wind going just that certain way and at that specific time to get them over a target.

Its a novel experience for the public on the streets in the early morning to see the balloons so low and trying for everything to get just right on that line to the next target.

While chasing Mo, my son, I visited with a lot of folk just standing watching the balloons slip over the nearby trees or buildings, cell phone cameras up and snapping away.. Faces raised with mouths slightly open in somewhat stunned bunny mode as baskets glide by. Handed out a bunch of cards as well.

Normally I would be at a target of choice to get shots of the competitors clocking in and flinging baggies this way and that but unfortunately Mo had most of his crew bail and only had two pretty hardy and awesome women out to help him get in the air, drive chase, and pack him up. I tagged along to hold the crown line and pull him down. They did all the hard work and lifting and shoving and busting ass.

This was a chance for Mo to see if he really wanted to get out there and play the game. Since he wants to get his Commercial licence soon he had to make hard choices. I'm glad he has chosen to get his commercial over having fun with the group. Some maturity poking up there. The pros are big to getting his commercial. I hope the other Pilots out there help him along. I wish some of his friends would be able to help him tomorrow and chase him around the city.... granted that's because I would then sneak off to take pictures of everyone flying in this crazy competition.

Its all about me you see..

Is it legal to shanghai someone for crew?

Today the winds were twitchy. About the best option was the Northwest corner of Fiesta field or farther out if you could find a hole. It because of the total luck thing to get in the air when it was pushing a specific way. If you got it you got a nice line.. if not you got chucked off to the East. Mo got chucked off to the East.

The good target laying people did spread the zones out and that helped get some scoring in. I'm of a mind to do the same thing if I was doing it. Lay out enough targets that everyone had a good chance of scoring something.

I also like when there is a common launch spot an a nearby solid target... that way its easier to catch everyone trying for that target and that means I get a lot more shots of the fun.

It happens rarely.

Here is what I caught today.... I wished I could have stayed and gotten everyone but I had to hare off to the East to catch Mo. He did land on Moon street right at the arroyo nicely. He was just sitting there when I drove up.

Here is what I thought worth showing to you.

Here's hoping Mo has more crew for the last day of the Top Gun Rio Grande Classic Competition.

I am getting there about 0545 and around 6 they start moving.

If so I will have more photographs to show you all of how well the teams did... if not then I will be on crown line and enjoying the yellow reflections of Mojo's Reverse Gravity Machine close up. Always fun to watch regardless.

Digging through the files

A few times you get caught by surprise and you sit and think about the future and the past... and where the future is completely subjective the past it quantifiable and available to retrospection.

You ask me to find a video or show me an old picture and I am searching through files I haven't looked at in years and find all sorts of things I should probably never show.. but I'm in a mood.. or mode.

I had a full blog of my pictures from my time in the Air Force. Just a few. Not many since I only had a Minolta camera at the time and it was expensive to get stuff developed so ...

But I decided it was too personal and deleted it in toto. That was a waste of two hours.

Ill post three things though....

Photographs and taking them meant a lot to me even as far back as the 1980's The problem then was there was no cheap and easy way to get a good picture. What you got were Polaroids and questionable shots.. but they are gold now.

Lots of stories to every pictures.. an interesting one for me right now is the large frame with pano shots before there were computer editors. I took sweep shots and laid them on the backboard in the best fit possible. Funny now. If I can find those pictures I can scan them in and do a real pano of it.. that would be nice.. Or I could just go do the shots again.... The top on is of the lower Bath road, next is the back sweep of building across the river Avon next to Pultney bridge in Bath and again another bit of the lower road I was/am so fond of.

My stereo was a second favorite thing. We had an informal Stereo building war going on at one time in Italy. I lost but ended up with a nice system. Loved music. I can remember when CDs started. I bought a Techniques CD player and my first two CDs were Vivaldi's recorder solos and Jethro Tull Aqualung.. it was awesome to listen to. I had to jack headphones in the front as I was in the states and away from my big stereo.

The only thing I collected... I think... Matchless candle holders. I still have them on a shelf. More too I think.. yes..  No one makes them anymore. What the deal was you put a candle in a holder in the back and the light shone out the eyes of the holder. Pretty cool.

There ya go.. a tiny bit... What my kids do with these pictures after .. hahaha.. in the bin I'm sure.. what they do with the files on hard drives.. hahaha... not a clue.. not my problem.

I am collecting up all my parents pictures and scanning those in. When I have time I will clean them up and distribute them out. So little time to spend doing that right now. Spending two hours on one photo is a bit much for me at this time. When I feel like it I pull one out and work on it.

Well all I can say is every photograph is a link or key to a memory you might not want to lose.

If you can you should scan all your family's old pictures and get as much information as you can for them... or it will just be forgotten... forever...

Gimmicks and Grins

Yes I saw a "lens ball' and yes I thought it was cool... and yes I bought a 6 inch version and yes it was too bloomin big and too dangerous and ... yes I bought a 3 inch version for 15 dollars that worked much better and yes... its a gimmick.

Ah... and you thought the banner would be a lens ball shot.... fooled ya! No really this was Saturday and Mo was driving across a field at about 4mph while all the other balloons were screaming past at above 15mph... It was a nice shot. So I took it..... hahaha... Like all the shots I take..

So there was no blog post last weekend......   It was all personal so I took it off.

Baaack to the lens ball thing.... Its fun.. With the Sony RX10V4 camera I learned another thing.

Clean it off real good before shooting.

I thought that the soft black plush leather bag would be great to clean it off with...... Not so much.

The Sony is so terribly good and detail it picked up all the black microscopic lint left by the bag!! I have to bring along a lint proof wipe to clean it with before shooting.

I did some test shots at work and then ballooning and it can be fun if you want to get a little weird. I can sit here and say that it was well worth the 15 dollars. Go to... anywhere but the "lens ball" place online and you can get it cheap. Why spend 50 dollars for a brand name ball when they are the same clarity.

Here are some shots from Saturday to show you what you can do....

Distance to camera lens is a bog thing. It can change the depth of focus as well as the focal diffusion around the ball. Decisions on weather to have the background part of the ball shot or not come into play..

So the main focus is in the ball as the balloon envelope rises... but the secondary is Mike and Eric on the crown line. I like the duality of this shot.

As Jennifer lifts over Greg's balloon the capture was perfect but upside down. I wanted it to be right side up... soooooo.... enter Gimp. This only works in some situations and you have to make sure you have your fingers back from the ball.. this causes no problem in the ball itself but a lot of practice on holding. Clip, Flip, Rotate...  Nice sun burst in the corner.

Here is a non flipped version of Greg's balloon. Useful... meh. Looks nice.. yeah.. ish... Got my fingers nicely positioned.. and yep.. I ahve a rub on my hand at the base of my thumb.... So when you are using this thing you have to remember to have nice hands or crop them out. Fun huh!

Flipped and rotated. Works because my fingers were back far enough. I could edit it even if my fingers and thumb were forward but its more work.

Flipped the whole picture here since it looked more interesting. I really hate taking pictures everyone takes. I want something different.... its just me.. Nothing on everyone else..

Great shot of Mojo ( Ytivarg ) in the air. Perfect capture but upside down. This would be easy to flip.

A good shot of Greg's balloon and the full shot flipped. Surreal somewhat and what I look for in a picture. Its balanced and its novel and bright.

If you have not noticed I am very symmetrically obsessed. If its not centered its gotta be weighted to one side or the other... or I hate it. I wont tear it up but you wont see it unless I can fix it. The above shot make me happy.

Its fun and I will use it when I think its worth it. It will go in the bag along with all my filters and fisheye attachments... to be used here and there.

Also this Saturday I wanted to capture segments on ballooning from setting up to putting away.....

I almost succeeded...

Very cool wind levels with streaking clouds... iffy day to fly. Low was light but uppers were very fast.

Dropping the basket off the truck with a lift gate. Easiest way but a trailer allows you to haul lots of stuff and never have to unload it when you are done for the day.

Burners go on poles and poles into the top of the basket. My burners weigh 54 pounds.

Poles to sockets and cables and carabiners to loops in the burner frame. Balloon Dog for fun.

Carabiners connected and screwed down almost all the way.

Dry bag with envelope bag inside. Nice one off by Matthew at AERCO. Much cheaper than a rainbag and no water is getting in it.

Envelope connected up to the basket and laid over to be cold inflated with the fan.

Hot inflation to stand the balloon up. Nice tight flame from those Thunder and Colt burners.

Multiple inputs while you are doing this. Flame location. Wind direction, envelope position, crew position, Shifts in all the aforementioned.

Mo is so light he can ride his basket up. The crew help the basket upright if the wind is pushing it down from the back. Good indicator it might be a day to stay on the ground... This day the direction was great for hi winds and fast landings.

Standing up and stable. Crew is on a weight on position but crossing their arms on the bolster and their center of weight is on their arms. You cant get hung up this way if the balloon lifts early. If you are standing in the foot step or entwined you will be pulled off the ground or flipped off.

Off and across Rio Rancho South to North at speeds up to or faster than 17 mph reported. They dropped into this valley and were able to drop their forward speed to about 4 mph. Ground tracking across the area while those above and to the East and West were still going faster than 10 mph on the ground.

Brush cutting or rabbit chasing. Its all fun if you can do it.

Popped up to get a shift in direction then right back down.

Bopped the ground right before the road they wanted to lay down in. Too bad the road was going East to West and not the direction of the wind which was South West to Northeast.

Not any traffic on this dirt road so across and up the hill. Rules.. watch out for snakes. Dont drag the fabric as it might be hooked onto dry sage brush which is sharp, Lift gently by the load tapes and roll it towards the center while lifting off any brush. Squeeze the air out... Not that they are doing well in that department it was also a lot of fun.

Park vehicle on side of road so other vehicles can get around. Unfortunately the vehicle was parked to make sure no one ran into the basket or over the throat of the envelope. Driving around on the left was easily done but no one did. We were alone.... in the desert....

Another thing to watch our for is junk other ( pathetic ) people decide to dump. I am always happy to see that balloon crews always police up after themselves and never leave a mess. Pretty cool people that like a clean environment... Makes for fun flying and chasing.

Packing away and picking up. Much easier with a lift gate.

Nasty sharp brush that is everywhere. Pokes holes in things like envelopes and your legs.

Tailgating after is fun to hear how the flight went and what they got up to and learned... because every flight is a learning experience and an information transfer. I always ( almost ) ask what the speed in flight was.. launch site..landing site and anything else that was out of the ordinary... rotors, thermals.....

It was a good day but a fast day.

Today I pulled my system apart and cleaned it up. Washing out the basket and soaking the wicker.... conditioning the leather and polishing the burners.... its all done and drying now. I will put everything back together this week then refuel in the hopes I can fly next weekend.

I have three pictures to share of that but they are not loading right now. i will load them later.

Here is the link to all the shots from Saturday.....

https://goo.gl/JY1iwz

Have a better one!