The AAAA's Valentine's rally called the Friends and Lovers Rally. This event runs every year and is hosted on the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta Park.
Around 150 hot air balloons.... let that sink in.... a "local" rally had 150ish balloons.......
We have lots of people come in from outside the state for this little bit of fun....
The first day was too frisky in the wind department so the only thing to do was to do the crew games... with horrible cheating going on all over!!!!...
So off to breakfast some of us went while others decided to just start the tail gate early inside the Sid Cutter Pav.. Or as we call it.. The Sid!
On day two you could tell people wanted to get some air under their feet... and luckily the weather reports were okay..... with some questions.. but okay to try it.
Out the Pilots and crews went to the field... scattering all over via the roads only to go on the grass at the last moment to save it any undue damage...
Setting up and shaking the dust out was done quickly...very quickly. Three balloons were up in what seemed moments.. and they were off...
There was a hesitation waltz set up.. that means there were two targets but you could only throw a baggie at one...
Looked like the task was quite doable.. and they did do it...
There was even a nice Albuquerque Box in effect and people used that to get better locks on the targets or just to zip over the field...
See... about fifty feet up to around one hundred feet the winds had come up and were doing in excess of 15mph.. and those balloons that sat in it very quickly went right overhead and gone South.
Most picked up the higher winds and went North again.... In the end, there were a lot of balloons whos Pilots were able to re line up on the field and land back on it. Some were nice and swift..some were a bit bumpy and others were quite interesting....
After all that fun there was a brunch and raffles and silent auctions of items. All of it came off fantastic. It was a good weekend for everyone.... Though I think Bob hurt his leg.... we think...Could be an old injury he is milking.... we will check on that.
What I did was sit just at the South East corner of the field and take pictures of anything and everything I found interesting. I have taken a lot of pictures of hot Air Balloons but it's always neat to find another angle or a different way to shoot them... plus.. there are the crews and pilots ... and they are always doing novel things.
I ended up shooting about 2000 frames over two days. More the last day. It's so easy with the Sony RX10V4. You cant hear the shutter and if you rest your finger on the shutter button you get five shots before you lift off it.
Below are some of the shots from the first day and a few from the second. I am nowhere near going through day 2.
Normally I shy away from taking shots of people close up but I decided I was not close up if I stood across the room and used the 600mm reach... so... animated my friends are...
The Special Events team did a bang up job with the stuff.... These bar towels were sweet!
Family... Family is big in the ballooning community....
What Pibal?
5am comes so early...
Please use the exits at the front and back of the building...... seat trays should be up and stored.
No really!!! More colorful things in the air?
Laughter makes everything so much better... One of the best smiles.
This small crewmember is quite ready.. why are all the tall people so slow.
Carried along on the shoulders of parents. Lots of people came out just to watch.
Fully inflated and ready to go and partially inflated and trying hard to make it happen faster.
PITAS KISS serenely floats over the slow people below. Bob made three loops over the field in the Albuquerque Box winds.
Coming through.. or around.. or... that way....
I'll tell you when we get there or I am turning this thing right around!
Hot and floating....
Sometimes you have to get on things to get this on... Setting up an Aerostar basket is always a lot of fun with pins.
A baggie is seen hanging down the outside of the basket... ready or not it's going for a target.
Just a few... so many fun shots to show still and so many good people to put up to make you smile.
I expect I will have all of the shots sorted by next weekend and I should be able to upload everything to my website as well so I will set a link in next weekends blog to that... and there are a lot I didn't post here because it would kill my storage.
A good weekend... even if it was terribly early mornings and way late evenings.
Tomorrow is Monday and I get to go to work and sit and do regular things and drink coffee... no cold air up the back of my shirt nor numb fingers or running noses... but I will miss all that fun we had...
Until next weekend!!!
Next weekend I am flying friends friends family and friends. Hopefully, the weather and winds are a lot less frisky. I need to do some hops. If it's not nice then no hops.. and maybe no fights..
Fingers crossed!!
See you next weekend!
